Starting Over at Lane's End (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Shelley Galloway Page A

o’clock or nothing—take it or leave it. Besides, you’ve got to be at the game tomorrow night, right?”
    Melissa brightened. “You’re right! I forgot!”
    “So you’ll get to see Brian at school and at the game tomorrow, okay?”
    As Gen watched the teenager scamper out, her phone already attached to her ear, she released a sigh. “Wow.”
    Cary laughed. “Yeah. She’s always been like that—in a hurry.”
    “You’re good with her.”
    For a moment Cary looked surprised, then he chuckled softly. “I should be. I’ve helped take care of her since she was four.”
    “Sam said you moved next door to Dean years ago.”
    “I did. My brother’s wife, Valerie, took off when Melissa was just three, and Dean needed all the support he could get. It seemed like fate when this house came on the market around the same time.”
    Gen could only imagine the toll Valerie’s leaving had had on both Cary and Dean, let alone a young child. “That had to be an incredibly difficult time for you all.”
    “You could say that. None of us imagined that Valerie would actually leave. What kind of woman abandons her daughter?”
    “I don’t know. Did Valerie ever explain why she left?”
    “More or less. She and Dean got married young, just months after they met. They seemed happy until Melissa was born. Then I think Valerie just snapped. Dean came home one day to find her waiting for him, saying that she couldn’t handle their life. She didn’t want the responsibility of a child, didn’t want to be married. It crushed my brother.”
    “Does Melissa ever hear from her mom?”
    “Not too much. I don’t know the specifics, but Dean laid down the law with Valerie when she showed up a few years later wanting to see how Melissa was.”
    Gen knew what she would have said to that. “Too little, too late.”
    “Exactly,” Cary said with a grin. “Dean told Valerie that he would never put Melissa through the hurt of being abandoned by her mom again. He would only allow contact if Valerie wanted to see her on a regular basis.”
    “Let me guess—she took off.” Gen could only imagine how hard that must have been for the Hudsons.
    “Yep. I think she sends birthday and Christmas cards but not much else.”
    Steepling his fingers, Cary looked squarely at Gen. “Valerie’s behavior threw us all for a loop. Dean started spending more time at work to support Melissa and him and, I think, to distance himself from what happened. Melissa had to go through a couple of years of counseling when she was around twelve. For a while, she blamed Valerie’s departure on herself.”
    “Poor thing.”
    “Yeah. Dean actually ended up letting Melissa call Valerie not too long ago. Luckily for everyone, Dean’s ex-wife had matured enough to be pretty forthright about her faults. I think that conversation healed a lot of hurts.”
    “Your brother seems to be a good man.”
    “He is. We’re different in a lot of ways. He’s always been a little more driven, more aloof. Valerie was a beautiful woman, and I know when Dean got married he felt he’d done everything right. It’s too bad it took her leaving to make him realize that rarely does anything ever go ‘right.’ He’s only begun to date again in the past couple of years.”
    A dog’s howl saved Gen from attempting to say anything to that. Inside, she was caught between marveling at how well Cary knew his brother, and imagining what it must have been like for this tight-knit family to go through so much heartache.
    “I knew Sludge wouldn’t be quiet for long,” Cary said, lightening the atmosphere. “Let me go get him.” With a wink, he said, “Keep your shoes on.”
    “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
    Cary laughed. “Hold on.” He rose and walked to the back of the living room, where Gen assumed the kitchen was.
    Within seconds Sludge came roaring in. Gen patiently stood still while the beagle boldly sniffed her ankles.
    “Sludge, sit down.”
    Amazingly the