A Hickory Ridge Christmas Read Online Free PDF

all of Todd’s other questions fell away as one pressed to the forefront of his mind: a question too personal for him to ask. Still, when she returned to him, he took hold of her arm and led her around the corner to the entry so he could ask it.
    â€œWho’s her father, Hannah?”
    She shot a glance back at her daughter, as if she worried Rebecca had overheard. He couldn’t blame her if she shouted, “How dare you” for the private question and more. He deserved it.
    But instead of yelling, she began in a soft tone. “You have to understand—”
    â€œWho is it?” He couldn’t help it. He didn’t want an explanation; he wanted a name. Jealousy he had no right to feel swelled inside him, burning and destroying. The thought of another man touching her left his heart raw. If only he and Hannah had waited, their story might have turned out differently. Hannah might have been his wife. Her child, theirs.
    Hannah stared back at him incredulously, as if she was shocked that he’d had the gall to ask. It wasn’t about wanting; he had to know.
    â€œIs it that blond guy from church?”
    â€œGrant?” Her eyes widened and then she shook her head. “He’s just a friend.”
    â€œDo I know him then?”
    â€œOf course you do.” She spat the words.
    Strange, she sounded exasperated. She seemed to think he was an idiot for not knowing the answer. He stepped around the corner and studied the child again. She was so fair and beautiful, just like her mother. Rebecca must have sensed his attention on her because she looked up from her dolls and smiled at him.
    And he knew.
    His gut clenched, and he felt helpless to do anything but stare. Why it wasn’t immediatelyapparent to him he couldn’t imagine now. Her green eyes had looked familiar because he saw eyes like those in the mirror every morning.
    Though he was no expert on children’s ages and this particular child was probably small for her age, as her mother had been, he could see from her features that she wasn’t a toddler. Rebecca looked about four years old, just old enough to have been conceived five years before.
    â€œShe’s mine, isn’t she?”
    Hannah didn’t answer, but her eyes filled and a few tears escaped to trail down her cheeks. She brushed them away with the backs of her hands.
    â€œTell me I’m right, Hannah. Am I Rebecca’s father?”
    Instead of nodding the way he was certain she would, Hannah shook her head. Her jaw flexed as if she was gritting her teeth.
    â€œHow could you have thought—” She stopped whatever she’d been about to say. Closing her eyes, she pressed her hands over her closed lids and took a few deep breaths before continuing. “If you’re asking if you supplied half of her DNA, then you’re right. But for her whole life, I’ve been both parents to Rebecca. She’s mine. Just mine.”
    â€œNot just yours. She’s mine, too.”
    Todd wasn’t sure whether he’d spoken those words aloud or just in the privacy of his heart until Hannah stalked from the room and crouched down by her daughter. No, their daughter.
    Maybe he hadn’t said the right thing, but what didshe expect when she’d just dropped a bomb like that? He didn’t know what to think, let alone what to say.
    How naive he’d been with his big plans to return here and to earn Hannah’s forgiveness and her heart. He’d thought he and Hannah were the only two involved, that their old conflicts were only between the two of them, when a third person had been growing inside Hannah before he’d ever left.
    Father. He couldn’t wrap his thoughts around the title yet, let alone apply it to himself. Everything he knew about himself changed with that single admission.
    â€œWhy did you have to come back?” Hannah whispered when she returned to him, appearing more agitated than before. “We