Page 47 of Coming Home to Maverick

“What did you tell him? What do you want?”

“Nothing, and I don’t know. I mean, I know what I don’t want. I don’t want anything to do with him. I want to run as far and as long as I can so that she doesn’t have to have anything to do with him.”

“But?”

“But I don’t know if that’s right. He is her father.”

Maverick waited.

“Even though he kicked me out of his life and told me he was disowning her and me.”

“Well then, seems to me like he lost his chance. I’ll be the first one to tell him what an idiot he was.”

“So…what do I do?”

He frowned. “I don’t know. “

“That’s not helpful.”

“Well, how could I? It’s not my place to say. All I know about him is that he’s a lying cheat, that he has no honor, that he’s a coward, that he is utterly selfish…” He ran a hand through his hair.

“But it’s not your place to say?” She lifted an eyebrow then shook her head and stepped closer, leaning against his chest. “Sounds like I should stay as far away as possible.”

“I think so. But is this me talking for me or for you?” He looked away. “Am I being selfish like he was?”

“You are everything he is not.”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Her eyes closed, and she clung to him. She would do anything to be able to keep things as they were. But to keep a father from his child? A daughter from her father? How could that be the right decision?

She didn’t know anything for certain. Reading her Bible the other night, she just kept going back to the same verses in Proverbs. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart…”

Maverick smiled down at her. “We’ll figure this out.”

A whiff of uncertainty breezed by in her thoughts. Was this really Maverick’s problem to deal with? Didn’t he have enough to handle? A part of her, the old independent part, thought she should try to own up to her issues and handle it herself.

Chapter 14

Maverick laughed every time he thought of little Gracie staring at the sow feeding her young. He picked up the phone. As soon as Bailey answered, he grinned. “Hey! So I want to talk to you about something.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?”

“We’re setting up something for the fair.”

“The county fair?”

“No, the big ol’ fair. The state fair.”

“Cool! What do you have going?”

“You and me, on our horses.”

Her silence made him smile.

“And you at the microphone, Gracie with her pig, our big Jersey cow, the guys doing a show. It’ll be a family event.”

She didn’t answer.

“Well?”

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