Texas Redeemed Read Online Free PDF Page A

arms that she’d heard him. He could figure that to a teenage girl
who’d been reduced to crying on her mother’s shoulder, his not knowing about
her didn’t matter one damn iota.
    The double doors opened and Valerie joined Lucy. She
whispered something that the girl instantly protested, then laid a firm hand on
her shoulder and continued whispering. The second she tugged a keychain from
her purse and handed it to Lucy, the girl whirled and stomped down the hallway
without a backward glance.
    Valerie moved toward Peyton. “We can talk at my place—on
one condition.”
    A man who’s just
meeting his daughter shouldn’t have to bow to anyone’s “conditions,” he wanted
to bark back. Instead, he said, “Name it. Doesn’t mean I’ll agree.”
    “Stay away from Lucy. She doesn’t want to see you.
And—and I don’t think you should see her, either. Not today, Peyton, okay?” She
lifted a hand toward his, then snatched it back. Twice already she’d made a
move to touch him. What would happen if she did? “Give her time.”
    “You mean settle for a glimpse of my daughter?” His voice
felt thick, rough. “No—”
    “Peyton,” she said tightly, “you don’t have a choice.”
The savagely determined glint in her eyes was something different, something
formidable he just couldn’t associate with the Valerie he remembered as an
eighteen-year-old who craved ranching and music and star-gazing as much as a
starving man craved his next meal. There was a disturbed look about her that he
could feel rather than see; he’d lived with it every day, had since his first
mission.
    Had Anna’s death or the fact that he’d cut himself out of
her life put that look there?
    Prepared to ask outright, he opened his mouth but clamped
it shut when a pale, blue-eyed brunette with a pixie-cut finger wave emerged
from the boardroom. In a camel-colored tweed dress with a thin black belt that
matched her ice-pick stilettos, she could have passed for a European fashion
model.
    But only at first glance. There was an uninhibited flare
in her stride and a Texas flavor in her voice as she hurried to them, calling
out to Valerie, “Great, you’re still here!”
    Valerie tensed visibly at the interruption. “Yes?”
    The woman’s eyes narrowed with interest, emphasizing her
winged eyeliner. “Left this on the conference table.” She surrendered a
spiral-bound notebook, then pointed a French-manicured finger at Peyton. “You
look familiar.”
    “Meet Peyton Turner—somebody I knew once upon a time,”
Valerie said with a frown. “Peyton, this is Felicity Moss.”
    “Moss,” he repeated, recalling the surname of the
physician-in-chief emeritus who’d been on staff before Peyton had left Night
Sky. “What’s your relation to Chief Moss?”
    “Daughter, though I’m a little put off that you remember
my father but not me.” Felicity smiled charmingly as if to say all was
forgiven. “Sophomore biology. Junior chemistry—we were lab partners that year.”
    In the recesses of his mind he remembered the girl who’d
been sentenced to detention for calling him a dick in class after finding out
that he’d split her football jock boyfriend’s lip. There had been so many
scuffles and brawls during high school that he’d easily—and gladly—forgotten
half the people who’d been involved.
    “Do you work here?” he asked her. “Take after your
father?”
    “No, no. You likely don’t remember, but I absolutely
sucked in science.” The admission had even Valerie cracking a smile. “I’m the
concierge at Peridot. And you’re Lucy’s—” The slip had Felicity blushing fiercely.
“Um … small world, small town.”
    That was for damn sure the truth. A beat of silence
passed before Felicity touched Valerie’s shoulder. “I’d better get back before
all the pastries are gone. Call me later.”
    Valerie nodded, her eyes on Peyton as Felicity trotted
back to the boardroom. “Junie Peera at the diner’s going to be