Read Online His Dakota Bride (Book 5 - Dakota Hearts) by Lisa Mondello - Free Book Online Page A

mother said, settling into the chair next to him. “Why are you beating yourself up about this? You and your brothers have had a million scrapes like this. Hell, Hawk was getting to the point where he knew how to stitch himself up. It’s no wonder he became a doctor.”
    “I should have been watching him closer. I didn’t even know they went down to the river.”
    “Kids do things in the blink of an eye,” Kate said, chastising him for his reaction, not his actions. “You said yourself he was standing on the rock with Keith when you got there. He fell right before your eyes. So you tell me what you could have done to prevent it?”
    “I don’t know. I keep thinking if I hadn’t noticed they were gone, he might have fallen into the water and drowned.”
    “And a meteor can strike us all tomorrow.”
    He looked at his mother, wondering what she was talking about.
    “It’s the same thing. Don’t look at me like I’m an old, crazy woman. I raised five boys to adulthood. Stuff happens. Boys get into messes. They get scrapes and stitches and broken bones. Lord knows you all had enough of those. If you let yourself think back to how many emergency room visits I had to bring one of you to, then you’ll understand that this won’t be the last time either of those little boys gets into trouble. This is just the first of many. It’s call life.”
    * * *
    Silence had a way of healing. And sometimes, it had a way of hurting. Skylar looked at Wade while he drove her car back to the house. He’d left his car at Logan’s, but Skylar was glad that Wade offered to drive her home so she could sit in the back seat with Alex, who was still clinging to her after getting five stitches in his forehead. Hawk had been quite animated as he stitched up the wound, easing some of the trauma of it all for Alex.
    For Skylar, it was a different story. Looking at the worried lines on Wade’s face in the rear view mirror as he drove, Skylar knew it was the same for Wade. It always is when it’s your child. And Alex was Wade’s son.
    She hadn’t been fair to Wade. But life hadn’t been fair to any of them. She thought back to the conversation she’d had on the phone with her friend Cara. The one thing she’d taken away from that phone call was that Cara was happy. She’d heard it in the bubbly way Cara spoke. It dawned on Skylar that it had been a long time since she’d ever even considered that notion.
    When they got to the house, Alex was so emotionally exhausted that he didn’t even argue with Skylar when she got him ready for bed and tucked him in. She went to the kitchen to grab him the glass of water he’d asked for and by the time she returned, Alex was fast asleep.
    Wade was sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands. She was tired. Too tired to keep fighting battles she was creating. Walking up to him, she put her hand on his head and pulled him close to her so his head was nuzzled against her stomach.
    “It’s not your fault.”
    He lifted his head to look at her face. “Yeah? He never needed five stitches when you were watching him.”
    She chuckled. “He gave himself a black eye on the coffee table right in front of me. For a week I felt like I’d been the one to give it to him. He’s had plenty of falls and scrapes. There’ll be more. Are you going to blame yourself for all of them?”
    Wade leaned back on the sofa. “I guess not. It’s just, I spent all this time trying to protect the two of you. The one time I had him alone, he nearly loses an eye.”
    Her mouth dropped open. “Quit being so dramatic! The stitches aren’t anywhere near his eye.”
    “They could have been.”
    Disgusted, she grunted.
    “I should call Logan. He said he’d pick me up here.”
    She took a deep breath.
    “He already called. I told him not to come.”
    “What?”
    “You…don’t have to leave.”
    Skylar could see Wade spark to life right in front of her. She quickly put up a hand to halt him from moving closer and