Read A Man to Hold on to (A Tallgrass Novel) for Free Online

drily.
    “Naturally. Have you decided how you’re going to…”
    He silently finished the question for her: give away the grandbaby who wasn’t her grandbaby in any place except her heart. “I thought I’d go by and meet the guy tomorrow afternoon.”
    “What? And just say, ‘Hey, remember when you had an affair with my girlfriend? Well, here’s a cigar, it’s a girl’?”
    His scowl fixed on the silent television. “I haven’t exactly figured that out.”
    “Be up front. ‘You got a two-year-old daughter and her mama doesn’t want her and I don’t want her and—’”
    Keegan heard a sob before Ercella clamped off the words. It both pained and frustrated him. “Mom, I’m sorry—”
    “I know.” Sniffly noises, as if she was wiping her nose. “You don’t wanna raise a kid who’s not yours. I understand that. It’s expensive. Lots of responsibility for a lot of years. It’s not your job. I get it, Keegan.”
    But in her heart, Keegan knew, she really didn’t. She might have in the very beginning, when he’d first told her the situation with Mariah, when he’d asked for her help. But now that she’d gotten to know the little girl, of course she’d fallen in love with her. How could she not? She was a mother deep in her bones, to any kids who needed mothering.
    God help her, Mariah needed mothering. She’d had so little of it in her life.
    “I’ll call you as soon as I talk to the major, okay?”
    “Make sure you do.” Ercella breathed deeply and made an effort to sound normal. “I’ve got to shoo these kids home and get Mariah bathed and ready for bed. You want to say good night to her?”
    Before Keegan could say no—he was ashamed of it, but there it was—his mom’s voice distantly said, “She’s listening. Say something.”
    “Hey, Mariah.” He cleared his throat. “Sounds like you’re having a good time. Good night and…sleep tight and…” Before he could remember the rest of his mother’s nightly routine with her kids, the phone hit the floor with a thud.
    A moment later, Ercella came on again. “She was listening. She recognized your voice. I could see it in her little eyes.”
    Of course she recognized his voice. She’d heard it talking around and about her every day for the past month. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Mom. Love you.”
    After her love you, too, he laid the phone aside and stretched back on the bed. Best hope: a day. Realistic: a week. Worst: having to turn to the authorities to get Mariah’s father to accept responsibility for her. Even though it would break his mom’s heart, he didn’t have a choice.
    Because he wasn’t Mariah’s father.
    *  *  *
     
    Sunday morning services were one of the highlights of Therese’s week. The church she attended occupied an entire block on the fringe between the business district and the houses that edged downtown. Broad concrete steps led to an old sandstone building with classrooms and a gym on the lower level and a sanctuary with arched stained glass windows filling the upper level. Her regular seat was a pew about a third from the back on the left, which she shared most Sundays with Carly, while Abby and Jacob sat elsewhere with their friends.
    She wasn’t surprised this morning that Carly was absent. Still floating somewhere in the stratosphere with Dane, she supposed as she settled on the bench alone.
    The solitude didn’t last long. She’d just set her purse aside when the cushions gave slightly and a familiar voice greeted her. “Hello, Therese. How are you?”
    Loretta Baxter was a major and one of the few people in Therese’s life who created incredibly bittersweet feelings just by existing. LoLo had been the CNO—casualty notification officer—who had notified Therese of Paul’s death, so she was associated with the worst moment of Therese’s life. Afterward, though, she’d provided counseling, support, and friendship that had helped Therese keep her sanity on more than one