Read Online The Fantasy Factor by Kimberly Raye - Free Book Online

flagpole and spray painted a mustache on the school’s mascot.”
    He shrugged and his mouth split into a grin. “Okay, so you were a really wild teenager, but those exist the world over. They cause sleepless nights and a gray hair or two, but that’s expected.” His gaze locked with hers for a heart-pounding moment. “Raising kids is tough, but it’s not life-threatening. At least not for the average parent.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “That your grandmother wasn’t the average parent. She was much older. It’s understandable that her health wouldn’t be as good as a woman thirty years her junior. Not to mention she had the added pressure of running her own business. I’d say her age and her workload contributed to her health problems more than anything you did.”
    Sarah had told herself the same thing time and time again. But it hadn’t been enough to ease her guilt or erase the image of her grandmother turning pale and blue and lifeless.
    “I owe her. I could have been the one in the car that night. I would have been except that Grandma Willie grounded me and made me stay home to watch Wheel of Fortune with her. She saved my life, and now I’m saving hers. She has no reason to worry about anything, not the business and especially not me.”
    “When it’s her time, it’ll be her time. No matter what you do. That’s the way of things. You’re born and you die, and you don’t have any control over the two. My father drank so much that he should have died a long time ago. But it didn’t catch up to him until two days shy of my first PBR championship.” He shook his head. “ Two days. Can you believe that?”
    “I’m really sorry about his death. I know you wanted him to see you ride.”
    “It wasn’t that. He didn’t have to see me. I just wanted him to know. ” He shook his head. “He said I would never do it and he died thinking he was right.” His hands tightened on the wheel and she knew he was remembering the past and his father and she knew it hurt.
    Don’t do it. One touch will lead to two and two to three and…
    She balled her fingers and kept her hands in her lap. Her gaze went to the passing landscape and a small area off in the distance where Bick Jericho had been laid to rest years before. It wasn’t even visible from the road, but Sarah knew what it looked like because it wasn’t far from her mother’s resting place. When she took fresh flowers to her mother’s grave, she always glanced at the patch of weeds and overgrown brush that completely concealed the small headstone that marked the grave.
    “I’ve got some really nice potted palms.” While she wouldn’t reach out to comfort him with her touch, the sudden urge to do something—say something—to ease his pain overwhelmed her. “You should take one out to his grave.”
    He looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. “Why would I do something like that?” He shook his head. “He doesn’t deserve anything from me. He never gave me or my brothers anything but a hard time.”
    “It’s not about him. It’s about you. You didn’t go to his funeral.” At his questioning glance, she added, “I didn’t go, either. It happened so fast and everything was very low key that I didn’t even hear about it until I saw for myself. I was visiting my mother’s grave when they buried your father. It was a small funeral. Just your brothers and Hank Brister and Judge Merriweather, who recited a few words.”
    “So?”
    “So I just thought you might like to know how things went. Unless your brothers told you.”
    “We didn’t talk about it.” He cut her a glance that said he didn’t want to talk about it now. “There wasn’t anything to talk about. He died. We buried him. End of story.”
    “It was a nice casket.”
    “Dallas picked it out.”
    “It looked like cedar.”
    “Dallas likes cedar.”
    “And the judge said some really nice things.”
    “Good for the judge.”
    “And your brother