Free A Home for Haley by Mary Jane Morgan

life of him, he couldn’t figure out why he
laughed so easily at a woman who tended to be serious most of the time.
    He’d like to think that living here
had helped lighten her up a bit. “You know what?”
    She shook her head and continued to
wipe off the table.
    “You’re the best thing that’s
happened to my family in a long time.” Way better than his ex had ever been. He
could trust this lady because she didn’t play games. Before she could respond,
he took hold of her shoulders, turned her around and gave her a slight nudge
toward the hall. “Go upstairs and take a break. I’ll watch the kids for a
while.”
    She shook her head. “I can’t do
that.”
    “Yes you can. You might even fall
asleep and that’d be a good thing. Now go.”
    He watched her walk out of the room
and couldn’t help but notice her curvy hips clad in soft, worn denim jeans. He
turned away, irritated at himself for even looking. But, hey, he was a guy. She
might be off limits, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t alive and kicking. As long
as he never put the moves on her, he had nothing to feel guilty about.
    He headed toward the voices of the
children, wondering how long it might be before he got word about Haley’s
husband. He dreaded the news, but it was something Haley needed to know. How in
the world would he ever tell her that her husband was dead, if he were? But
just as unsettling was the possibility that Dale might still be alive, and if
that happened he and Kayla would miss Haley and Ryan more than he cared to even
think about.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    “Tilt the bottle so the milk is
covering all of the opening,” Hank instructed Kayla as she fed the lamb, her
face one big grin.
    “I think his neck hurts,” Kayla
responded, adjusting the bottle. She patted the side of the lamb’s face, her own
face scrunched up as if she were the one in pain. “It looks yucky.”
    Haley couldn’t have said it better.
Seeing the ragged, red incision made her stomach queasy.
    “It won’t be near so inflamed once
the stitches are out.” Hank’s big hand rubbed the lamb’s side.
    “When will that be?” Haley asked.
     “Tomorrow or the next day. At
least most of them.”
    Ryan, who was sitting on Haley’s
lap, pointed at the stitches. “Bad boo-boo.”
    “Yes, honey, the lamb has a sore. A
big sore,” Haley amended, glancing again at the stitches that went from the
bottom of the lamb’s right ear down its shoulder to where the cast for his
broken leg began.
    “When will the cast come off?” she
asked.
    “Not for another four or five
weeks. I’ll take him into Nashville to a friend’s vet clinic and get it x-rayed
in a few weeks. See how it’s healing.”
    “Poor little thing,” Haley said,
stroking the lamb’s downy-soft fur. Ryan scrambled off her lap and helped Kayla
hold the bottle. Haley pulled her camera out of its case and took several
pictures of the kids with the lamb before turning her attention to the rest of
the barn. Rays of sunshine streamed in from the open barn door and poured over
the lamb, almost like an angelic halo. She snapped a couple of shots. Dust
moats floated lazily in the sun-filled air as she took one picture after
another.
    She used to take pictures a lot
before Dale disappeared, but the only pictures she had taken the last year and
a half had been of Ryan. It felt amazingly good to be enjoying her favorite
hobby again.
    “How’s the owl doing?” she asked
after a few more shots.
    “Turned him loose yesterday,” Hank
answered.
    She smiled, thinking how rewarding
it must feel to heal hurt animals.
    Ethan stepped inside the barn with
a blanket, which he’d gone back inside the house to get so Kayla and Ryan could
curl up beside the lamb. The man was an incredible father. Haley wondered if he
would treat a woman he loved as good as he treated the children. If so, whoever
Ethan someday fell in love with would be a lucky woman. His ex-wife had to be
nuts.
    She thought of Dale and longing
filled