A Home for Haley Read Online Free PDF Page A

Haley
answered, thinking again how much getting this job and being with this family
had improved her life. As she followed Dottie into the kitchen, a feeling of
contentment and security she hadn’t had in a long time washed over her, and
Haley knew for certain this was the place she and Ryan were meant to be. At
least for the time being.
     
    ****
     
    Haley was almost as eager as Ryan
and Kayla to go fishing. She and the kids had spent the day petting horses,
hiking, and catching tadpoles and crawfish in a clear, winding creek that ran
behind the house and through a wooded area. It had been one of the most
relaxing days of her life, and she’d needed it. The last few years without Dale
had been nothing but constant work and worry. And grief.
    Guilt stole through her when she
realized this was the first time she had thought about Dale today. How could
she enjoy herself so much when Dale was a prisoner of war? Or worse. She shook
her head, refusing to go there, to even let her mind think that her husband
might be dead. That he might never see Ryan. Or hold her again.
    A shudder rippled down her back.
She went to the window of the living room and looked outside. Ryan and Kayla
sat in the wooden swing on the porch with Dottie, who was about to fall asleep
even though both kids were chattering like magpies.
    Ethan rounded the corner and took
the porch steps two at a time. Kayla scrambled off the swing and ran to her
father. Ryan tried his best to keep up with her. Haley watched Ethan pick a
child up in each arm and give them both a kiss on the cheek. He was a good man,
and definitely a kind and caring father.
    She wondered for about the
hundredth time what could possibly make a wife walk out on her precious little
girl and a man like Ethan.
    Ethan tickled the kids and Ryan’s
laughter warmed her heart. Her son was obviously crazy about this man, and she
could see why.
    Ethan saw her through the window
and grinned. He set the kids down and came inside. “Ready for your first
fishing lesson?”
    “The kids have been chomping at the
bit for over an hour. I think they’re about to drive Dottie crazy.”
    “Can’t. She’s already crazy.”
    Haley laughed. “She’s crazy about
kids, that’s for sure. Ryan adores her. He already knows when she’s teasing.
Well, usually.”
    Ethan grinned. “Me, on the other
hand, he’s not so sure about. Right?”
    Haley looked him up and down. “You are a lot bigger than your mother.”
     “Not near as cray-cray though.”
    “Quit talking gibberish,” Dottie
hollered from the porch.
    “Quit being so out of touch,” Ethan
shot back.
    Dottie pulled open the screen door.
“The word is ornery,” Dottie retorted, shaking her head. “Not some made-up
slang like cray-cray.”
    Ethan rolled his eyes, then glanced
at the owl. “Hank been here to feed him?”
    “I don’t know,” Haley answered.
    Ethan walked over to the box and
peered down. “Yep.”
    “How do you know?” Haley asked,
coming up beside him, then gasping at the sight of a half-eaten mouse. “That is
so gross.”
    “It’s nature, Haley. That’s one of
the reasons these little guys are good to have around. Would you rather the owl
ate that mouse, or that the mice start taking over around here?”
    “When you put it that way . . .”
She backed away from the gruesome sight. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this
country stuff.”
    “All because of a little screech
owl? You haven’t even turned your pocket inside out, so he can’t be bothering
you too much.”
    She glanced down at his pocket. “I
see yours is back in place.”
    He grinned. “I didn’t say you had
to leave it out.” He walked to the opposite corner of the living room and
gathered up the fishing poles and tackle boxes, handing one of the tackle boxes
to her. “Unless you want our little screech owl’s leftovers, we’d better go
catch some dinner.”
    Casting a quick look at the
half-eaten mouse, she shivered. “Fish is sounding better by