Read Online The Bachelor's Sweetheart by Jean C. Gordon - Free Book Online

born. According to the police report, he staggered out of a bar in Saranac Lake and disappeared, leaving his old truck in the parking lot. It was the middle of winter. Anything could have happened to him.”
    She shivered at the thought of what could happen to someone passed out in the woods on a sub-zero Adirondack winter night. Josh spoke with such detachment, as if commenting on something he’d heard on the news, rather than someone in his family, someone Tessa suspected Josh loved in the deepest recesses of his heart.
    â€œNeither the police nor the private detective Jared hired for Mom found a trace of him after that. Until now.” He puckered his mouth as if trying to get rid of a bad taste.
    â€œSo you all assumed he was dead? I don’t think I could accept a family member’s death without proof.”
    â€œYou don’t know my father.”
    She didn’t know his father. But she knew people—men and women—like him, or like he was. Some of them were friends. One was her AA sponsor.
    â€œMom may have harbored a small hope that he was alive. But a couple of years ago when she wanted to sell the house in Paradox Lake and buy a condo near my aunt in Pennsylvania, she had to have him declared legally dead. It’s been nine years since anyone has seen or heard from him.”
    He stood and began pacing the room, making Tessa wonder if his mother wasn’t the only one who’d held open the thought that Jerry Donnelly wasn’t dead. In Josh’s case, though, it may have been fear he was still alive.
    â€œMy father’s name was on the deed to the house, although I can’t think that he ever contributed a thing toward it in money or keeping it up. His style was more trashing the place. My guess is that’s why he showed up. Somehow he got wind that Mom sold the house and he wants his half of the proceeds to drink away.”
    Josh stopped at the other side of the room, back to her, facing the wall, and Tessa waited for him to continue.
    The silence grew too loud for her. “So why’s he here? The house sale is between him and your mother. It doesn’t involve you guys.” Tessa counted her heartbeats as she waited for Josh to answer.
    â€œHe’s already visited Mom.”
    â€œHave you or your brothers talked with her?”
    Josh picked up the pacing again.
    â€œCan you sit?”
    He stopped by the chair. “I don’t know.”
    â€œYou don’t know whether your brothers have talked with your mother or whether you can sit?”
    â€œBoth. When I talked with Connor, they hadn’t.” He lowered himself into the chair and tapped his foot. “I’m certainly not going to be the first to call her. I’m not sure what I’d do if she’s caved to him as usual and given him money.” He blew out a breath. “Or worse, said she’d take him back. Since Mom moved to Pennsylvania, she’s been happier than I ever remember her being.”
    Tessa studied Josh’s rugged profile, choosing and discarding words in her mind. There was no way to step around the ones she needed to say. “You said your father wanted to make amends.”
    He jerked his focus toward her. “That’s what he told Connor.”
    As if words could make up for what the old man had done to Mom and him and his brothers. He ran his gaze over Tessa’s open face. What he’d done to his ability to have any kind of lasting relationship with a woman beyond his friendship with Tessa. What his father’s parenting had done to any thoughts he ever might have entertained about having children of his own.
    â€œIt sounds to me like he’s working a twelve-step program, like AA. Can you consider that maybe he’s not drinking and does want to make amends?”
    â€œDear old Dad is always working something. As for him not drinking, once a drunk, always a drunk, no matter how you try to dress it up with