Where the Heart Leads Read Free

in all these years.”
    “I’m still stubborn as a mule.” He grabbed a drop-leaf table from one of the wagons. “Nice place you’ve got here.”
    “Don’t even try to compliment me. I don’t want your help, Gabriel. I don’t need it.” She grabbed the leg of the table to keep him from lifting it off the wagon bed. “This isn’t the way I want things between us, but you won’t stop.”
    “Aumaleigh.” His voice dipped low, warm when it should have been cold. “I’m just trying to be friendly.”
    “I can’t be friendly.” She nearly choked on the words. “I don’t think I can even try.”
    “You’ll have to, for the kids’ sake. Seth and Rose come first. We’re here for them.”
    “Yes, that’s true. I suppose a temporary truce is in order.”
    “I didn’t know we were at war.” He released his hold on the table. Some measure of tenderness settled in his chest. It had been buried there all this time. “Don’t make us enemies, Aumaleigh.”
    “I’m not the one who did that.” Time had changed her, carving lines into her heart-shaped face. Those lines added character to her, like sunlight on a rose. She hiked up her chin. “Let’s just agree to keep to opposite sides of the church, and we’ll be fine.”
    “Is that what you want?”
    “Yes.” Sorrow darkened her bluebonnet-blue eyes.
    The sight of her sorrow still got to him. It cut like a knife. He had to look away. He had to clear his throat. “All right. If that’s what you want.”
    “The past is behind us.” She sounded as if she was trying to convince herself of that. “Let’s keep it there.”
    “Okay.” Hard to argue with that, not without showing his hand. He could bluff with the best of them, so he backed away from the wagon as if he wasn’t disappointed, as if his heart wasn’t bruised. “As you wish. I’ll leave you alone.”
    “Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around herself, and something about her stance told him she wasn’t as tough as she pretended to be.
    That’s how it always had been between them. He’d been able to see into her, to know her heart. What would she think if she knew why he’d sold his ranch and uprooted his life?
    Maybe she’d laugh at him.
    Or she’d think he needed to be locked up.
    Either way, he didn’t want to find out. A man had his pride, so he tipped his hat to her. “Have a good evening, Aumaleigh.”
    “You too, Gabriel.” Lamplight from the parlor windows glowed over her, as soft as a touch. The gentle light added luster to her molasses-dark hair and polished her alabaster complexion.
    She was beautiful. Time had not robbed her of it. Decades could not diminish it. Somehow she looked lovelier than ever. It didn’t seem fair that she could still affect him like this, even after she’d decimated his heart.
    The best thing to do was to walk away. Her dislike of him blew cold like the wind. He climbed back into his buckboard. Leaving was the only thing he could do.
    He gathered the reins and gave them a snap. The horses responded, leaping into a fast walk. The rigging jingled, the wheels rattled and rain began to fall, but he knew without turning around she was watching him go.
    He’d come a long way and given up a lot. But at least he knew where he stood.
    And what he was up against.

Chapter Two

     
    “Was that Seth’s uncle?” Iris poked her head out of the open door. Her periwinkle blue eyes pinched with concern. “It was, wasn’t it? We waited too long to tell you.”
    “You knew?” Aumaleigh rocked back in her heels. Her gaze zipped back to the road where Gabriel had disappeared. A strange sense of disappointment battered her. “I would have appreciated a warning.”
    “I know. It wasn’t fair for you to suddenly be confronted with him, and face-to-face.” Iris breezed down the steps, oblivious to the rain. Behind her, a string of cowboys trailed out the door, talking to themselves, making a beeline for the closest wagon.
    Over the scuffling sounds of