Autumn Promises Read Online Free PDF

hall. For some reason her alto voice soothed them once again, and the usual morning caterwauling stopped immediately. “Let’s see which of you I should take care of first. Eenie meanie minie moe…”
    Evan grinned when both twins started squalling. So much for her magical effect. He guessed he’d be magnanimous and ride to the rescue. After all, once Beth was on the mend, Meg Taggert would hop her broom and ride off into the sunset. And Evan would be right there on the Circle A with his grandchildren—hers, too.
    “What are you two going on about?” he said, breezing into the nursery. “Did your grandmother pinch you? Or are you just figuring out she’s in on the conspiracy to keep you from getting to the food?”
    “Evan! Good morning,” she said in an all-too-sunny voice. He might have known she’d be one of those morning people. “I thought I’d take care of Wade this time. I’m not going to get to know mygrandson if you’re always the one doing things for him.”
    Evan thought about not warning her about the effect the cool air had on little Wade, but his conscience got the better of him. He hated mornings too much to ruin someone else’s day. “Fine,” he agreed, “but have the diaper ready or you’ll get your morning shower early.”
    Meg actually blushed. “Oh. Well. Uh…thank you for mentioning that.”
    For the first time Evan understood the late Wade Jackson’s attraction to Meg Taggert. But only if you overlooked her grating personality, her superior attitude and her high-society ways. She was quite pretty with her cheeks all aglow. Really, he had to admit she was a beautiful woman. Her hair, while white, didn’t make her look old at all but exotically attractive. Maybe it was its youthfully shaggy cut or just the personality it reflected. And that vibrant, exotic quality was only enhanced by her sapphire eyes. All in all it was a startling combination.
    More startling, though, was the simple fact that he’d even noticed. He frowned as he realized Meg had said something while his thoughts had drifted into an uncomfortable zone. “’Scuse me, ma’am?” he said.
    Meg, he noticed, worked quickly and efficiently, removing Wade’s diaper and wiping the baby down.“I asked if you usually bathe the children before breakfast. They didn’t get a bath at bedtime.”
    “Beth likes to do it before their morning nap. It relaxes them.”
    She shrugged and went to work rapidly taping on a new diaper. “I’d have thought a bath would wake them up.”
    “Me, too, but they’re Beth’s babies, so I do things as close to how she did them as possible. I’m holding on to the belief that she’ll be back here to raise them.”
    Those blue, blue eyes of Meg’s filled with tears and she bit her full bottom lip. “Oh, I pray you’re right, Evan. In these last several years Beth has become the daughter I never had. Poor Jack looked so discouraged and frightened when I saw him earlier this morning. He’s terrified to leave her side at all. That’s why he decided to take a motel room and stay in Greeley. So he can be near her and give her all his energy.”
    Evan frowned. “What are you talking about?”
    She nodded. “I heard him in here talking to the babies in the middle of the night. He’d been taking their picture to hang in Beth’s room. It’s so hard to watch him go through this when all I can do is stand on the sidelines and pray.”
    “He’s not coming home? And he didn’t see fit to tell me?”
    “Really, Evan. I just told you how nervous he isabout leaving Beth. He must have gone back to the hospital while we were still asleep. I’m sure he meant no slight to you.”
    Hurt that Jackson had spoken to her about his decision and not him, Evan retaliated. “What about the Circle A? I turned the ranch over to him and now he just dumps it back in my lap without so much as a word?”
    As soon as Meg’s eyes lit like twin blue flames, Evan realized that in his pain he’d said the