He kissed her then—and the fantasy broke.
Lenore knew.
She was in love with him.
She had to have him back.
She left the photo album sitting on the table and got to her feet.
She didn’t know what she would say to him. She didn’t know if he’d take her back. But she knew where he was right now.
She grabbed her keys and headed out the door. If she could get him to give her a chance to explain, she truly believed they could build something even better than before.
Exactly the waytheyhad with the homestead.
Pure hope entered her heart, buoying her up and giving her an extra dose of strength. Now, she only had to be brave, strong, and smart for a few minutes.
“Just a few minutes, Lord,” she prayed as she drove off the homestead, her destination the church. “Help me be brave, strong, and smart for only a few minutes.”
40
“Uncle Brannon.”
Brandon tilted his head toward his nephew, but he didn’t open his eyes. He wasn’t exactly listening to Pastor Knowlton either, but it did feel good to be in church today. He believed God loved him. He believed if he kept doing good things, he’d eventually get his heart’s desires.
“Daddy, Uncle Brannon’s asleep.”
“He’s not asleep,” Dawson whispered. “Brandon.”
Brandon’s irritation flashed through him, but Dawson had been extraordinarily kind to him since learning of his breakup with Lenore. Brandon would be spending the rest of the day with them, hopefully snuggling with his new nephew and napping before he had to return to the homestead.
“Brandon.”
“What?” Brandon opened his eyes and looked at his brother, the urgency in his whisper landing in Brandon’s ears a moment too late.
Dawson gestured with his cowboy hat toward the end of the pew. Brandon turned that way just as a woman walked by, looking left and right. She moved down a couple of rows, paused, and then turned around and looked back the way she’d come.
Brandon sucked in a breath. “Lenore,” came right out of his mouth.
Her eyes locked onto his. She hurried back up the aisle and moved to sit down next to him. Only there wasn’t any room to sit down next to him, so Brandon quickly swiped Colt up off the bench and onto his knee, so he could scoot into the foot of space the boy had occupied.
The moment Lenore sat down, pure anxiety radiated from her expression, from every pore of her body. She wore a dirty pair of blue jeans, her work boots, and a sweatshirt with an abstract camping tent on the front.
Brandon’s pulse spiked just being this close to her. He blinked, just to make sure what his eyes had seen was real. She sure seemed to be there. Brandon reached out and put two fingers on her knee and pressed. She felt real.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Lenore kept her eyes on the pastor up front. “I had to see you,” she whispered.
“Why? Is there something going on at the homestead?”
Dawson reached for Colt, and Brandon let him take his son without even looking at his brother.
Lenore shook her head. “No. Everything is fine at the homestead. Kind of. Not really.”
“What does that mean?” Brandon asked.
“I don’t know, okay?” Lenore’s hands went round and round each other.
