Love Without End by Robin Lee Hatcher Page B

don’t want Mr. Leonard to feel as if you’re taking advantage of him or shirking your duties.” Even as the words left her mouth, intuition told her Chet Leonard wouldn’t feel that way. He would understand. Still, she added, “Your horse eats, whether you help around the ranch or not.”
    “Sure. That’d be great if you could come help. I’ll call now.”
    Kimberly watched as her daughter picked up the phone and punched in the number, but she didn’t wait for someone to answer on the other end. She wanted out of her work clothes and into her favorite pair of jeans.
    Janet followed her to the bedroom door. “Tara’s super excited.”
    “I didn’t think anything but a horse could get her so worked up.”
    “Sam’s a nice kid.”
    “He seems like it.” She stepped behind the open closet door and began to change clothes. “But I’m not sure I’m ready for Tara to fall for him or any boy. Inevitably what follows a first crush is the first heartbreak.”
    “We all have to go through that, Kimmie. It’s how we learn as we grow up.”
    She tugged on her jeans. “I know. But I still wish I couldprotect her from it for a while. These last years have been hard ones. I’d like to see her happy for a good long spell.”
    “Despite all that’s happened to the two of you, Tara’s got her head on straight. You’ve done a good job raising her.”
    Kimberly looked around the closet door. “Do you really think so?”
    “I really think so.” Janet smiled at her before turning away. “I’m going to grill hamburgers for supper.”
    “I’ll be out in a sec to help.” Kimberly pulled on a T-shirt, then glanced in the mirror above the dresser. “You need to learn not to worry,” she told her reflection. If only I could.
    T HAT EVENING , DINNER IN THE L EONARD HOME WAS AN uncomfortable affair, anger an almost physical presence in the room. Neither of the boys said more than a dozen words the entire meal. Tired of the tension, Chet excused Pete and Sam from doing the dishes. Easier to wash up himself, he decided, than let his sons’ foul moods give him an ulcer.
    When he’d finished cleaning up in the kitchen, he headed for his office, intending to accomplish some much-needed bookkeeping. Instead he sat at his desk and stared toward the window, unseeing.
    If Marsha were here, he wondered, would she know how to handle this rift between brothers? Or would she feel as helpless as he felt now?
    Chet would have given a lot to have had a brother when he was a kid. He’d had a great childhood, but sometimes he’d been lonely. He’d decided early on that, when he married, he wanted a big family. No only child for this Leonard. Fourgenerations of that was enough. He’d wanted a bunch of kids to fill the bedrooms of this old ranch house as they’d never been filled before.
    He thought back to the births of each of his three sons, remembering the joy he felt the first time he’d held them in his arms. Happiness had seemed a promise for the rest of their days. But that kind of thinking had been naïve. Nobody got to be happy forever. Not on this earth. Trials came to the just and unjust, like the rain. He’d heard it said that happiness and joy were two different things. Happiness because of circumstances—and ever so fleeting. Joy because of trusting God, despite the circumstances. Was that true? He wasn’t sure.
    He stood and walked to the window. Sunset was a ways off, but the lowering sun had painted the barnyard with the muted shades of evening. He always liked this time of day on the ranch. Everything moved slower. Nothing was pressing. Chet closed his eyes and leaned a shoulder against the window case. As he released a deep breath, he let the concern for his battling sons go on a silent prayer.
    That you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.
    He’d read that passage from the book of Joshua during his morning devotions, and as the words returned to him, he felt some