right.”
“I’m visiting my brother and his family. You remember? My new niece. You guys are just going to have to handle things until I get back.”
Gage hoped George only heard the calm determination in his voice. He didn’t want him to hear the shame ringing in it, nor did he want him to point out the disgrace Gage had brought upon them both.
Silence echoed through the receiver. Gage wondered, briefly, if the call had been disconnected when he heard George take a deep breath.
“Maybe Masters and Cooper aren’t too far off the mark, Gage. If you don’t care enough to be here to resolve this in person, maybe it’s time for us to go our separate ways.”
Chapter Five
A FTER TWO DAYS of an equestrian crash course with Jessie, Leah could barely walk the short distance from the barn to her house without limping. What she needed was a long soak in a warm bath. Leah brushed her bangs back from her eyes, wrinkling her nose at the sweat she could feel on her cheeks and the back of her neck. No, what she really wanted was to relax in Jessie’s pool. She’d made the offer the night of Leah’s welcome party, insisting it was there for anyone and that they considered Leah part of the family, but Leah hadn’t dared take her up on the offer.
Family.
Leah scoffed at the thought. She’d never had any family to speak of. For most of her childhood, it had only been her and her mother. After what that woman had done to her, if that was what it meant to be part of a family , she’d rather do without.
At the same time, the idea of belonging, of being wanted, tugged at her core, making her heart ache with loneliness. She’d always wanted those things, wanted someone to see her as valuable and worthy of love. She’d thought she’d found it when Child Protective Services had finally removed her from her mother’s machinations and put her into her first foster home, but she realized quickly that she was only a means to an end there as well.
Her first foster mother was a nice woman with high ideals, but she hadn’t been prepared to cope with the emotional trauma of a ten-year-old girl who’d endured the kind of abuse Leah had. The homes she’d bounced in and out of afterward hadn’t even cared enough to try. Most of them had either been content to collect their monthly checks and drop her off at therapy or just ignore her altogether.
It wasn’t until her high school counselor, Nicole Campbell, had pulled her into her office after Leah had broken into her algebra teacher’s car and had sex with a boy in the parking lot, that she’d finally felt like someone cared about her or her future. It had taken Nicole only ten minutes of really listening to Leah to hear the cry for help below the surface of her tough words. Within just a few weeks of constant pursuit, Nicole finally broke through. When she offered a room in her home, Leah jumped at the opportunity. It wasn’t exactly a chance to start over, but with strict boundaries enforced, Nicole had turned Leah’s life around and had given direction to a sixteen-year-old kid hell-bent on destroying her life. Losing Nicole to breast cancer just before her high school graduation had been the most painful experience of Leah’s life—more than the abuse, the rejection, or the loss of her childhood. It had also been the day she decided to close herself off from caring about anyone that much again. Caring meant getting hurt.
“Hey, where are you running off to?”
Leah spun at the sound of Jessie’s voice. As kind and welcoming as Jessie had been, she was still Leah’s boss, and it wasn’t a fact Leah was likely to ignore anytime soon, regardless of how often Jessie insisted she should.
“I was going to shower, but if you need me for something, I can stay.”
“No, it’s fine, but don’t you want to go for a swim?” Leah shrugged and Jessie shook her head. “I just wanted to make sure to tell you we have a group of boys coming this weekend.”
Leah’s eyes
“I’m visiting my brother and his family. You remember? My new niece. You guys are just going to have to handle things until I get back.”
Gage hoped George only heard the calm determination in his voice. He didn’t want him to hear the shame ringing in it, nor did he want him to point out the disgrace Gage had brought upon them both.
Silence echoed through the receiver. Gage wondered, briefly, if the call had been disconnected when he heard George take a deep breath.
“Maybe Masters and Cooper aren’t too far off the mark, Gage. If you don’t care enough to be here to resolve this in person, maybe it’s time for us to go our separate ways.”
Chapter Five
A FTER TWO DAYS of an equestrian crash course with Jessie, Leah could barely walk the short distance from the barn to her house without limping. What she needed was a long soak in a warm bath. Leah brushed her bangs back from her eyes, wrinkling her nose at the sweat she could feel on her cheeks and the back of her neck. No, what she really wanted was to relax in Jessie’s pool. She’d made the offer the night of Leah’s welcome party, insisting it was there for anyone and that they considered Leah part of the family, but Leah hadn’t dared take her up on the offer.
Family.
Leah scoffed at the thought. She’d never had any family to speak of. For most of her childhood, it had only been her and her mother. After what that woman had done to her, if that was what it meant to be part of a family , she’d rather do without.
At the same time, the idea of belonging, of being wanted, tugged at her core, making her heart ache with loneliness. She’d always wanted those things, wanted someone to see her as valuable and worthy of love. She’d thought she’d found it when Child Protective Services had finally removed her from her mother’s machinations and put her into her first foster home, but she realized quickly that she was only a means to an end there as well.
Her first foster mother was a nice woman with high ideals, but she hadn’t been prepared to cope with the emotional trauma of a ten-year-old girl who’d endured the kind of abuse Leah had. The homes she’d bounced in and out of afterward hadn’t even cared enough to try. Most of them had either been content to collect their monthly checks and drop her off at therapy or just ignore her altogether.
It wasn’t until her high school counselor, Nicole Campbell, had pulled her into her office after Leah had broken into her algebra teacher’s car and had sex with a boy in the parking lot, that she’d finally felt like someone cared about her or her future. It had taken Nicole only ten minutes of really listening to Leah to hear the cry for help below the surface of her tough words. Within just a few weeks of constant pursuit, Nicole finally broke through. When she offered a room in her home, Leah jumped at the opportunity. It wasn’t exactly a chance to start over, but with strict boundaries enforced, Nicole had turned Leah’s life around and had given direction to a sixteen-year-old kid hell-bent on destroying her life. Losing Nicole to breast cancer just before her high school graduation had been the most painful experience of Leah’s life—more than the abuse, the rejection, or the loss of her childhood. It had also been the day she decided to close herself off from caring about anyone that much again. Caring meant getting hurt.
“Hey, where are you running off to?”
Leah spun at the sound of Jessie’s voice. As kind and welcoming as Jessie had been, she was still Leah’s boss, and it wasn’t a fact Leah was likely to ignore anytime soon, regardless of how often Jessie insisted she should.
“I was going to shower, but if you need me for something, I can stay.”
“No, it’s fine, but don’t you want to go for a swim?” Leah shrugged and Jessie shook her head. “I just wanted to make sure to tell you we have a group of boys coming this weekend.”
Leah’s eyes
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