Texas Redeemed Read Online Free PDF

serving up
gossip about you and me by tonight’s dinner rush.”
    Peyton didn’t even blink, because as absurd as it
sounded, people in Night Sky had always talked too much for their own good, and
the only thing more interesting than a newcomer was someone who’d disappeared
from town—under questionable circumstances—and come back.
    “What happens tomorrow? Or the next day, Valerie?”
    “I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting you to—to just materialize out of nowhere.”
    “And I wasn’t expecting to come here and find out that
I’m a father … and that one of my daughters is dead.” His emphasis on the last
word sent a shadow of hurt fluttering over her face.
    Then it was gone, replaced with cool resolve. “Should I
feel sorry for you? I raised them—and lost Anna—without you here. Don’t expect
an open door to Lucy’s life. Or mine.”
    “Don’t expect me to back down. I won’t.”
    “Really?” she said with a glance at his suit. “So you’ll
sample the family man lifestyle until it bores you. Lucy’s not a designer
jacket you can try on and then chuck aside once you’re bored. That’s your M.O.,
right? Get sick of something—or someone—and leave without a backward glance?”
    It didn’t catch him off guard in the least that she
thought she had him pegged with one look at his clothes. She probably figured
he’d dusted the residue of Texas off his soles to taste the luxury of every
corner of this world. Once he’d been certain he wanted that. He’d been wrong—so
damn wrong.
    And so was she.
    “About eight-thirty or nine’s good for us,” Valerie went
on as she pivoted on her heel to leave. “Lucy should be settling down for the
night by then, and we can talk.”
    “Hey. Hey! ” he
said sharply. She paused. “Where do you live?”
    “Prosper Boulevard. The Battle Creek Ranch.” She
continued on toward a row of elevators, but he unmistakably heard her say, “All
this time I’ve never been hard to
find.”

    V ALERIE’S BRAVADO FLED like the air out of a
balloon the moment the elevator doors slid shut, enclosing her in the silver
car with the sounds of a saxophone’s sultry jazz and her own heartbeat pulsing
in her ears. Her fingers fumbled over the touch screen of her cell phone as she
speed-dialed the ranch’s business line.
    “Battle Creek,” a distinctly hoarse female voice
answered.
    “I need a favor, Cordelia.” She forewent phone etiquette
altogether, which was something her cousin didn’t care for anyway. “Take Lucy
tonight. Let her stay at the carriage house with you and Jack. I’ll pick her up
in the morning for school. Can you do that?” A pregnant pause followed and she
checked her phone to see if it had dropped the call. “Did you hear me?”
    “Yes, I heard you, and yes, Luce can spend the night with
us. But why?”
    The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. “Can’t
explain now,” Valerie said, rushing out to the hospital lobby.
    “Fine,” Cordelia relented with a throaty chuckle. “Be
ready to ‘explain’ when you get back to the ranch. In the meanwhile I’ll be
under the impression that you’re finally plannin’ on pulling an all-nighter
with some hot cowboy.”
    A visceral image surfaced of Peyton standing combatively
as he confronted her outside the boardroom. He was no cowboy. And the thought
of him being alone with her in the main house all night was downright dangerous. “Not quite the case.”
    “If you say so.” Then, with a decisive click, Cordelia
disconnected the call.
    Valerie hardly noticed the heavy rain as she dashed to
her car. All she could concentrate on was getting her daughter settled at the
carriage house before Peyton arrived. Up until six years ago she’d searched
doggedly for him, but now that he’d appeared in front of her almost like an
apparition, she had no maneuvers and no plan.
    Protect yourself, an internal voice warned as screenshots of all that she’d built for herself and
her children flitted