Read Online For Love and Family by Victoria Pade - Free Book Online Page B

world?”
    Terese could tell he hadn’t been joking when he’d said the discovery of Johnny’s hemophilia had shaken him.
    â€œWas Johnny right about the trip being important?” she asked.
    â€œNot as important as Johnny. Nothing is that important.”
    â€œNo, of course not,” she agreed. “But even if the trip isn’t as important as Johnny is, if it was important enough to make before, isn’t is still important now?”
    Hunter raised his eyebrows to concede that. “Sure.”
    â€œYou were going to improve your stock? Or herd? Or whatever you call it?”
    â€œEither would be right. And yes, that was the idea. There are some new breeds over there that look promising and I wanted to take a look at them, maybe negotiate for a bull. Northwest winters are nothing to sneeze at and anything I can do to make my herd stronger can help get more animals through the snowy months. Plus bigger cows translate to bigger profits at market. The trip and making a buy are things I’ve been saving for for about two years.”
    â€œAnd you’d cancel the trip when you’re just about to make it?”
    Hunter merely looked out at his son again, as if that were answer enough.
    â€œWhat if Johnny were with me?” she said as another thought occurred to her.
    The rancher looked back at her, his face gilded by the fire’s glow, throwing into greater relief the sharp handsomeness of his features. “What if he were with you?” he repeated.
    â€œI’m just kind of throwing this out there, but, well, I’m already here. What if I stayed and took care of him? Would it make you feel better knowing that his constant companion was his own private blood bank?”
    That morsel of levity made Hunter smile. “We’retalking about a two-week trip,” he said as if he thought that would change her mind.
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œOkay?”
    â€œI told you I’m on sabbatical and my time is my own. It isn’t as if I couldn’t stay that long.”
    Hunter watched his son flinging rocks into the pond again. “I don’t know…”
    â€œWhy don’t you think about it?” Terese urged. “If it would make you feel better, you could still have Willy and Carla looking after him, too. Then he’d have three baby-sitters instead of two, and one of them could give him a refill if he needed it.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t care if Willy and Carla were still in on it?”
    â€œNo, not at all. I’d still get to spend time with Johnny and that’s the only thing I’m interested in.”
    Actually, the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of anything that extended her time with her nephew. She’d come to the ranch knowing that she would likely overstay her welcome in a few days and worrying that that would be all she’d ever have with him. Now this seemed to give her an excuse to stay the full week and then have two extra weeks with him on top of it.
    â€œSeriously,” she said. “I’d like to do it and you wouldn’t have to miss a trip that’s been two years in the making. Think it over.”
    â€œI just might,” he said, as if the longer he mulled the idea the more he really was considering it.
    Johnny ran out of rocks then, and both Terese’s attention and Hunter’s were drawn back to him when he knelt down on the very edge of the pond to run his finger in the water and make motorboat sounds.
    â€œHey, get out of there,” Hunter called to him. Then, to Terese he said, “Maybe we’d better take him home before he goes for a swim.”
    Terese nodded and Hunter passed along the news to his son.
    Johnny grumbled and complained but his father insisted he come away from the pond.
    Then Hunter got to his feet and held out his hand to Terese to help her up.
    It was clearly something he did out of reflex because the moment he realized what