Read Online Return to Oak Valley by Shirlee Busbee - Free Book Online

wouldn't want any slurs cast on the Granger name.” She frowned. “But if your mom went away, never to return, what happened? She came back.”
    “Yeah, she did.” Hurriedly he added, “And it wasn't because she wanted more money either.”
    “I would never doubt that. But why did she come back?”
    He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I don't know if you knew, but Mom's father died when she was a child in Mexico and left the family almost destitute. She said that with her dad gone, they were practically living on the streets. Anyway, Abuela Ynez, my other grandmother, wrote to her only brother, Tio abuelo Oliverio. He had settled here and was working, for the”—he flashed her a glance—“Ballingers. When he received Abuela Ynez's letter begging for help, he sent for the entire family and helped them find jobs here in Oak Valley.” He looked at Shelly. “This was Mom's home. She's lived here since she was eleven years old. She grew up here. She had her citizenship. Abuela Ynez, her uncle, her sisters, and a brother lived here. In Mexico there were just some cousins or something, and she was lonesome. So, when I was about six months old, she couldn't stand it anymore and she came home. To Abuela Ynez's—not to the Grangers'.”
    Shelly waved a hand. “I believe you. And I can guess the rest. Josh or one of my parents found out that she was here and they probably thought it would cause less talk if Maria came back to work for them than if they just pretended they'd never heard of her.”
    Nick nodded. “Mom never said, she can be pretty vague about stuff when she wants to be, but I guess it was something like that.”
    Shelly looked curious. “Doesn't she talk about it at all?”
    “Not a word. You saw her today. Even for me she won't open up. She has some hang-up about breaking her word. If she had her way, we'd all just continue to pretend it never happened. She hates it when I bring up the subject.” He grinned at her. “She really tore a strip off me this afternoon when we went home.”
    “The mind boggles at what the situation was like here—for them.
I
never suspected a thing.”
    “You wouldn't—you were a kid, just like Raquel and me. And by the time you were old enough to maybe notice something or ask embarrassing questions, you were gone—remember?”
    Shelly grimaced. “I remember.” She picked up another Oreo. Nibbling at the edges of it, she asked, “Did you ever face Josh?”
    Nick took a deep breath. “Oh, yeah. And he just looked at me and said it was too bad that I listened to gossip.” He flashed a wry grin. “I lied a little and said that Mom admitted it and he got that, I smell shi—, manure, grin on his face and told me that he couldn't be responsible for any tales his housekeeper might tell her son.”
    Shelly's eyes widened. “He actually said that?” she asked in a stunned voice.
    Nick nodded and took a bite of a cookie. “Yeah. He said it. I should know—I was there. Jesus! I hated him at that moment. I wanted to pound him into the ground. Not so much for not acknowledging me, but for dismissing Mom that way—his ‘housekeeper.’ Needless to say, he and I didn't have very many friendly father-to-son chats after that.”
    “I guess not.”
    They chewed on the cookies for a few minutes in silence. Then Nick asked quietly, “Do you believe me? I don't have much proof.” He laughed bitterly. “Hell, I don't have any proof—just gossip and a gut feeling. And green eyes. And a father my mother won't name.”
    Shelly sighed and put down her half-eaten cookie. “I find it hard to believe that Josh could be so cold and calculating and yet…” She looked at him, studied the lean, intent features across from her, and, for one dizzy moment, it was as if Josh stared back at her. She blinked, the resemblance vanished, and it was just Nick sitting across from her.
    Did she believe him? It was a fantastic story and flew in the face of everything she knew about her