Read A Hero to Come Home To for Free Online

requirements for living in her house. They ate like civilized people, with dishes, drinks in glasses and everything. “And tell Nicole good-bye.” No phone calls during dinner, either.
    “I gotta go. It’s dinnertime. Talk to you later.”
    Therese could actually hear the eye-roll in Abby’s tone.
    Once they were seated at the table, she held out her hands. Nearly three years, and the kids were still reluctant to take her hands, bow their heads or even say Amen to the blessing. Their mother never made them wait when they were starving just to say a prayer. She never made them sit at the dinner table and answer questions about their stupid day, or ordered them to set the table or expected them to clean up afterward or forced them to eat food they didn’t like.
    “This isn’t your mother’s house,” Paul had firmly reminded them. “When you live in our house, you follow our rules.” Even though saying the blessing wasn’t something he’d done, either, before meeting Therese.
    “Amen,” she finished, but kept her eyes closed just a moment longer, silently adding a PS to the prayer. Lord, we’re drowning here. Please throw us a lifeline, at least for the kids. I’m a pretty strong swimmer, but help them, please.
    A little bit of hope wouldn’t go unappreciated, either. Because sometimes it seems mine is running out, and I can’t let that happen. No matter how much they hate it, I’m all they have.
    The somber thought stiffened her resolve as she said another soundless Amen.
    But it also sent a tiny shiver down her spine.
      
     
    The Bible might have intended Sunday as a day of rest, but that was rarely the case on the Double D Ranch outside Tallgrass. It wasn’t even noon yet, and so far Dalton Smith had barely slowed down since sunrise. After feeding the cows in the east pasture and the mares with foals in the back field, making sure the new babies were nursing and checking that none of the pregnant cows had wandered off to give birth away from the others, as they tended to do, he’d gone in for breakfast with his brother Noah.
    Right after the meal, the kid had left for Stillwater, where he was a sophomore at Oklahoma State, trying to decide whether a plain old ag degree was good enough for him or if he’d rather be a vet. Raising palominos and Belted Galloway cattle, Dalton figured a vet in the family would be a good thing, but that would mean another four years for vet med school after Noah got his bachelor’s. Seeing that he was paying the tuition, Dalton also figured the sooner he got out and started working, the better. He could use some help on the Double D.
    Thoughts of his other brother, Dillon, stirred in the back of his mind—a place he definitely didn’t want to go. Swallowing the last of the water, he crushed the plastic bottle and tossed it into the recycling bin next to the door and started for the house. He was halfway there when he saw the pickup parked at the side of the road next to the horse pasture. A few feet away, a man rested his arms on the top rail of the wooden fence.
    Though Dalton wasn’t much for socializing, he knew all his neighbors. Hell, he’d lived on the ranch his entire life. This man was a stranger. Probably just admiring the animals. Most people did.
    He had a headache and was ready for lunch, and after that, there was still a dozen things he needed to do before bedtime, including the book work he put off every week until Sunday. He didn’t want to visit with anyone.
    But he also didn’t trust strangers. The man could be just admiring the horses, or he could be up to no good. A rancher in the next county had just lost six head of cattle in a pasture that ran alongside the road to some nut job with a bow and a dozen arrows.
    Dalton changed directions, heading down the yellow grass butting up to the gravel driveway. As he got closer, he saw the truck was so new he could practically smell it. There was an Airborne sticker in the back window and a red Fort