Read Online A Place to Call Home (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Cynthia Reese - Free Book Online Page A

that dinky apartment of yours.”
    Brandon forced himself not to squirm as he looked his uncle in the eye and lied. “You said it yourself, Uncle Jake. It was nobody’s fault but ours that we couldn’t produce that receipt. I’m just being neighborly.”
    “Same here, same here.”
    “But, are you, um, sure you’re up to it?”
    “Course I’m up to it. Fit as a fiddle. That doctor doesn’t know what he’s talking about, telling me to watch out for my ol’ ticker. What’s those pills he gives me for if they don’t fix me up?”
    Becca and Mee-Maw came bearing big covered casserole dishes, with Ryan trailing behind, a mountain of something covered in tinfoil in his hands.
    “What is all this?” Brandon asked as he jogged ahead of the women to get the door.
    “Thank you kindly, Brandon,” Mee-Maw said as she negotiated the porch steps—new from the look of them, to match the equally new back stoop added on in the week or so since Brandon had agreed to arrange the construction of the pole barn. “Phew, when is it gonna get any cooler?” Mee-Maw asked. “This is just a little something to tide us over, so you menfolk won’t have to stop for dinner.”
    “A little something? Mee-Maw, that—”
    He was interrupted by Penelope, who’d stepped to the back door with her camera. “Oh! For me? A housewarming?”
    “A barn raisin’. This here is some squash I put up this summer, and Becca there has some butter beans. Ryan’s got the ham I baked last night after it cooled off.”
    “Come in, come in!” Penelope moved aside to allow the women to pass by her. “Thank you so much! Kitchen’s right in here. Put it in the fridge. Let me get that for you...”
    Brandon exchanged a wry look with Ryan. “Did Uncle Jake rope you into this?”
    “I think this was something Mee-Maw and Uncle Jake worked out.” Ryan shrugged. “Hey, I just show up where Becca and Mee-Maw tell me. Works out better that way, I’ve found. Besides, no way you’re going to get that barn raised in a day with just kids. And it’s supposed to start raining tomorrow.” He moved across the threshold to be relieved of his tin-foil-covered mountain of ham.
    Brandon cast a backward glance off the back porch at the sky and steadily rising sun. If they didn’t get to work, they wouldn’t get anything accomplished.
    Ryan must have thought the same thing. “Ready?” he asked.
    “Yup. Let’s hit it.”
    Brandon loped down the porch steps, Ryan behind him, and headed toward the men knotted around the materials. “I sure appreciate you guys coming out to give us a hand.”
    A rumble of tires on gravel and someone’s hiss of disgust made him stop. Brandon turned to see another pickup trundle up the driveway.
    It was the last person he wanted to see.
    Richard Murphy.
    * * *
    P ENELOPE STOPPED in the midst of getting-to-know-you conversation with Mrs. MacIntosh—Mee-Maw, she said to call her—and Becca. Voices loud with anger filtered through the bungalow’s walls.
    Mee-Maw peered with her through the window over the kitchen sink and compressed her lips. “Murphy,” she muttered.
    Penelope took a half step back at the old woman’s vehemence. She recalled what Brandon had warned her about reaction to her grandfather. At the time she’d thought he was exaggerating.
    “I’d better get out there and pull Ryan back.” Becca started for the door. “No telling what he’ll do. Doesn’t Murphy have any better sense—”
    “No. Let me.” Penelope walked to the door. “I don’t know what you think my grandfather has done to you. But he is my grandfather, and he’s always welcome here.”
    Becca started to speak, but Mee-Maw held up a hand. “She’s right, Becca. This is her house, and we have insulted her hospitality. Penelope, I do apologize. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve seen him...since...” Again her eyes clouded over. “We’ll get Ryan to run us on home.”
    “No. Why does it have to be this way?”