A Family to Come Home To (Saddle Falls) Read Online Free PDF

not certain this was the time or the place to explain…what? Well hell, he thought in frustration, to explain that he wasn’t home, home was in Texas. He was merely here for a visit.
    And a short visit at that.
    Nothing more.
    Once he’d satisfied himself that he’d done the right thing, honored his promise to his mother to find his real family, he’d go back home to Texas.
    But he wasn’t certain this was the time or place to get into it, not with this beautiful woman and adorable little girl looking at him with a mixture of joy and adoration.
    “He rescued me, Mama,” Riley said with a grin, glancing up at Jesse in adoration. “I almost felled down off my bike but he caught me.” Riley’s free hand went to her mother’s face and her blue eyes rounded in alarm. “Why are you crying, Mama?” she asked. “Are you sad, Mama?”
    “Don’t worry, darlin’,” he said gently. Something about this little tyke had touched his heart the moment he’d lifted her into his arms after she’d nearly crash-landed onto the pavement. She’d trustingly wound her arms around him and was now holding on to his hand as tight as her mother had just a few moments before. “I don’t think your mama’s sad. I think she’s happy, honey.”
    Aware she was frightening her daughter, Hannah wiped away her tears and smiled. “Jesse’s right, honey, I’m not sad.” She swiped her damp face again, slipping her shaking hands into the pockets of her shorts. “I’m happy, very happy,” she added, unable to drag her gaze away from Jesse’s.
    “Riley, honey, do you remember Mama told you that a long, long time ago when I was a little girl, right about your age, I had a best friend whose name was Jesse? He was Uncle Jake, Uncle Jared and Uncle Josh’s youngest brother?” Hannah reached out and straightened one of her daughter’s pigtails. It had come loose from her morning of play.
    Riley’s eyebrows scrunched together as she tried to concentrate on remembering. “He went away, right?” she asked, then grinned at her mother’s nod. “And you never got to play with him again?”
    “That’s right,” Hannah said, blowing a wad of hair off her face. “Well, Riley, this is Jesse. Your Uncle Jesse.”
    “Did you come back to play with my mama again, Uncle Jesse?” Riley asked with wide-eyed innocence, making Hannah flush and Jesse laugh.
    “Well, darlin’, I guess you could say that.” His gaze shifted to Hannah’s and she saw the mischievous male twinkle in his eyes, a twinkle that had been there even as a boy, a twinkle that revealed his incredible sense of humor.
    She was unbearably pleased to see that it still remained, but felt a bit skittish at the hint of masculine interest she saw there. And the fact that she was readily responding to it.
    She’d do well to remember the vow she’d made when she found herself alone and pregnant. She would never allow herself to be vulnerable to a man’s charms again. Never again would she fall blindlessly, heedlessly in love, especially with a man who didn’t want or value his family. No, she’d come from a family like that, and wanted no part of it or any man who didn’t share her love and appreciation for what family meant. If and when she ever took another chance on love, it would have to be with a man who wanted and would treasure the kind of family and family life Tommy Ryan had created.
    Finding a man like that was going to take a miracle, and Hannah was fresh out of believing in miracles, so she’d resolved to raise her daughter alone and be alone rather than risk her heart or her daughter’s ever again.
    Still, looking at Jesse, remembering the closeness they’d once shared, Hannah felt her own female yearnings spring to life, yearnings she’d buried a long time ago. They both annoyed and embarrassed her.
    “Well, Miss Riley,” Jesse began, his intense masculine gaze still on Hannah’s, making her feel a rush of warmth as well as a stirring of female desire