The Rancher's Redemption

Knowing Daisy had idolized her father after Leanne left, Adam could hardly bear to look at the hurt in her eyes, or see his father’s reaction to that condemnation.

Jeff rubbed an awkward hand over his jaw. “I thought you’d all do better without the memories. That if you saw this stuff you might think she was coming home, and get upset all over again. I couldn’t deal with all the crying and hoping when I was working so hard just to get by.”

Daisy started sorting out the letters into piles and Kaiden went to help her. Adam held back, watching the interaction between his parents who were now standing close together and if he wasn’t mistaken, holding hands.

It was weird seeing them like that. He wasn’t sure if he liked it, but with all the recent revelations about his father’s choices, he was making some massive adjustments about the past. Had he misjudged them both? Had he made completely the wrong call back in the day? He had a sense that there was a lot more information to come out before things were straightened out. Years of misunderstandings was a long tail to unravel.

“Adam?” Daisy called out to him. “Do you want yours?” She held up a pile of letters.

“Can you stick them in my room?” Adam replied. “I’ve got to go and check on the barn.”

He went out into the mudroom, found his boots and hat, and walked out into the still-warm evening. The sun had dipped down below the Sierras and the lush pink and purple shades of twilight were already spreading across the foothills and paddocks, creeping ever closer to enfold the barn and house.

Adam fed the barn cats and dogs and made sure all the horses were watered and comfortable for the night. Doing something—anything—other than wishing he was with Lizzie—was better than sitting around moping, or worrying what this visit from Leanne had done to his family.

“Adam?”

He looked up to see his mother standing at the entrance of the barn. She looked worn-out, which didn’t surprise Adam knowing how exhausting it was to deal with his father when he got angry. He set down his shovel and went toward her.

“Can you take me back to the hotel?” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t want to be stuck in a truck with your father arguing his case with me.”

“Sure.” He nodded, the words of comfort she needed sticking in his throat. “I’ll just wash up and get my keys.”

He didn’t need to go back into the main house as his jacket and keys were in the mudroom. He walked out to his truck and opened the passenger door so that Leanne could climb on board.

“Thank you for doing this,” Leanne said as they set off.

“You’re welcome.”

“Everyone else was knee-deep in letters. It was just too much to ask them to step away and take me back. I couldn’t even deal with all their excitement because I was too mad at Jeff for concealing them from you in the first place.”

“From what he said, he thought he was causing us less heartbreak,” Adam commented without inflection. “He hated it when Daisy cried, or we asked too many questions.”

It suddenly occurred to him that he’d become more like his father than he’d realized—shying away from emotion, rebuffing attempts to get close to him. The only thing he didn’t do was snap at everyone. But even that was changing.

“Which is why I ended up leaving him in the first place.” Leanne sighed. “He’s not a bad man. He just struggles with anything emotional, or with expressing his feelings.”

Yeah. He and his dad were like twins.... They reached the county road and Adam got out to open the gate, drive through, and then close it behind him.

He focused on driving, aware that Leanne was busy texting someone. She caught one of his glances and set her phone back down.

“I’m texting my other daughter.”

Adam almost veered off the road. “Not Daisy?”

“No, your half sister, Eileen. She was a bit of a surprise.” She smiled. “I married again. My husband, Declan, died three years ago after a series of heart attacks.”

“I’m sorry.” Adam contemplated this amazing information. “I had no idea. Is she your only kid?”