Love Inspired May 2015 #1 Read Free Page B

her life isn’t going to walk out on her.”
    â€œI do not walk out.”
    â€œI know. And I
was
going to tell you. I just didn’t know how.”
    â€œYou could have told me years ago. A letter, even a short note, would have been nice.”
    â€œYou left.” Another person in her life who had left. Not that she’d expected him to stay. He’d been a day, a smile, a moment. She’d been a kid who’d made bad choices in her search for love.
    â€œYou know for sure...” he started to ask, but his words trailed off.
    â€œI know without a doubt. There are no other possibilities.”
    He studied her for a few seconds. She met his gaze head-on because she had to be strong. “Why did you change your mind and decide to bring her to Martin’s Crossing?”
    Of course he would want to know that. She would tell him why, but not today. She couldn’t tell him everything, not in one crazy, overly emotional day. “I knew she needed you.”
    The simple answer was the truth. It was enough for now.
    * * *
    She wasn’t telling him everything but for Duke, it was enough for one day. He had a daughter. For the past year Lilly had bounced in and out of his diner. She’d swept his floors. She’d talked to him about the kind of horse she wanted. She’d looked up at him with those blue eyes that were so much like his, he should have seen himself in her. He should have seen it. He should have recognized Oregon.
    He rubbed the top of his head and stared at the woman he’d let down, mother of the girl he’d let down. He’d become his mother. Man, he wanted to pound something. He needed to get on his bike and take a long ride through Texas. But unlike Sylvia Martin, his mother, he would come back. But he wouldn’t walk away from this hospital, from Lilly or Oregon.
    He looked at her. Her dark hair framed a face that was delicate and shifted from cute to pretty with a smile. She shrugged slim shoulders. “Maybe you should have remembered but you said it yourself, there are a lot of holes in your memory.”
    Yeah, a lot of holes. Blackouts. Days lost. He reached into his pocket and felt that coin he carried, a reminder of how long he’d been sober. Two years and counting.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said as he made eye contact with the woman sitting across from him.
    â€œI’m sorry, too. I know she needs you.”
    There were so many ways he could react to that. He could be angry, but what would that get him? She had wanted to protect her daughter. He couldn’t blame her for that.
    â€œSo I guess I passed the test,” he finally said.
    â€œOf course you do.” She stood, her eyes darting away from him to the door. “We should go. I don’t want her to be alone too long.”
    â€œNo, of course not.” She would never be alone again. He would see to that. “Does she know?”
    â€œThat you’re her dad? No.”
    â€œWe have to tell her.”
    They walked out into the hall and headed back to the emergency room. “Yes, I know.”
    â€œWhat does she know?”
    â€œThat I was young and made a mistake. But that
she
isn’t a mistake.”
    â€œMan, Oregon, I should have been there. I should have been in her life.”
    â€œI didn’t mean for this to happen.” Her voice faltered.
    â€œYou weren’t in this alone. And you aren’t alone now. We need to get married.” The words slipped out quickly, without giving them a lot of thought.
    She stopped. He took a few more steps and then turned to face her. She was barely five feet tall. Her dark hair was long and soft. Her gray eyes had flecks of green in this light. Had he just proposed to her?
    â€œNo.” And with that simple answer, she kept walking.
    He froze under the bright fluorescent lights, voices of people heading in their direction. Ahead of him Oregon kept walking. He was so tall that he only had to