innocent and in need of love and acceptance as Christian when he came to the Kendall?
* * *
H OW HAD ALL this happened, Jace asked himself. How could Sheldon let the house and the horses go? He knew his brother loved the Kendall. Had the years changed him? Jace needed to know. He needed to understand what motivated Sheldon to give up and walk away, leaving everything he owned behind.
Why hadn’t Sheldon tried to contact him? Of course, Jace had left angry over Laura, but when things had gotten so bad that Sheldon needed money, why didn’t he at least call him? Sheldon could have tracked him down. Yet, just as his brother ignored him when he was present, he also cut him out of what he might have been able to provide to keep the farm in the family. As distant as Sheldon thought Jace was, the two still shared a bloodline and a heritage.
Questions, Jace thought. Since he’d arrived at the Kendall that rainy night all he had were questions and no answers. He was going to have to face facts and find his brother. Sheldon held the key to whatever was going on.
Jace wasn’t even sure if Sheldon was still alive. His search for his brother, who was older than Jace by more than two decades, would have to start at square one. It wouldn’t be easy. Yet someone had to know what had happened to him. Kelly said she thought he’d left the state. Why would he do that? He’d lived his entire life in Maryland. At the Kendall. Obviously, he had friends, business acquaintances elsewhere, maybe he’d gone to one of them? Jace wished he’d known his brother better, it would give him a clue now as to where to look.
All Jace could remember about his brother, other than their arguments, was that Sheldon was always at the farm and rode horses. Well, he certainly wasn’t here any longer, and apparently he’d left with only the shirt on his back.
* * *
T HE SUN WAS relentless on Meadesville. Sheldon scraped the bottom of a boat, one of many he’d be attending to at the yacht club that day. It was only nine in the morning and already his shirt was crusted with salt-laden perspiration. The wire brush he was using had seen better days, forcing him to scrub harder to get the pesky crustaceans off the surface. Would anyone back at the Kendall believe that he would be doing this kind of work? The irony was staggering. First Sheldon had lost his precious family home and now he labored for the rich locals. To think that Sheldon had once looked down on his half brother. He’d always called Jason his half brother when he deigned to talk to him or of him. Now he understood.
Sheldon stopped scraping and stood up. His back hurt and his fingers were cramped. He looked out at the marina. Sailboats, cabin cruisers, watersport and racing boats stood majestically in the sunlight. He hadn’t been in Meadesville long. It was an affluent golf and boating community along the coast of North Carolina. The homes there were spacious and sold upwards of six and seven figures. They were newer than Sheldon’s former home in Maryland but didn’t have the history and time-honored traditions that the Kendall possessed. He’d been here for a little over eight months.
This hadn’t been his destination when he left Maryland. Sheldon had had no destination, actually. He was lost, angry and without resources. Even his experience with horses was out of date for training them. He’d never trained a horse, technically, but lied and said he had. There were horse farms in Virginia. He’d stayed at a couple of them briefly, but being around them made him homesick for Laura.
He’d moved on and tried Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, but found no work. He couldn’t remember how he got to North Carolina, only that he’d hitched a ride unaware and uncaring where the driver was going. All he knew was he no longer wanted to have anything to do with horses.
So he’d ended up in Albermarle. A man he met in a bar one night told him about a job and Sheldon
* * *
H OW HAD ALL this happened, Jace asked himself. How could Sheldon let the house and the horses go? He knew his brother loved the Kendall. Had the years changed him? Jace needed to know. He needed to understand what motivated Sheldon to give up and walk away, leaving everything he owned behind.
Why hadn’t Sheldon tried to contact him? Of course, Jace had left angry over Laura, but when things had gotten so bad that Sheldon needed money, why didn’t he at least call him? Sheldon could have tracked him down. Yet, just as his brother ignored him when he was present, he also cut him out of what he might have been able to provide to keep the farm in the family. As distant as Sheldon thought Jace was, the two still shared a bloodline and a heritage.
Questions, Jace thought. Since he’d arrived at the Kendall that rainy night all he had were questions and no answers. He was going to have to face facts and find his brother. Sheldon held the key to whatever was going on.
Jace wasn’t even sure if Sheldon was still alive. His search for his brother, who was older than Jace by more than two decades, would have to start at square one. It wouldn’t be easy. Yet someone had to know what had happened to him. Kelly said she thought he’d left the state. Why would he do that? He’d lived his entire life in Maryland. At the Kendall. Obviously, he had friends, business acquaintances elsewhere, maybe he’d gone to one of them? Jace wished he’d known his brother better, it would give him a clue now as to where to look.
All Jace could remember about his brother, other than their arguments, was that Sheldon was always at the farm and rode horses. Well, he certainly wasn’t here any longer, and apparently he’d left with only the shirt on his back.
* * *
T HE SUN WAS relentless on Meadesville. Sheldon scraped the bottom of a boat, one of many he’d be attending to at the yacht club that day. It was only nine in the morning and already his shirt was crusted with salt-laden perspiration. The wire brush he was using had seen better days, forcing him to scrub harder to get the pesky crustaceans off the surface. Would anyone back at the Kendall believe that he would be doing this kind of work? The irony was staggering. First Sheldon had lost his precious family home and now he labored for the rich locals. To think that Sheldon had once looked down on his half brother. He’d always called Jason his half brother when he deigned to talk to him or of him. Now he understood.
Sheldon stopped scraping and stood up. His back hurt and his fingers were cramped. He looked out at the marina. Sailboats, cabin cruisers, watersport and racing boats stood majestically in the sunlight. He hadn’t been in Meadesville long. It was an affluent golf and boating community along the coast of North Carolina. The homes there were spacious and sold upwards of six and seven figures. They were newer than Sheldon’s former home in Maryland but didn’t have the history and time-honored traditions that the Kendall possessed. He’d been here for a little over eight months.
This hadn’t been his destination when he left Maryland. Sheldon had had no destination, actually. He was lost, angry and without resources. Even his experience with horses was out of date for training them. He’d never trained a horse, technically, but lied and said he had. There were horse farms in Virginia. He’d stayed at a couple of them briefly, but being around them made him homesick for Laura.
He’d moved on and tried Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, but found no work. He couldn’t remember how he got to North Carolina, only that he’d hitched a ride unaware and uncaring where the driver was going. All he knew was he no longer wanted to have anything to do with horses.
So he’d ended up in Albermarle. A man he met in a bar one night told him about a job and Sheldon
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