Whirlwind Reunion Read Free

He’d seen the hurt in her eyes, but he didn’t care. He wouldn’t let himself. “It was no secret she had always wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t like her decision to go back east by herself, but I understood. Not the other though.”
    â€œThe miscarriage.”
    His eyes stung. “If she hadn’t been so damn deter-mined to go to medical school right then, our baby would be alive.”
    Even now, after all these years, Matt’s throat closed up when he thought about his child.
    â€œShe swore she didn’t know about the baby until after she arrived in Philadelphia,” Russ reminded. “That she lost the baby before she could write to tell you she was expecting.”
    Matt had burned her letter, but it didn’t matter. The words she’d written weeks after leaving him were carved into his brain forever. “How could she not be aware that there was a life growing inside her? Her pa was a doctor and she helped him with patients often. She had to have known she was expecting.”
    â€œWhy would she lie?”
    â€œShe wanted what she wanted. She didn’t need anything here.” Even him, Matt thought.
    â€œShe’d been caring for Hardy for over a year.”
    â€œAnd we helped her.” Them and Pa. That was when Matt had fallen in love with her. “So?”
    â€œShe left so soon after he died. Maybe she was grieving so hard she couldn’t think clear. Remember how I was after Amy ran off with that married man she’d been seeing while engaged to me?”
    When he had lost his first fiancée, Russ had been negligent, withdrawn and as cantankerous as a bear with a thorn in his paw. Maybe Annalise had been a couple of those things, too. And if she had stayed in Whirlwind, Matt thought angrily, he could have helped her through it.
    His brother shifted, disrupting the shadows. “Maybe she made a mistake by leaving then.”
    â€œA mistake to go when she did, maybe, but claimingnot to know about the baby? That was no mistake. That was a flat-out lie.”
    It had been some years since he and Russ had talked about this in detail and his brother’s calm suggestion still angered him. And solved nothing. She was back, but for how long?
    At the thought, hope rose. She had left once; it was entirely possible she might leave again. He jerked a thumb toward the hotel door. “Get back in there. I don’t want Lydia taking a strip off my hide because she can’t find you. You’re the groom, remember?”
    There was an innate contentment about his brother these days, a sense of calm. Despite the somber expression on his face just now, Russ was happy. Settled. Matt had once thought he wanted that with Annalise. But he didn’t. Not with her, not with any woman.
    Seeing his first love had left him feeling raw, cornered.
    â€œYou’ll be in for the toast?”
    Matt nodded. “Get me a glass of champagne, okay?”
    â€œIf you’d rather, I can ask Pa to give it.”
    â€œI’ll do it.” Annalise Fine wasn’t going to ruin this night more than she already had. Matt had moved on—many times—from her. He could do it again.
    As his brother opened the door, he said, “I’ll be clear-headed when I make the toast, Russ. I won’t let you down.”
    The other man squeezed his shoulder. “I know that.”
    Matt stayed outside a few more minutes, trying to calm the fury pulsing through him.
    After finally catching the band of rustlers who had been stealing cattle from the Triple B and surrounding ranches in several counties, he had anticipated things going back to normal, looked forward to a rest. TheLandis brothers, all seven of them, were awaiting trial in Abilene’s jail because Taylor County was where they had done the majority of their rustling. Callahan and Nolan counties planned to extradite the gang to their respective counties once the Taylor County trial ended.
    The