Read Online Sinful by Joan Johnston - Free Book Online Page B

frantic phone call to Eve and the moment she arrived on his doorstep was the most harrowing of Connor’s life. His kids were crying, and he couldn’t get them to stop.
    “Thank God you’re here,” he said as he ushered Eve inside along with a blast of frigid air. “They’ve been bawling nonstop since I put them to bed. It started with Sawyer. He said he wanted his Nana. Once Brooke heard him sobbing she joined in. Nothing I’ve said, nothing I’ve done, has been able to comfort them.”
    “Take me to them,” Eve said as she dropped her coat on a rocking chair in the living room.
    “I had rooms set up for each of them, but right now they’re huddled together in Brooke’s bed,” he said as he led her along the creaking hardwood floor toward the rooms at the back of the seventy-year-old ranch house. “After I turned out the light in Sawyer’s room and left, he must have run in there. A few minutes later I heard them howling like a pack of coyotes. When I turned on the light to see what was wrong, I found them holding on to each other as though atornado was threatening to rip them apart. When I asked what was wrong, they hid their faces and cried louder.”
    Connor knew he was rambling, but he couldn’t stop. He was scared. What if he couldn’t do this? What if the kids wouldn’t stop crying? What was he going to do? He couldn’t lose his kids. He loved them. And they needed him, whether they knew it or not.
    “I tried picking them up and holding them in my lap to comfort them, but I could feel them quivering like scared rabbits. I wasn’t sure whether they were scared of being alone with me or just scared of being in a strange place,” he said, continuing to babble like an idiot. “I put them down and called you. Thank God you were home. Thank God you were willing to come.”
    If she hadn’t answered, his next call would have been to the Robertsons. He was glad that hadn’t been necessary, but he would have done it. He couldn’t stand to see his children weeping. He couldn’t stand to see them so unhappy. It made his heart hurt.
    Connor had figured the kids would take one look at Eve and quiet down. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
    The moment Brooke saw Eve in the bedroom doorway, she reached out her arms to her. But when Eve sat down on the bed and embraced her, she cried even louder. Sawyer grabbed Eve around the neck and wouldn’t let go, his sobs escalating as well.
    Connor stood by his daughter’s bed feeling helpless and hopeless. Eve looked him in the eye and gestured with her chin for him to sit down beside Sawyer, but he couldn’t move. His feet felt rooted to the floor.The sound of his children weeping so horribly made his stomach clench. He balled his hands into fists so Eve wouldn’t see how badly they were shaking.
    “It’s all right, Brooke,” he heard her murmur. “Your daddy’s here and I’m here and everything’s going to be all right.”
    At the word “daddy” Brooke shot an anxious glance in his direction. Then she hid her face against Eve’s throat and slid her arms tighter around Eve’s neck, nearly choking her. At his wit’s end, he responded the way he would have in the army. He started barking orders.
    “That’s enough, both of you! I brought Aunt Eve here to visit, and you’re dripping tears and snot all over her. Stop that wailing this instant!”
    Maybe it was the shock of hearing an adult shout at them, when they were used to kinder treatment. Maybe they were just cried out. Maybe it was Eve’s reassuring presence. But suddenly, as though he’d shut off a dripping faucet, the crying stopped.
    Connor stood where he was, his useless hands hanging at his sides, feeling totally enervated, while Eve calmly snatched a couple of Kleenex from the box next to the bed. She handed one to Brooke and said, “Blow your nose, sweetie,” then used the other to wipe Sawyer’s runny nose.
    Connor knew he should be doing something, but he was afraid to move in