Free The Bridal Path: Danielle by Sherryl Woods

sin.”
    “Sometimes, when you care a lot about someone and you can’t help them, you need to let someone who can help know what’s going on.”
    “It was just a fall off a stupid horse,” Timmy countered. “It’s not like I broke my arm or committed a crime or something.”
    “Was Dani there when you fell?” Slade asked, trying to get to the heart of his son’s dismay.
    His son bobbed his head once as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
    “That must have felt pretty awful,” Slade suggested, aching for his son and recalling all too vividly his own humiliation under similar circumstances.
    Timmy nodded again.
    “Did you get back on?”
    Timmy’s chin quivered as he shook his head. “I couldn’t, Dad. I just couldn’t. I ran away. Dani had to come and find me. She told me I shouldn’t feel bad, but I did. I felt dumb. We weren’t even out of the paddock or anything. Even Kevin stayed on, and he’s just a baby.”
    “I’ll bet Dani has fallen her share of times. And I know her sister Sara did when she was trying to learn to ride a bronco. It’s just part of learning to ride.”
    Timmy sniffed. “That’s what Dani said.”
    “Didn’t you believe her?”
    “I figured she was just trying to make me feel better. She does that all the time. She jokes around until you forget whatever happened to make you feel bad.”
    “Dani’s pretty terrific, isn’t she?”
    Timmy’s expression began to clear. His eyes brightened. “She’s the best.” He regarded Slade slyly. “I think she likes you, too.”
    Slade swallowed hard as memories of that bone-melting, sizzling kiss came roaring back. “What makes you think that?” he asked in a choked voice. That kiss had been a warning to steer clear of her, unless he wanted to risk both of them getting hurt eventually. Passion didn’t equal love. It never had. One could exist quite nicely without the other, assuming love between men and women even existed at all.
    Now, love between parent and child, that was something else again, he thought, gazing at his son. Given his background, he’d been stunned by the strength of that bond. Timmy and Kevin might baffle him most of the time, dismay him quite a lot of the time and infuriate him some of the time, but the strongest emotion he felt through all of it was love.
    From the first moment he’d held them in his arms, his heart had been lost. He’d vowed then and there that they would always know exactly how much they meant to him, that he would never try to control and dominate and, failing that, then dismiss as his father had.
    “I think she likes you because of the way she looks at you when you come around,” Timmy told him, his expression thoughtful as he struggled to put his conviction into words.
    “How does she look at me?” Slade asked, unable to curb his curiosity.
    “All mushy like they do in the movies right before they kiss.” He studied Slade intently. “Have you kissed her yet?”
    “If I have, it’s none of your business,” Slade said stiffly.
    Timmy’s expression turned all too knowing. “You have, I’ll bet. What’s it like kissing a girl?”
    “You’ll find that out for yourself soon enough,” Slade told him. He grinned. “And it’s a little like riding a horse. Sometimes you get it wrong, but it gets better and better the more you do it.”
    Timmy’s fascination with kissing clearly faded at the mention of horseback riding. His face clouded with concern again. “Did you ever fall off a horse?” he asked hesitantly.
    Ah, there it was, Slade thought, the question he’d been hoping to avoid. “Quite a lot, actually. I was younger than Kevin.”
    “You rode a horse when you were that little?” Timmy asked incredulously. “How come?”
    “My father insisted on it.”
    “Grandfather rode horses?”
    “All the time.”
    “Why?”
    Slade was sure that given enough time he could come up with an evasive answer that would have satisfied Timmy and kept him away from a subject