Read Online Lonestar Angel by Colleen Coble - Free Book Online Page B

“And you found it?”
    She nodded. “Well, as much as I could in such a horrible situation. I still don’t know why he allowed it, but I came to realize we have no control over bad things. When I got to Wabash, a coworker invited me to church. I just held on to God a day at a time.”
    “What about Kent? How did he fit into all this?”
    “He helped me start to live again. To begin to think I might do more than get through every day.”
    “I would like to have helped you do that.”
    She rubbed her head. “I saw the ruins of our hopes everywhere I looked, and it hurt too much.”
    “Now here we are.” He smiled and nodded toward the girls. “She’s here. We just have to find her.”
    “I hope so. One minute I’m clinging to hope, and the next minute I’m fearful this is a cruel joke. We don’t know.”
    “I’m certain,” he said. “Can’t you feel her here, Eden?”
    “Maybe it’s wishful thinking.”
    He shook his head. “Trust me, Eden. Cling to that hope. We’ll find her.”
    He had enough faith for both of them. “I’ll try,” she said.

    Clay couldn’t stop watching Eden. He should have seen it right away, that undercurrent of a changed soul. So much for the intuition he’d always thought he possessed. Now that he knew, it was clear to see.
    He put his hand in his pocket, and his fingers touched his digital picture viewer. Had she looked at pictures of Brianna lately? Pulling it out, he turned it on, smiling when Brianna’s chubby cheeks came into view.
    “What’s that?”
    “I like to look at these,” he said. He showed it to her. Brianna was cradled in his hand at the hospital. His hand was nearly as big as she was.
    “Oh, Clay,” she whispered, her voice full of tears. “I had that picture enlarged and hung it over my bed. On bad days, that’s how I imagined her. Cradled in God’s hands.”
    Her insight gave him pause. “And now we know that he’s been taking care of her all this time.”
    She took the viewer and advanced to the next picture. The two of them were staring down at their baby with expressions of awe. In the next picture, they were gazing at one another with love in their faces. His breath caught. He’d forgotten about that one. He hardly dared glance at her, but she didn’t go on to the next photo like he’d expected.
    “We were so young,” she said softly.
    “Now we’re old and decrepit?”
    She shook her head and looked at him. “I didn’t mean that. We didn’t have any idea what life had in store for us. The pain that was coming our way in a few short weeks.”
    Tell her . He wanted to say that he’d never wanted her to leave. That he wished he’d been there to comfort her during those dark months after Brianna was taken. He opened his mouth.
    “Look, Miss Eden, a tarantula!” India’s voice was full of excitement.
    Eden broke their eye contact. “Get away from it, India!”
    “It won’t hurt her,” Clay said.
    “I’ve heard those things jump.”
    “They don’t usually bite. It’s more afraid of her than you are of it.” He pointed to the way the dark blob crawled under a yucca plant.
    Eden shuddered and steered the little girl in another direction. “Let’s play with the other girls.”
    But the children preferred to poke at the tarantula. Clay took a stick away from Katie and directed them to a rocky outcropping with a path that appeared safe. “Let’s climb to the top.”
    The children squealed and raced for the top as he and Eden chased them. From the heights, the view of the Rio Grande was even more magnificent.
    “People,” Lacie said, pointing to about ten people, men and women, hurrying through the desert in single file.
    Eden glanced at him with a question in her eyes. “Illegals,” he mouthed to her. He could try to call them in, but by the time the Border Patrol arrived, they would be long gone.
    “We’d better get back,” he said, herding the group back down the trail. “It’s almost time for our outing to Big