Read Online Texas Hunt by Barb Han - Free Book Online

just changed the subject before he could dig deeper. Okay, fine. He didn’t have it in him to press when she was barely able to tamp down her emotions. But he was determined to make progress with her at some point today. He’d go ask her coworkers if school was in session. Maybe he could dig around a little, anyway. Surely someone knew about her personal life.
    â€œTrue, but Grayson needs a father and that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.” She took a sip of coffee. “Jessie cut off all contact with her when he found out she was pregnant.”
    â€œBetter it happen now than later.”
    â€œHow do you know it would have happened later? He never gave her a chance.” She shot fire at him through her eyes.
    He held his hands up in surrender. “That didn’t come out right. I’m just saying that it would hurt less now, while Grayson’s little, than if he had the chance to get to know his dad before he took off.”
    She hesitated for a second. “I can see why you’d think that.”
    â€œI know what you’re thinking and you’re exactly right,” he conceded. How in hell’s name did she flip this into a conversation about his family? “I learned that lesson the hard way.”
    â€œI remember when your mom left. It changed you,” she said softly. He hadn’t expected her to remember, or to hear so much compassion in her voice when she talked about his family.
    â€œA mother choosing to walk out doesn’t do good things to a ten-year-old boy.”
    â€œNo, you’re right. That never should have happened.” Lisa didn’t add the fact that she’d left her sons with a cruel man, and he appreciated her for it. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
    Those last two words spoken from Lisa did more to ease the ache in his chest than almost two decades of going over and over it in his own mind, reminding himself countless times that it wasn’t his fault.
    â€œHave you spoken to her since then?” she asked, studying her coffee mug.
    â€œNo. I don’t even have a good address on her.” This discussion wasn’t the one Ryan wanted to have. The only reason he’d keep going is that it just might help bridge the gap between them, help her to trust him to talk about deeper issues.
    â€œIt’s not hard to find people these days. All you need is a name and you can search the internet,” she said.
    â€œSure. If you want to find them.”
    â€œAnd you don’t?” she glanced up from her mug, curious.
    â€œI’ve already told you. I’m not that good with technology,” he countered.
    â€œOh no, you don’t, mister. You’re not getting away with it that easily. Nice try, though.”
    â€œYou got me, then.” How did he put this without sounding like an SOB? “She’s the one who walked out. Why on earth would I go chasing after someone who could just as easily find me if she wanted to? Just in case you haven’t put it together yet, she hasn’t even tried.”
    â€œHow do you know?” Lisa’s brow furrowed in the way it did when she studied something intently. She might have been looking at her coffee mug, but she was carefully considering his responses. And from the look of it, she was also holding back her true opinion.
    â€œWhy is any of this important to you?” He didn’t mean to sound so clipped. Talking about his mother never seemed to get any easier.
    She glanced up at him.
    â€œI’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so nosy.” She ran her finger along the rim of the cup. “I guess I was thinking of all the good times I would’ve missed with my own father if I hadn’t forgiven him for some of the things he did when he was drinking.”
    â€œThere is one big difference between our parents.”
    â€œWhich is?”
    â€œYours cared enough to stick around.”
    * * *
    L ISA NEEDED