My Texas Sweetheart (book one) by Pauliena Acheson

off questions about Maggie. Amy is having a hard time, and Jenny won’t even look or talk to us. They still haven’t found Christian, which is really pissing everyone off. A few times, we have wanted to go out looking for him, but Brad always talks us out of it.
    Pulling up at the ranch , I see the boys outside. Climbing out of my car, I start to walk over to them. “Hey, guys. What’s up?” I ask.
    “Hey, Jase. We were just talking about things,” Jade says.
    Just then , Brad comes out of the house and walks over to us. “Good morning, boys. Lily just called and said that they are letting Maggie come home today.” He grins.
    “When can we go get her?” Creed asks.
    Brad looks at us, his grin slipping. “I’m going to go by myself to get them. I don’t want to overwhelm her with too many people going to get her.” We nod, understanding that. We don’t want to overwhelm her, either.
    Chase says, “Dad, why don’t you take Adam and Jase with you, at least.” Brad sighs and nods. We all get into the truck and silently head for the hospital.
    As we arrive , Adam asks, “Does she remember anything yet?” Brad looks at him and just shakes his head.
    We get out of the truck and walk into the hospital. As we walk into Maggie’s room, I notice that she looks a lot better today. Lily smiles at us, saying, “She’s ready. We’re just waiting on her discharge papers and medication.” Maggie turns around and smiles at us. My heart skips a beat. She looks happy, but confused at the same time.
    Brad asks her , “How is my beautiful girl doing this morning?”
    She looks over at him. “I’m doing great, actually.” Adam and I share a look. I wonder if she really means that. God, I love this girl. She is still the most beautiful thing in the world to me.
    The nurse walks into the room and hands Lily papers and her medication, giving her the instructions. She then turns to Maggie. “Good luck, Maggie. You’re a beautiful girl that deserves more than this.” She smiles at the nurse through her tears. Please don’t cry, baby. You’re breaking my heart.
    She and Lily walk out the door hand-in-hand, Brad on the other side of her. “I sure hope nothing goes wrong,” Adam whispers to me. I agree. Maggie has been through enough. We know that when and if she does remember everything, it might just break her.
    As we get close to the truck , Maggie turns to Brad. “How long is it going to take to get to where we live?” For a split second, Brad looks horrified. Maggie’s smile falls.
    Brad recovers and smiles at her. “It will take us a few hours, baby girl.”
    We all climb into the truck and head for home. I can’t help but wonder how Maggie is going to do when she goes back to school. In some ways, I really want her to remember things. In other ways, I don’t because I would really like to tell her how I feel about her. Lily says something to Adam, but I wasn’t paying attention so I didn’t catch what is was. He does look pissed, though. We arrive back at the ranch and I stroke Maggie’s face to wake her up. She looks around for a few minutes before I help her out of the truck. Her brothers, Amy, Nate, Todd, and my parents come walking over to us. Wait, she’s staring at the barn. Is she remembering something? Brad and Lily both try to get her attention, but she won’t take her eyes off the barn. I look over at Adam, whose eyes are wide, a look of concern on his face.  Maggie starts walking towards the barn.
    Creed steps toward her. “Maggie?”
    “Let her go, son,” Brad says. Her eyes dart towards the path…the one that she took that day, the day that changed everything. Maggie starts walking towards it.
    “We shouldn’t let her do this,” Jade says.
    “How are we going to stop her?” Amy asks. 
    “We don’t. She needs to do this, ” Brad says. Maggie stops walking when she reaches the path. We all share a look of worry and fear, but she’s smiling so it has to be a good memory.  She