Out of Exile Read Free Page B

here.
    â€œI hear the ranch is doing well,” he said as he swept his hat from his head and fingered the brim. “Heard you’re booked up solid through Christmas.”
    â€œWe’re doing all right,” Matthew replied. He eyed the man patiently, knowing eventually he would get around to the reason for this visit.
    Jacob shifted from one foot to the other, his gaze not meeting Matthew’s. “This can be a tough town, an unforgiving town.”
    â€œAre you here on behalf of your father?” Matthew asked. Seven months before, Walter Tilley had been the executor of Adam Delaney’s will and the family lawyer. Then it was discovered he was running illegal aliens through the ranch and was responsible for the death of a young woman who’d been working the ranch as a social director.
    â€œNo, I’m here on behalf of me…and my family.” For the first time Jacob looked him square in the eyes. “I hear you’re doing some hiring.”
    â€œI always do this time of year,” Matthew replied. “I’ve got interviews set up for tomorrow.”
    â€œI was afraid if I tried to set anything up with you, you’d turn me down,” Jacob replied. He frowned. “And of course, I wouldn’t blame you if you did. What my father did to you, to this ranch, was inexcusable.”
    â€œI’ve never blamed you for the choices your father made.” God help him if anyone judged him by his father’s sins, Matthew thought.
    â€œThen give me a job, Matthew.” There was a touch of undisguised desperation in Jacob’s voice. “I can’t get anyone else in this town to even talk to me about a job. Everyone knows what my father did. Hell, my wife…my kids…we’re all starving because I can’t find work.”
    Matthew knew the Tilleys had always been proud, and he knew the emotional toll it must have cost Jacob to come here this evening.
    â€œBe here at dawn in the morning and plan on working harder than you ever have in your life.” Matthew hoped he hadn’t just made a mistake.
    Jacob held a hand out to him. “Thanks. I promise you won’t regret it.”
    After Jacob left the stables, Matthew remained for a few minutes longer. He sank down on a bale of hay, his thoughts going back to the conversation with Lilly.
    Funny, he’d always been surprised that she hadn’tmarried. He wasn’t sure he’d ever met a woman who had no interest in getting married. Certainly most of the single women of Inferno had marriage on the mind, and there was nothing they’d like more than to snag the last available Delaney.
    But Matthew’s desire to remain single went deeper than a mere whim. He would never marry, because he was afraid he was his father’s son. And as his father’s son, he was desperately afraid that if he ever fell in love he would only manage to hurt the person most dear to his heart.
    Better not to love than to repeat the sins of the father.

Chapter 2
    L illy left the stables and checked on Aunt Clara, who had retired to her room for the evening. Lilly fixed herself a glass of iced tea, then went back outside and sat on the wicker chair on the front porch.
    The sun had disappeared and the purple haze of twilight was fading as stars began to appear as if by magic in the darkening skies.
    She saw Jacob Tilley leave the stables and get into his pickup. She waved at him as he drove off, then looked expectantly toward the stable, assuming Matthew would soon follow.
    When minutes passed and he didn’t come out, she returned her gaze to the night sky. From her apartment in downtown Dallas she never saw the stars. But here they looked big enough, low enough, to reach out and grab.
    She drew a deep breath, feeling more relaxed thanshe had in months. The frantic tempo of the Dallas city life and the daily stresses of her job seemed very far away at the moment.
    A week or two here and perhaps