Choices of the Heart Read Free

clothes.”
    “I can’t believe my son didn’t tell me he was a father—that I had a grandchild.” His mother began to cry, holding the boy close to her heart.
    Reese swallowed hard and looked away. Grown men didn’t cry.
    “I didn’t know, either,” Chloe told her gently.
    Reese could see the tears in Chloe’s eyes, and the sight made him hurt all the more. This reality of loss they were all sharing should have brought them close, but in truth, he never felt farther away from Chloe than he did right that minute. In days past, he would have pulled her into his arms, kissed away her tears. Today, he couldn’t. Hell, she’d probably slap him.
    “Can I walk you to the hotel?” Reese offered. “Carry your bag?” He sounded like a sap, he thought, but he couldn’t leave Chloe. Not just yet.
    “Yes.” She nodded and smiled gently at him. “I have only the small case over there.”
    She pointed back to where the suitcase sat, and he noticed a leather satchel leaning against the wall of the little station house.
    “We’ll see you tomorrow, Chloe,” Reese’s mom said.
    His parents walked away. Bobby cried, reaching toward Chloe, trying to crawl out of his mother’s arms.
    His mother stopped and turned back to them. “Do you want to keep him with you?”
    Chloe met his mother’s gaze. Reese could see the uncertainty in her eyes. She ultimately shook her head. “I don’t know much about children.” She rubbed Bobby’s back and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. “He’s in far better hands with you. I will help with whatever he might need, but I think its best he get used to being with you and Mr. Lloyd.”
    Reese’s father tipped his hat to Chloe and guided his wife toward their car. Reese and Chloe stood there, watching his mother and Bobby settle into the front seat. His father loaded the trunk into the back of the car, waved silently to them and then climbed in behind the wheel.
    As they pulled away, Reese retrieved Chloe’s small bag, placing it under his arm, and then he picked up her satchel and took her elbow in his free hand. The hotel was only a short distance from the station and it was a beautiful, warm night for a walk.
    “Have you eaten?” Reese had no idea what else to say to her.
    “We had food on the train,” Chloe answered, looking straight ahead.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to go out to your father’s?” Reese asked. “Will you be all right all alone here?”
    “I grew up in this town, as you well know.”
    She smiled and waved across the street to Mrs. Martin, who was walking her small white poodle, gawking openly at them.
    “I’m safer here than at my father’s farm.”
    “I’m sorry for that.” Reese stopped walking.
    Placing his free hand on her shoulder, he turned her toward him. He searched her beautiful, honey-brown eyes, looking for something, anything. Was there anything left in her heart for him? He’d waited for so long to see her again, to touch her, talk to her.
    “Nothing for it, Reese. He is what he is.” She looked away from him. “I just don’t want to face him until I absolutely must.”
    She moved away and resumed her walking. He followed a pace behind until they reached the Burlington Hotel.
    He opened the heavy glass door for her and followed her inside. She walked up to the front desk and was immediately greeted by a clerk. Reese stood aside and watched her register. The hotel was old, needed to be modernized. The carpets were threadbare, and the place smelled like the inside of an old trunk someone had dug out of the attic. He hoped her room would be in better repair.
    “Can you afford this, Chloe?” He waited until she was signed in and they had moved away from the curious registrar to ask the personal question.
    “For a few days.” She rested her tiny hand—physically, everything about her was small—on his sleeve. “I’ll be just fine.”
    He swallowed the lump in his throat. He set down her suitcase and then handed her the