Sutherland’s Pride Read Online Free PDF Page B

brain remained on the search for mitigating circumstances that would win him a reprieve.
    “Flynn’s,” he said, in insistent tones.
    Pride, who sat on the edge of the bed, glanced over her shoulder. Flynn stood in the doorway, watching her.
    “That’s right. It’s Flynn’s, not yours. You’ve done enough damage for one day. Go to sleep.”
    “Flynn’s,” Johnny promised.
    When Pride tucked the covers beneath his small chin, his large, brown eyes remained fixed on Flynn’s left wrist, where the gleam of gold had last been seen.
    “I’ll see to him,” Gloria said. “You’d better go ahead, Pride. This could go on half the night.”
    “It had better not,” Pride said, with a glance at her son that guaranteed dire consequences if it should.
    Flynn smiled at Gloria. “He’s very active, isn’t he? How do you keep up with four of them?”
    Gloria looked helplessly at Pride, who had to suppress a chuckle.
    “It isn’t easy,” Pride said. “But it helps if two of them are already in bed. Let’s go, Flynn. You’re part of the reason Johnny is being such a pain tonight.”
    Flynn looked back at Johnny and raised a hand in salute. “That kid reminds me of me. I never wanted to go to bed, either.”
    “Johnny is a real chip off the old block,” Pride said. “See you later, Gloria. Call me if there’s any trouble.”
    “Sure,” Gloria said, in faint, choked tones. “Have a good time.”
    Pride walked out the front door and down the sidewalk with Flynn at her side and debated whether to laugh or to cry. Most men would have realized the truth without her having to say a word, but Flynn truly believed he could never father a child.
    It was probably for the best, she decided, waiting while Flynn unlocked the door of a dark green Bronco. She’d never allow anyone to make Johnny feel unwanted or unworthy.
    Unless Flynn was willing to tell the world that Johnny was his son and he was proud to claim him, she’d see to it that he never got close enough to hurt the little boy.
    Never mind that her heart urged her to grab Flynn and shake him until he saw the light. She had to think about Johnny.
    “I see your freckles have come back,” Flynn noted, handing her into the four-wheel-drive vehicle.
    “I knew you’d appreciate the thought.”
    Flynn studied her in the orange light cast by the setting sun. “You’re right. I do. I really missed those freckles today.”
    He shut the door and came around to slide in beside her. “I thought I’d take you to a place in Houston. It’s quiet enough that we can talk business.”
    “It sounds wonderful. Once I get Daddy’s affairs settled, I intend to put the house up for sale.”
    “You don’t want to move back to Anahuac?”
    And live where bad memories assaulted her every day? “No, thank you.”
    The calm, decisive way she spoke seemed to disturb him. He guided the Bronco through the tree-lined streets of the small town toward the highway and contemplated it.
    “What are you doing now?” he asked, at last.
    “Actually, I’m still into journalism,” Pride answered. “I do a lot of the same kind of freelance work.”
    Pride had worked for various companies as a freelance writer when she lived in Houston. She wrote company histories and contributed regularly to Houston’s major newspapers and several regional magazines.
    “It came as a shock to me, when I learned you’d been as close as Lake Charles all this time,” Flynn said.
    He sounded as though he had more to add, but Pride knew better than to get into the details of what she’d been doing.
    “What about you, Flynn? When did you open your own office?”
    He gave her a wry smile. “I got fed up with taking orders from Dad, if you want to know. I decided to practice general law and still do some work for Dad on the side.”
    She smiled back, remembering Morgan Sutherland. Morgan had a tendency to run things, including your life, if you let him. When she claimed pregnancy, Morgan had wanted to