Read Bringing Delaney Home (Cates Brothers #1) for Free Online

she’d stooped to kidnapping in order to play mother hen.
    “Lady, you shouldn’t sit there.”
    Delaney looked over to find a young boy standing at the bottom porch step. His big brown eyes looked up out of his freckled face. Red Kool-Aid stains extended the straight line of his lips. But it was the black eye in the small face that made her sit up straighter. “Why not?”
    “A mean old lion lives there,” he said, pointing at the house behind her. “That’s what my big sister told me.”
    Lion? Or Lyons? Her father had definitely been mean to everyone when he was alive, but a lion struck her as wrong. Too strong and dignified to describe her father. Strong men didn’t need to crush the spirits of others. Delaney shook her head and looked down at the boy. “No lion ever lived here. It was an ogre. An ogre and his two daughters.”
    “Princesses?” The kid’s eyes opened wider.
    “Only if the older princess didn’t have to wear a dress.” Delaney eyed him carefully. “Or kiss a frog.”
    The boy cocked his head at her, as if trying to figure out what kind of a sorry princess he was settling for. “Okay, I guess.”
    Delaney hid a grin and nodded once. “Deal. The ogre yelled and snarled at all who walked by. He was cruel to the older princess, hoping to make her cry—”
    “Did he hurt her?” His chin wobbled. “Did she cry?”
    Once. Thank God her father had only hit her once. When she hadn’t cried, it hadn’t seemed worth his effort. “He didn’t hurt her. She knew she had to protect the younger princess, so she never cried. Not one tear. In the end, the ogre gave up and left the princess alone.”
    The boy moved up the steps to sit beside her on the swing. “Did they live happily ever after?”
    Delaney looked down into the kid’s hopeful, innocent face. Her gaze touched on the black eye—maybe not so innocent. “What’s your name, kid?”
    “Henry Lee. Some people call me H.L. My big sister calls me Butthead. I like Henry Lee best. I’m a Savage.”
    “What’s a savage?”
    Henry Lee shrugged his young shoulders. “Don’t know, but I’m one. Yesterday, I got a sad-face sticker on my spellin’ work, and my daddy said, ‘Henry Lee, you are a true Savage.’ ”
    “Well, Henry Lee, the good news is bad spellers can learn to be good spellers. But mean ogres usually stay mean ogres. Do you know any ogres, Henry Lee?” Delaney asked, hating where her mind was taking her, but she had to ask.
    “Uh-huh.” Henry Lee nodded. “Boogerbutt Brian Ralph. He’s in fourth grade.”
    Delaney’s muscles relaxed. “Did Boogerbutt Brian give you the shiner?”
    “Uh-huh. Right after he took my Super Ninja Squirrel action figure I brought in for show-and-tell. The one with the turbo-action tail. How . . . how did the princess stop her ogre?”
    “Most mean ogres want to get a reaction from someone, so when her ogre tried to get her to cry, she didn’t. But, Henry Lee, sometimes people need help with ogres. It’s okay to ask someone you trust for help.”
    “Okay. I gotta go to tee ball practice now. Maybe I can come see you tomorrow?” Henry Lee smiled hopefully up at her.
    “Only if you run it by your parents first.” Delaney got off the swing as Henry Lee started down the porch steps. “Deal?”
    “Deal!” he called out over his shoulder, only to stop and turn back around to her. “Hey, where was the princesses’ mommy? Why didn’t she stop the ogre?”
    Delaney sucked in a breath. Good question, kid . Looking back, her emotionally detached mother had probably tried to stay out of the way to avoid being the target of her husband’s wrath. She’d died just before Delaney’s ninth birthday. And it hadn’t changed Delaney’s life much at all. She had taken care of Greer as long as she could remember and she just kept on doing it. But none of that would make sense to a child. She, of all people, knew that.
    “The mommy had to leave. So, the big princess took care of the little