All of My Love Read Free Page B

loving, strong, and independent. Duncan, Cameron, and I couldn’t have asked for better parents. I thought it was gone forever, and then Brandon told me he’d bought it because he had so many good memories of the house as well.” Her voice trembled, then firmed. “We both work long, crazy hours, trade off living at his place over the restaurant or in my suite at the hotel. We love what we do, but we’d like to be able to get away from it all with just the two of us. We both feel this house would be perfect.”
    His ex didn’t say anything and neither did Paul. He’d once been fool enough to think the same thing.
    Faith sighed. “There’s one catch. The house needs work. I’d like to take up the carpet, sand the hardwood floors, redo the kitchen. However, both of us are too busy, and the men I’d trust are booked through July. I wanted to invite everyone over for a Mother’s Day brunch to celebrate what wonderful and caring mothers Brandon and I are blessed to have. NASCAR will be in full swing, but as you know, they don’t race on Mother’s Day so Cameron could come and bring his family. The timing would be perfect.”
    Paul knew what was coming. “Faith, I—”
    “I know it’s asking a lot of both of you, but I’m asking anyway.” Faith paused. “To restore the house. You did a lot of the original work as newlyweds. I remember Mama telling me she’d used a sander for the first time.”
    Paul loved his children, but this was asking too much. He couldn’t do this. This time he wouldn’t survive.
    “Isn’t this going to be great, Daddy? I can already picture it in my mind.” Faith turned to her mother. “You’ll have the house restored in no time.”
    Out of the corner of Paul’s eye, he saw his ex-wife swallow. She didn’t want to be there any more than he did. Love had brought them here. But there hadn’t been enough love to keep him and his ex-wife together.
    Faith, with her arms hooked though his and her mother’s, leaned first against him and then against her mother. “As I said, we know this is asking a lot, but with Brandon at his restaurant and me at the hotel, we don’t have time to oversee restoring the house ourselves. We trust you.”
    “Are-are you sure you want to live here?” Stella asked quietly.
    Paul felt the softly spoken words twist his insides. He shouldn’t care that this was difficult for her. She’d ripped his heart out and stomped on it. He’d been lost without her. Damn, there were times when he still felt the aching loneliness, but that was his own hellish secret.
    “Yes,” Faith said with her usual bubbly enthusiasm. Her father looked at her, and despite the situation she was putting him in, his heart felt lighter. She was a good daughter. He couldn’t have asked for better.
    She’d been the first daughter born in seven generations. She’d heralded the end of the McBride curse, lucky in business and unlucky in love, for her and her generation. For him and her mother, it had been too late.
    “Neither one of us can think of any place better than where I grew up. Brandon came out here lots of times to see Cameron. He slept on the floor too many nights to count. He taught me how to dance here.”
    Paul wished he could see his ex’s face, see how she was taking all this. There had been good times. He’d never suspected she would leave him. He’d known she’d been quiet during those last few months they were together, but he’d suspected she was just preoccupied with the hotel. He’d thought things would smooth out.
    He’d been horribly wrong.
    At least she’d waited until Faith graduated from college before she left. Somehow they’d managed to keep their pending divorce a secret from their children. With Faith busy with her senior year, Cameron a NASCAR driver and living in Charlotte, and Duncan at his ranch in Montana, it hadn’t been difficult.
    The sound of a car’s motor had them turning. Brandon pulled up in Faith’s new red Porsche SUV. It had