Time to Heal (Harlequin Heartwarming) Read Online Free

He had been the one to recruit her.
    “You say your mother died in an accident. What kind of accident?” he demanded suddenly.
    “A trucking accident, I think. I don’t know any more. It happened when I was about five years old,” Michael explained, his eyes trained on Jake’s. “I don’t remember much about her. Mama Dee hardly ever talked about her. To be honest, I don’t think they got along.”
    “Did you live with her until she died?”
    “No, I’ve always lived with Mama Dee.”
    The hand holding the birth certificate curled into a fist, wrinkling the document. Just another unwanted kid shunted off by his mother to a more responsible grandparent. “Why didn’t someone contact me before now!”
    “I didn’t know about you, sir. Whenever I asked about my dad, Mama Dee always said you were some kind of lawman in Miami and that you’d probably been shot down on the street, considering the way things are there. She said my mom hadalways had bad taste in men and that it was just as well she had raised me herself.”
    What kind of upbringing was that? Mama Dee sounded deeply resentful and more than a little bitter. It seemed she’d had good reason.
    “How did you locate me?”
    “There was a letter.” Michael went down on one knee and began rummaging again through the items in the knapsack on the floor. Jake stared at the dark head bent to the task. Scotty had Rachel’s blond coloring and except for his gray eyes looked like her people. This boy, Michael, was like Jake—the same dusky skin, same nose, same high cheekbones and a firm, square chin. Even those rangy, long limbs with their promise of above-average height proclaimed his paternity. No wonder Mavis had been insistent that he see this kid.
    “Here it is.” Michael straightened up, holding a single folded paper. There was no envelope. “It tells everything. Your name, the town you live in, where you work, stuff like that. She didn’t give me your address, I guess because she didn’t think I ought to just walk up and ring your doorbell one day.” He handed the letter to Jake.
    “I think Mama Dee wrote it after she got sick and knew she wouldn’t ever get well.”
    Jake stared blindly at the letter, but so many emotions coursed through him that he couldn’tread it. Not yet. He cleared his throat. “Was she sick long?”
    “Not really. Only six months.”
    “What was it?”
    “She had a heart attack. I found her when I got home from school. When she got out of the hospital, they got the hospice people to watch over her during the day. I wanted to stay with her but Mama Dee had a fit. She said I shouldn’t miss school that much. But she was going down, I could tell. Then one night she told me she was too tired to watch TV.” He looked up at Jake. “We always ate and watched TV at night. So I helped her to bed, and when I went to check on her a little later, she, uh, she was… She…”
    Jake pushed away from the desk. He sensed Michael was holding himself together by sheer willpower. Reaching out, he squeezed the boy’s shoulder and felt the shudder that ran through his body. Michael ducked his head quickly and sucked in his breath.
    “I’m sorry, Michael.” More sorry than you know. Jake’s features were grim as he thought of the hardships the boy had been forced to endure alone.
    Michael drew another breath, fighting for control. “It’s okay,” he mumbled. Unconsciously, Jake began kneading the bony shoulder with his hands. He felt Michael begin to tremble, andmoved closer. His own throat was thick with emotion. Then, with a rough sound, he pulled the boy into his arms. Michael’s arms went tightly around Jake’s waist. After a moment, he realized the boy was crying, a deep, silent outpouring of grief that racked his lanky body. Inside, Jake felt the boy’s pain and loss as though it were his own. What difficult choices Michael must have faced to wind up here today. His arms tightened, and a feeling, something new and