Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(131)

Mitch stood at the window of Boone’s office and looked out across land he’d never expected to lay eyes on again. “A sister…” He couldn’t take it in. “Our mother and Maddie’s father, before Mom married Dad?”

“Yeah.” Boone clapped one hand to his shoulder. “You’re taking the news better than I did. I couldn’t believe Mom could ever give a child up, but she thought Dalton was dead and back in those days…”

Mitch shook his head. “It had to just about kill her.”

“I suspect it did.” Boone cleared his throat. “I don’t think Dad ever knew. But he found out later that Dalton was alive, and he never told Mom for fear she’d leave him. He gave Maddie this house because by rights, it should have been hers.”

“Think Mom would have left Dad for Dalton if she’d known?”

Boone shook his head. “I don’t think she ever would have left the two of us. And I think she honestly loved Dad.” He exhaled sharply. “But I guess we’ll never know.”

Mitch thought of Perrie, of how she’d fought for her cub like a tigress, and suddenly he was sure. “Mom would have stayed.” He looked out the window again. “She’d be here still, if I hadn’t—”

“That’s over, Mitch. You can’t blame yourself.”

But he did and probably always would. Right now, he had to set something else straight. “Boone, I…” After all he’d heard about what had happened after he was gone, he owed Boone a bigger apology than he’d ever dreamed. “I’m sorry. If I’d known what would happen to you after I left…”

“No apology needed. Dad should have handled all of it better, but Mom was everything to him. It drove him half out of his mind that their last words had been angry. He finally realized what he’d lost, but it was too late—for all of us.”

“I can’t believe he’s gone. And I never got to—”

“Me, either. He was already dead before I knew. But he left something for you.” Boone held out an envelope with Mitch’s name scrawled in his father’s bold hand.

Mitch eyed it warily.

Boone’s mouth quirked. “I know. I didn’t want to open mine, either. But it was all right.” He paused. “Want me to leave you alone?”

Mitch shook his head. He’d been alone plenty long. He tore open the envelope and read.

Son—

I expect I lost the right to call you that a long time ago. It’s the biggest regret of my life. I don’t make any excuses for what I did—there aren’t any excuses for it. I loved your mother so much that I just couldn’t get past losing her, but in doing so, I lost two fine sons. I’d give everything I own to take it all back, but it’s too late for any of that. I’m dying, and all I can hope is that you’ll be found so that you’ll finally know how sorry I am.

I hope you’ll come home one day, to the place where you should have been all these years but for an old man’s pride and stubborn blindness. I don’t know what life has done to you since that terrible night, but I hope it’s been better to you than I was.

Your mother wouldn’t be proud of me. All Jenny ever wanted in life was to make the people she loved happy, and she did that for all of us, every day of her short life. I think they broke the mold when they made her, but if there are two women out there with hearts as big as hers, I hope you and Boone find them and get back some of what you lost.

It was an accident, Mitch. You never would have hurt her on purpose. She would tell you to let it go. She loved you with every breath in her body. It was just one of those terrible trials that life hands us. Some of us handle them right, and some of us fail.

I failed you, son. If it’s any consolation, I’ve paid every day since. I wronged you, and it’s my everlasting regret that I won’t live long enough to tell you in person. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I do hope someday you’ll have a son of your own and you can do right everything that I did so very wrong.

Dad

“Mitch?”

At the sound of Perrie’s voice, Mitch turned from the window. He didn’t know how long he’d been staring off into the distance. He held out his arms and she came into them without hesitation.

“Davey’s asleep. Are you all right?”

He handed her the letter and met his brother’s gaze over her head while she read it. Boone’s eyes said that he understood. All Mitch could do was shake his head. So much loss. So much pain.

Perrie’s golden head lifted, her blue eyes swimming with tears. She glanced back at Boone, then over at Maddie entering the room, silvery eyes sympathetic. She turned again to Mitch. “That poor man,” she sighed. “I wanted to hate him for what he did to you, but now I just feel sad for him.”