Reverie (Hollow Hearts Book 1) Read Free Page A

without another word, and made her way to her small bedroom. Just as she shut the door the rain began to fall, as did her tears.

    Isaac Wheeler looked at the tiredness in his mother’s eyes. It was all getting to be too much. Since her illness this past spring she was struggling to regain the same energy and strength he was used to seeing all his life. She couldn’t run the ranch house, take care of him and his brother, and keep up with Lottie, his three-year-old niece. Poor Elizabeth needed a break. She needed help even if it was only temporary until her strength returned… if it ever truly does , he thought.
    “Mother, how would you feel if we got someone to come out and help you for a while? Ease the burden of caring for all of us?” Isaac took his mother’s hand in his and silently pleaded with her kind eyes. She was a strong woman, a woman capable of turning an old ranch into a home, raising two rambunctious boys, surviving the death of the husband she adored, all while managing to overwhelm the world with her smile.
    Isaac watched his mother’s eyes, full of pride and love. He knew she worried about putting too much pressure on him to care for her. He didn’t want her to feel, even for a moment, that her care was a burden. He wanted her to continue to see him as the handsome and strong boy she’d raised. He knew he couldn’t hide much from her; she was much too perceptive for that. One look and he’d confess his troubles the same way he did as a child. For now, though, she didn’t need the added worry.
    “Oh, Isaac. You are such a wonderful boy. I’m so sorry that my health has troubled you and added an extra burden to your workload.” She squeezed his hand and gave him the same comforting smile he recognized from his childhood. 
    “Mother, you could never be a burden! Elias and I love you and we want to do what is best for you. We don’t want to see you pushing yourself too hard. Winter is coming and I know how much we still need to get done. If that means hiring someone to help until you have your strength up, then that’s what we will do,” he said, his tone leaving little room for questioning. Isaac knew his mother felt that he and his father were so much alike, strong and determined, wanting to handle the concerns and cares of the family with firmness and love.  His father had done the same when he was alive and Isaac had taken after him in more ways than one. As the oldest son he wanted to step into the role of patriarch of the Wheeler family, shoulder the responsibilities of caring for their home and their future, and finding the help his mother needed was what any good son would do. 
    “ I suppose it does make sense. With October already here I’ll be even busier trying to finish my canning and winter preparations as it is. With Lottie growing like a weed I’ll need to sew her a few new winter dresses before too long as well.”
    “Then it’s settled. We’ll get someone to help you. I promise, Mother, you’ll see the sense in this. It will be nice to have someone here to help with meals and cleaning. Maybe you’ll even have time to rest in the afternoon with someone here to help look after Lottie.”
    “Oh, Isaac, when have you ever known me to rest in the middle of the day? I’ve been a farm wife for over 30 years. That job doesn’t come with napping.”
    Isaac laughed at his mother’s attempt to be firm. What an amazing woman, he thought. It wasn’t her firmness that had terrified him and his brother as children. It wasn’t the wrath of their father, either. It was the sense of disappointment he felt when he realized he had let her down. Both his parents took the approach of being firm yet loving with Isaac and his brother, Elias. Neither was the primary disciplinarian when it came to the scrapes and troubles of young boys. But when Isaac looked in his mother’s eyes and he saw the hurt he or his brother had caused, he felt he was punished enough. Lord, what I wouldn’t