Free Heartland by Sara Walter Ellwood

over the slow flowing water of the Salt Fork of the Red River. A soft warm breeze rustled through the live oaks and a cow lowed somewhere in the pasture. Not having an idea how to shatter the sudden charged tension between them, she wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes.
    “I remember when you used come here when you were a kid.” His husky voice had her facing him. As he sat on a boulder sitting by a trunk of a large oak, he jutted his thumb toward a stand of trees about a hundred yards down the riverbank. “I had a treehouse in that big ponderosa over there. Did you know when you first started sneaking over to the Double K, I would sit up there and watch you?”
    She sat on the soft moss growing over the exposed roots of the tree next to his rock. After she drew her legs up and hugged them to her chest, she rested her cheek on her knees and smiled at him. “No, I didn’t know. But I must admit, considering our age difference, that bit of information is--well--creepy.”
    He chuckled and took his hat off to hold between his hands. “True. Although my interest was chivalrous, I think. I was afraid you’d fall into the water and get hurt. You were such a damn daredevil.”
    The sweetness of his confession sent a tingling thrill dance over her nerves. “You shouldn’t have worried too much. I mostly came over here to watch the river and think up songs.”
    She looked out over the sluggish river. The water appeared muddy, but the appearance was an illusion created from the reddish yellow slit lining the bottom. A memory brought a bittersweet knot to her throat. “The first song Dad and I ever wrote together was under this tree.” She turned to him. “He used to come here to write songs, too. I found him here one morning, and we ended up writing The Long Road Home together.” They’d sung the song at the county fair later that fall, but before they’d gone on stage, he’d announced she was his daughter to over ten thousand people. The song later became her first number one and began her career. She took a deep breath and looked back at him. “I didn’t know he was my dad when we wrote it.”
    He touched her shoulder. “I can’t imagine finding out you’ve been lied to. Me and my whole family were shocked when we heard the news.”
    She took his hand and held it. He stiffened, and she thought he wanted to pull away, but he soon relaxed and squeezed her fingers. “I didn’t know who I was for a long time. Then when Mike went on trial and all of his secrets came out, I had to accept I was a pawn in his sick games. I agreed to take Seth’s name legally, not just professionally.”
    Seth had wanted to legally adopt her, but she hadn’t been sure until Mike’s trial.
    The sting in her eyes came fast and furious. “Mike hated me. He admitted he wished he’d either killed me or had me kidnapped when I was little.”
    * * * *
    EJ swallowed hard, but the lump in his throat wouldn’t budge. For as long as he’d been sheriff, he’d held a deep dislike for the man who’d caused him distrust by the people he’d sworn to protect. But now he hated the man. No wonder the beautiful, carefree girl he remembered turned into such a mess as an adult. “Mike was a sick man, Emily. I know it doesn’t make what he did easier, but you don’t have to let it define you. You’re too strong for that.”
    She blinked causing moisture to gather on her eyelashes like dew clinging to blades of grass. But she didn’t shed any tears. “I hope you’re right.” She laid her hand over her belly. How did she hide her pregnancy? Her abdomen definitely had a telling curve. “I need to be strong for my baby. Life won’t be easy for either of us.”
    What role would the father play in the child’s life? Who was the father--her ex or someone else? He pulled the reins on his curiosity before he asked. She didn’t owe him an explanation, and he was deep enough in this quicksand bog already.
    After a moment, she said,