Read Online Emmett by Diana Palmer - Free Book Online

to keep him happy.
    Â 
    Emmett was set upon the minute he walked into the hotel room.
    â€œDid you find him?” Guy asked impatiently.
    Emmett put off telling him long enough to make him sweat. Object lessons stayed in the mind. “Yes, I found him,” he said, and watched the young face lose its pallor. “No thanks to you,” he added firmly. “He was scheduled to be put down.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Guy said tightly. He was trying not to hope for too much. Last night, his father had been approachable for the first time in memory. It had felt goodto be cared about. But now Emmett seemed distant again, and Guy was feeling the transition all too much.
    Emmett turned away. He didn’t see the wounded look on the young face, or the hope that slowly drained out of it. “You got a second chance. Most people don’t. Remember how it felt. That way you won’t be tempted to do such a cruel thing again.”
    â€œYou hate her,” Guy muttered. “You said you did,” he added defensively.
    â€œI know.” Emmett hesitated. “I’ll try to explain that one day,” he told his son, and somewhere in the back of his mind he was remembering the incredible softness of Melody’s innocent mouth under his lips.
    He paid the babysitter, packed the suitcases and took his kids home. Maybe when he was back in familiar surroundings, he could put Melody out of his thoughts.
    Â 
    Melody checked on Tansy Deverell Sunday evening. Tansy had been discharged from the hospital and had been moved to Logan’s house where she had a private nurse until Kit and Logan got back so that she wouldn’t be in the house alone. Spending the evening with the elderly lady took her mind off her own problems.
    â€œI saw Emmett before they released him,” Tansy mused with twinkling eyes when she was in a comfortable bed at Logan’s house. “Two nurses threatened to resign, I believe?”
    â€œI heard it was three, and the doctor.” Melody chuckled. “Isn’t he something? And those kids…!”
    â€œThose kids would settle down if Guy would,” Tansy replied. “He’s the ringleader. He leads and the other two follow. Guy’s said the least about his mother leaving them, but I think it hit him the hardest—almost as hardas it hit Emmett. They both blame themselves, when it was no one’s fault.”
    â€œI told Emmett that,” Melody remarked. “He actually listened. I don’t know if he believed me or not, but he was…well, less volatile after that.”
    â€œEmmett’s always been explosive,” the elderly woman recalled. “He was high-strung and forceful when he was younger, a real hell-raiser. Adell was sheltered and shy. He just walked right over her. He was devastated when his mother committed suicide and he wanted a wife and a family right then. He picked Adell and rushed her to the altar. She never should have married him. He was the exact opposite of the kind of man she needed. She didn’t want a fistful of children right away, but Emmett gave her no real choice. He’s lived to regret his rashness. I’m sorry for the way things turned out for him. He’s a sad, lonely man.”
    â€œAnd a very bitter one,” Melody added. “He hated me.”
    â€œPast tense?” Tansy fished gently.
    â€œI don’t know. He was very different when he left,” she replied, frowning in confusion.
    â€œI hope he’ll go home and rethink his life after this,” Tansy said. “He had a close call that could have ended tragically. The kids deserve a better shake than they’re getting. If he doesn’t wake up pretty soon, he’ll never be able to control them when they get older.”
    â€œI think he knows that.”
    â€œThen let’s both hope he’ll do something about it. They’re sweet kids.”
    Melody only nodded. She didn’t want to