Free Under the Open Sky (Montana Heritage Series) by Michelle Maness

recognized your brother’s truck. By that time they had already taken him to the hospital and I rushed there. Your dad found out from a friend on the force who recognized his truck and pulled him over to tell him what had happened. The doctor had spoken with your dad by then and he asked me to come get you.”
                  “How’s Daddy?” Amanda asked tentatively, she was afraid she already knew the answer.
                  “Pretty torn up; he’s blaming himself.”
                  Amanda winced at having her fears confirmed. “What a mess,” she sighed.
                  “You okay?” Cade glanced down at her.
                  “No, I’m not but I’ll have to be,” she predicted.
                  “Why’s that?”
                  “They’ll need me.”
                  “Mandy, you can’t fix your father and brother,” Naomi chastised.
                  “Somebody has to be strong and neither of them can be at the moment,” she argued.
                  As they turned into the hospital, however, she was feeling anything but strong. She wanted to turn and run from whatever horrors waited ahead. She couldn’t; Jennings didn’t run, they faced whatever life handed them, her father had ingrained that in her for years. Tonight was the first time she would fully put that to the test. Not waiting for her aunt to ease down from the passenger side, Amanda followed Cade out the driver’s side. By the time Naomi stood on the pavement, Amanda had rounded the truck and was waiting for her. The trio entered the hospital and hurried to the emergency room where Sterling sat, head in hands in one of the molded plastic chairs that lined the waiting room walls.
                  “Daddy,” Amanda called as she neared. She watched her father stand and almost stopped dead in her tracks. Her father seemed to have aged ten years since he had left the house earlier that evening.
                  “Hello, Mandy,” her father, blinked against tears as he hesitated; he was clearly uncertain what to say.
                  “Have you heard any more on Trent?” Amanda asked.
                  “No.”
                  “How are you?” Amanda watched her dad closely.
                  The man shook his head as it fell forward as though weighted. “I drove him to this, Mandy; I was too hard on them.”
                  “Daddy, you can’t…no, don’t.”
                  “I did,” her father’s gaze was tortured. Amanda hugged her father; his sobs tore at her. It was a few minutes before her father managed to gather himself.
                  “Thanks for going for the women, Cade.”
                  “You’re welcome, sir,” Cade had seated himself in a nearby chair. The doors to the E.R. opened and Amanda jumped up as her brother entered the waiting room. He stood and stepped away from the wheel chair he had been seated in. His arm was in a sling and a large bandage covered his forehead, but he was on his own two feet. Amanda rushed to his side and he wrapped his good arm around her as he buried his face in her hair.
                  “I’m so sorry, Trent,” Amanda whispered around her own tears.
                  “I can’t stand it, Mandy; I can’t stand it!”
                  “I’m so sorry,” she repeated. She had no idea how long they stood like this, sharing their tears before her brother finally pulled away and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. Amanda watched as his gaze found their father’s and her heart nearly broke. The anger in her brother’s gaze was evident, as was the self-recrimination in her father’s.
     
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                  Amanda followed her