Dragonfly Creek Read Online Free PDF

message first. His mother was superstitious about not ignoring a ringing phone, and all the kids had learned to share that belief. Kicking off his work boots, he hit the button. He stripped down to his underwear as the message played.
    “Hey, baby brother! What’re you doing? I decided to take a page from your book, and I’ve come home. I’m at the farm. See you soon.” Emma’s voice sounded cheerful and light, making Ben smile.
    “Finally, some good news.” He picked up the cordless handset and dialed as he headed to the bathroom. Amelia answered on the second ring. “Hey, Pip. I hear you have a visitor.”
    “We do. Are you coming up? Supper’s almost ready.”
    “I have to get cleaned up first. Don’t hold it for me. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    “Will do.”
    As he showered, Ben thought about what Nonny had told him when he’d called her earlier in the week, after his father had told him Emma was coming home.
    “Emma’s not in a good place right now, Ben. Don’t you mention it to anyone, as she wants to talk to you all in person, but I thought someone there needed to be prepared. She’s got a lot on her mind. When she gets there, please, please, go easy on her. She needs love and support right now.”
    Ben tried to get his grandmother to tell him what the secret was, but she’d kept her silence. Emma hadn’t come home for Christmas, which was a first. Instead, she’d stayed in Georgia with the jerk she’d been seeing when Ben had left Savannah back in October. They’d broken up not long after, and Ben knew she hadn’t taken that well, but Emma had been closemouthed about the whole thing. Nonny had told him about it and that the man had married someone else on Valentine’s Day. That had caused Ben a special kind of anguish because of his experience with Ainsley a few years back.
    As he rinsed his hair, he closed his eyes and let the hot water wash over him. After the frustration of the past two weeks, he hoped he could keep his promise to Nonny to be extra kind to Emma.
    He’d started working with a local landscape contractor after leaving the job at the library last month. They were putting in some large commercial flower beds for a local bank, and the manual labor of the work had been soothing. His boss, Kyle, knew a little of what was going on with Ben’s family and had been more than happy to let Ben take the more menial aspect of the job so he could work out some of his frustration.
    Clean and excited to see his sister, Ben hit the road. He pulled up at the farm a short time later. To his surprise, Emma was sitting on the front porch, waiting for him, her knees drawn up to her chest. She rose as he approached, and Ben slowed to a halt several feet away. In the light shining through the open doorway, her figure was limned in gold. Her pregnant figure.
    “Son of a bitch.” He had the strong, instinctive need to hit something—someone in particular. He rubbed his hand over his mouth hard, looking away for a few seconds as his heart broke. “Damn it, Em. Come here.” Opening his arms, he folded her in for a gentle hug.
    Emma held onto him and cried. “I’m sorry, Benny.”
    He kissed her hair. “Hush. Nothing to be sorry about. I’m assuming it’s the jerk’s?” He stepped back so that he could see her face.
    “Yeah.”
    “I never did like him.”
    She laughed. “I know. I feel so stupid. I never expected this to happen. I should have been more careful.”
    Ben wiped her wet cheeks with his thumbs. “No details, please. I really might have to fly down to Georgia and kill him if I think about that. Does he know?”
    “He does. He just doesn’t care. And given the way things have turned out, I’m glad he doesn’t.”
    Keeping his arm around her shoulders, he guided her up onto the porch and inside. “How long are you home for?”
    “For good.”
    He smiled down at her, though at five-foot-ten, she was nearly as tall as he was. “No kidding?”
    Emma gave him a