Free The Cowboy's Courtship by Brenda Minton Page A

of coffee when Andie walked through the back door, the screen banging softly as it closed behind her.
    Etta turned to smile. She was kneading the dough, the white glump sticking to her hands and the cutting board. Alyson sat down on a stool to watch, and to wait for her sister to say something.
    Andie poured herself a cup of coffee, spooned in several spoons of sugar and looked from her grandmother to Alyson. She shook her head and then took a sip of the coffee.
    “So, you’re back.” Andie set the cup down and backed up to the counter. With hands braced on the edge of the countertop, she hopped once and sat. Etta shot her a look that didn’t seem to stop her.
    “I guess I’m back. It happened suddenly, finding out about my family here. And then learning that I had a sister, too.” She had learned that from Jason.
    “What does that mean?” Andie reached for her coffee, and Etta supplied the answer, dough sticking to her hands.
    “Alyson didn’t know about us. She found out by accident.”
    “She didn’t tell you about us?” Andie stared, and then she shook her head. “She didn’t tell you that she took the perfect kid and left behind the defective one?”
    “That’s enough.” Etta shot Andie a look. She was pulling dough off her hands. Finally, she walked over to the sink and used her arm to turn on the water. “We’re family and we’re going to treat each other with love and respect.”
    “Fine.” Andie sighed. “Fine.”
    “I’m not sure what to say to you.” Alyson wasn’t sure how to take a deep breath, how to move forward. “I don’t know why you’re angry with me.”
    “Because she chooses to be.” Etta picked up a towel and flipped it at Andie’s arm. “Choosing to act like this is all about her. And I’m telling you right now, Andie, you’re twenty-eight, not eighteen.”
    “Fine, it isn’t all about me.” Andie smiled a tight smile.
    Alyson couldn’t smile. This was the rejection part she had feared. “I didn’t do this to us.”
    Andie jumped down from the counter, landing on the floor. When she smiled this time, it was a little softer. “No, you didn’t. You had no idea. How’d you finally find out?”
    “I was looking for my bankbook. I’d left it on the desk in my, our mother’s office.”
    “And you found us in the desk?”
    “I found a box that contained my real birth certificate, adoption papers and a couple of other papers.”
    “Wow, our mother is a piece of work.”
    “She…” How did Alyson defend their mother after all that she’d done to them? How did she tell Andie that the person who had given birth to them had gentle moments, sometimes.
    “Don’t defend her.” Andie’s smile faded. “Don’t do that, not after everything she’s done.”
    “I’m not defending her, Andie.” Alyson stood up. “I’m not her. I’m your sister. I came here because I wanted to know my family.”
    “Fine, you know us. This is it. It isn’t fancy. We’re just country people and we go to church on Sundays.”
    Etta cleared her throat.
    Andie laughed, real laughter, and it shifted her features. Her blue eyes danced. “Etta goes to church on Sundays. I’m the rebel. If you stay, you can’t have that position in the family. You’ll have to find your own niche.” Andie looked her over, top to bottom. “I think you’re probably still the good one. And I have chores to do. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to get busy and when you’re tired of pretending you’re one of us and ready to be one of us, you let me know and I’ll find something for you to do.”
    Andie walked out and Alyson stood there with her cup of coffee, watching out the window as Andie walked across the lawn to the barn. She was long legged, taking long strides. She was a part of this place in a way Alyson only wished to be.
    She rinsed her cup and set it in the sink, ignoring Etta’s knowing smile. “I’m going outside to help my sister with the chores.”
    When she reached the