Rodeo Daddy: Book 3 in the Stubborn Texas Siblings Trilogy by Faith Loveright Page B

as a
ghost as Eric drove towards the hospital. His fingers
clutched at the dash as Jeff stared blankly out at the still
falling snow. “I never even told her I loved her,” he said
desperately. “God… What if she dies not knowing? I can’t
lose her, Eric… What the fuck am I going to do? I’m not
strong enough to go through what you did with Vic… I’m
just not.”
    “Pray,” Eric said honestly. “Pray harder than you’ve ever
prayed before… and the second you do see her, don’t waste
a damn minute. Life is entirely too short to let time go by
without telling the ones we love how much we care as often
as we can… and when you’re not telling them, show them.
Believe me, brother. I learned the hard way. I kiss my wife
every chance I get, and I tell her how special she is… how
much I love her and how my life would be nothing without
her. I cherish my family, Jeff and they know it, because I
make damn sure they have no doubts.”
    “I’m sorry I’ve been such an ungrateful bastard all these
years, Eric,” he said, as a tear slid down his face. “I was a
heartless coward… too afraid to let love destroy me to
allow anyone in. I fought you tooth and nail when you tried
to get me to see the error of my ways… and now because
of that, the woman I love may very well die not knowing
how I feel about her. The last thing she heard about me was
that I made countless donations to that damn sperm bank
and never bothered to look for any kids that may have been
born because of me. Dana thinks I’m a monster that doesn’t
care about his kid.” Jeff broke down then and sobbed
uncontrollably. “God, that couldn’t be further from the
truth. If anything happens to Alexis….” He couldn’t finish
that sentence. The thought was too terrible to give voice to.
    “God will protect her,” Eric said confidently as he pulled
into the hospital parking lot and found a place to put the
truck. “We’ll pray together when we get inside, and we’ll
call and wake Laurie too. The more prayers we can send up
at the same time, the better. You know what they
say…whenever two or more are gathered in His name…”
    “If that’s the case, why did Mom die?” Jeff asked tearfully.
“God knows we were all desperately praying she’d pull
through. The tailspin it sent Dad into killed him and again,
all of us kids were praying for him.”
    “It was their time to go,” Eric said sadly. “God answers
prayer, Jeff… Just sometimes, we have to learn to accept
that the answer has to be no. After Mom went, Dad was
miserable. Had God answered our prayers to keep him here
with us, it would have only extended his misery. This is a
little girl we’re talking about here. It isn’t her time yet. We
have to keep the faith that God will take care of her.”
    Jeff gave a shaky sigh and walked into the emergency room
entrance with Eric right on his heels. He walked over to the
woman at the desk and prepared to do battle if need be in
order to be allowed to see Dana and Alexis. He realized
that unmarried, he had no rights as far as Dana went, and
they still hadn’t fixed Alexis’ birth certificate, so he had no
legal rights there either. It wasn’t a happy moment for him
when he recognized the fact that this woman could very
well deny him access to both of his girls and there wasn’t a
bloody thing he could say or do about it.
“I’m looking for Dana and Alexis Miller … they were
brought in after a car accident, via lifeflight.”
    The woman at the desk looked up at him and offered him a
harried smile of condolence. “I’m sorry… but I can’t give
you any information… Family only.”
    “Alexis is my daughter,” he said desperately. The woman’s
eyes got big and she swallowed hard. Nodding to her left.
“She’s in the children’s wing… third cubicle on the left. I
have to warn you… it isn’t pretty.”
    “And Dana?”
Jeff asked, wanting to go to his daughter, but
needing to know about the woman he loved too