Heartsong (Singing to the Heart Book 2) by Sara Walter Ellwood

is, Michaela will be homeless after the sale of the ranch. She will also be out of a job since she manages it. Her mother’s MS is bad, and Michaela takes care of her, too.”
    “A court will never grant her custody of a child. Why don’t you sue for him yourself?” Reese sipped his coffee and pinned Gabe with a probing gaze.
    “I already told you why.” He stared out the window at the city without really seeing it and shifted his feet. His chuckle was short-lived and without mirth. “I’m a rock star in cowboy boots and a Stetson. I can’t take on a ten-year-old.”
    The lawyer shrugged. “Then your options are pretty clear. Lemont Finn will adopt him. You send an occasional birthday gift and life goes on.” He set his cup on a low table. “No need for you to feel guilty.”
    “He’s my brother, Reese.” A hard lump formed in his chest. Was he out of options? “I love him.”
    “I know, buddy.” Reese patted Gabe’s shoulder. “I’m leaving for my Dallas office in the morning. I might be able to get the court to extend the joint guardianship, but with the situation with Miss Finn and Lemont, it will be a long shot.”
    Gabe didn’t like the twist in his heart. “Michaela’s good with him.”
    “You would be, too.” Reese lifted his hand to forestall any protest. “Look, there are a lot of single parents out there in the business, Gabe. They take their kids with them on the road with a good nanny. Schedule their tours around their kids’ schedules, and they’re fine because of it. My father is a lawyer. Mother was a singer. They split when I was three and each of them married a half dozen times after that. I spent summers with my mom and whatever husband she was with while she toured. The winters were spent with my dad and my latest, and increasingly younger, stepmother.” He smiled and spread his hands. “I think I turned out just fine.”
    Gabe turned his back on the view of the city and laughed. “That’s debatable. You’ve been divorced twice. Besides, you’re a freakin’ divorce lawyer.”
    “I already had tons of experience with divorce by the time I graduated law school. I figured it was the perfect career path.”
    Chuckling, Gabe shook his head. “Hey, I’ll be in Dallas on the fourth of October. You bringing your kids to the concert?”
    “Wouldn’t miss it.” Reese spent October through May in Dallas with his kids from his second marriage. The summer months he spent in Nashville with his daughter from his first wife. He checked his watch. “I hate to cut this short, but I’m due in court in less than an hour. I have to make sure the bank accounts of a certain cheating husband are cleaned out by the mother of his three kids.” Gabe smiled. “I’m so glad you’re my friend.”
    Reese laughed. “Representing you was fun, but if Andrea had hired me...” He shrugged and cuffed Gabe on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, buddy, you’d definitely be singing the blues.”
    “Ouch.” Gabe winced at the thought. She’d sabotaged his career by dropping him from Rose and Thorn Records and castrating him in the tabloids. “I don’t want to imagine what damage she would have done if she’d had a better lawyer.”
    After a moment, Reese asked, “So, what do you want me to do about Jesse?”
    Gabe picked up his hat from the couch and turned it in his hands a few times before putting it on his head. When he looked up at Reese again, he knew what he had to do. “I can’t let Lemont Finn poison Jesse. If you really think Michaela and I don’t stand a chance at adopting him together, then I want to do it on my own.” He pulled his keys from his pocket and looked at them. “And, Reese, there’s something else I need you to do.”
    “Why am I not surprised?”
     

Chapter 5
     
    Micki came out of the turn around the third barrel and leaned over Beau’s neck as they raced back to the starting point, but she knew they weren’t fast enough. Despite retiring from barrel racing two