Read Heaven to Betsy (Emily #1) for Free Online Page A

friend to me—had been gored by a bull and died when I was a sophomore. It hit me harder than anything had in my life since my dad left. Gordon was the reason I had taken up rodeo clowning. But that was personal, so I kept quiet.
    “That’s something I never would have guessed.” Jack made an exaggerated stretchy face with his eyebrows high, then nodded and flipped back a few more pages.
    One photo took up the entire left-facing page. Me, with braces and two long braids tied off with little pink bows, only fourteen years old, holding an enormous trophy. Class IV All Around Champ, XIT Rodeo. Standing beside me, looking every inch the rodeo cowboy and proud papa, was my father. Incandescent in my eyes, at least back then. His big, scratchy hand had gripped my shoulder, and I could still remember its warmth through my pink snap-front Western shirt.
    I reached past my mother, pulled the album to my knees, and shut it firmly. “Enough about me.”
    Mother put her hand on my arm. “We hadn’t gotten to your kindergarten album yet.”
    Jack stood. “Another time, Agatha.” I gave him a few Brownie points for letting the subject of my Wonder Years drop, for now at least. And then he said, “Emily, we have a meeting at the Potter County Detention Center at nine with Sofia. Can you be in the office by eight tomorrow so we can ride out there together?”
    I shot a glance at the wall clock. It was four. Nearly end of the day. I pressed my palm against my abdomen, fingers splayed slightly over the cranberry bean-sized embryo inside. I’d told myself I wasn’t going to work with Jack. I didn’t like criminal law. But something about him knocked me off balance. And the thought of that woman and her child, the promise of getting out of my mother’s cloying house each day, and the possibility of distracting myself from my messed up life? All good stuff, and I could keep looking and snag a more suitable job when it came along, if I wasn’t so obviously pregnant by then that no one would hire me. Besides, beggars couldn’t afford to be choosers and, as Jack had pointed out when we met, I was flat ass broke.
    “See you then,” I said.

Chapter Three
    Snowflake greeted me as soon as I entered the office the next morning. I reached down to let her lick my hand and she jumped on her hind legs around me, dancing like a circus poodle.
    “Good girl,” I said. “Tomorrow I’ll bring you a treat.” My abdomen cramped and I pressed a hand into it, then stood back up. “Jack?”
    I started walking down the hall toward his office. He appeared in the doorway, his dark brown hair wet, tucking a dress shirt into a pair of slacks. He held his hand up to stop me.
    “Let’s meet in the kitchen.” He said. Then he disappeared.
    I spoke under my breath and made a sharp right-hand turn. “Okay . . .”
    Jack joined me moments later. We sat in hard-backed chairs at opposite sides of the rectangular wood-topped table. The smell of something cheesy and spicy hung in the air. Chorizo? I’d loved the Mexican sausage until I gave up meat five years earlier. My traitorous stomach growled, then lurched toward morning sickness. Clearly white toast with Mother wasn’t going to cut it if I had to face the aroma of Jack’s
desayuno
every morning.
    Jack buttoned the cuffs on his shirt. “How was the drive in from Heaven?”
    It took me only a split second to get his meaning. “It will be much nicer when I have my car here and don’t have to ride with Mother.”
    “Ah, so it’s like being dropped off in front of school.”
    “Yeah, pretty much.” Only worse.
    Jack tugged on his shirtfront with both hands then used them to smooth it. “So if you don’t mind, I’m going to have you work at the desk out front. I set a computer up on it last night, and it’s networked with my server.”
    I hadn’t noticed. “And your secretary?”
    “Works offsite.”
    “Uh huh.” I wasn’t in love with the idea, but this was basically a temp job. And