Lawman's Redemption by Marilyn Pappano Page A

damn right you will!” Dropping the duffel to the floor with a thud, she stomped down the hall to the bathroom and slammed the door hard enough to send vibrations through the air.
    In the silence that followed, Hallie softly said, “Teenagers. Aren’t they lovely?”

Chapter 5
    E xhaling loudly, Brady sat down at the opposite end of the sofa. “I’m not surprised Sandra raised a self-centered brat. She intended for her little girl to be a mirror image of herself, and since she’s a spoiled brat…”
    Hallie considered all the things she could say, and settled on the most innocuous. “You married a purple-haired, pierced and tattooed girl?”
    â€œNo,” he said sullenly, then unexpectedly he grinned. Sort of. “I bet it drives Sandra crazy to look at her.”
    â€œAnd anything that drives Sandra crazy can’t be all bad, right?”
    The sort-of-a-grin faded. “Why is she so angry?”
    Hallie glanced toward the hallway, then stood up. “Let’s go see the horses.”
    On the way through the kitchen, he stirred the spaghetti sauce, then picked up a handful of apples and tossed one to her. She took a bite as she went out the back door and down three steps into the yard.
    â€œHey, that’s for the horses.”
    â€œI know. I’m just making sure it’s nice and sweet for them.”
    His yard was broad and long and, she would bet, pretty much self-sufficient. He didn’t strike her as the kind to spend his time watering, fertilizing and feeding. Keeping it mowed appeared to be the extent of his green thumb. It was empty of garden-y touches like flower beds, but there was a nice variety of trees—oaks, maples, dogwoods, redbuds and mimosas, as well as a row of crape myrtles on one side and another of forsythia opposite. No doubt it was a pretty place in the spring, as well as the fall. Not that she would be around to see it.
    That thought shouldn’t dim her pleasure at being there that very moment, but it did. Should that worry her?
    They strolled back to the fence, where he gave a low whistle that brought five of the six horses grazing at a trot. Hallie leaned her arms on the top rail of the fence and watched while Brady fed apples to the first two horses.
    â€œYou want to feed one?”
    â€œNo, thank you.” She would much rather photograph him doing it, but her cameras were back at the motel. One of these days she would get back in the habit of taking them with her wherever she went.
    â€œYou’re not afraid of horses, are you?”
    â€œNope. I just don’t like horse slobber on my hand.” She waited until he’d run out of apples, then handed hers over. When it was gone, too, she shifted her gaze to him. “Les is angry with you, and from her perspective, she’s got very good reasons. You disappeared from her life when she was a baby. You never called her, never sent her birthday or Christmas cards, never invited her for a visit. You abandoned her, and you bet she’s angry about it.”
    â€œBut I didn’t know—”
    â€œWe’re talking her perspective, remember? She doesn’t know what her mother told you. All she knows is she’s grown up without a father, and now she’s finally met him and he’s not at all happy to see her. She came here most likely with some fantasy of telling you who she was and being welcomed with open arms into your home and your life. Instead, you’re treating her like some alien being who’s more a nuisance than anything else.”
    He turned so the fence was at his back and leaned there. Accepting that there were no more apples, all the horses but one wandered away. That one, black and beautiful, nudged Brady’s shoulder, then stuck his face right up next to Brady’s. Absently he reached up to pat the horse.
    Lucky animal.
    â€œI don’t even know how to talk to her,” he said at last.
    â€œMaybe you