AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There was more, but Egan stopped himself from reading it since it was personal and not business. He set it aside, creating a new stack of mail he’d take to his dad, and he went on to the next letter. There was no return address so he opened it.
And got an emotional blast of a different kind.
Because it was a family photo, similar to the ones his dad had sent Egan right before he’d had a heart attack. This one had a huge difference, though.
It was a shot of Egan’s mom with him and his three siblings.
This one had been taken at Remi’s first birthday party, which had been around the time his mom found out she had cancer. There were no signs of the disease, though, on her face. Just a beaming smile as she watched her baby girl dig her chubby little hands into the small cake that was on the tray of her high chair. A much larger cake with a single lit candle was on the table, and in the shot, Egan, Cal and Blue were all eyeing it with intense anticipation that they would soon chow down on the sugary treat.
His dad was in the shot, too, standing just behind his mom, and like her, Remi was the center of attention. Just as she should have been. Everyone was smiling, or at least looking hopeful. There were no hints that soon the world in this photo would cease to exist.
Egan frowned and felt the flick of grief. It wasn’t the same sea of it that had been there for the first couple of years after his mom’s death, but it was there. Always there.
Unlike the flyer, there was no note with the photo, but he turned it over and saw that something had been written on the back.Thought you might like this one for your family albums. Tammy.
Egan instantly recalled the woman who’d once worked at the ranch as sort of a jack-of-all-trades. Sometimes, she did housekeeping and cooking. Other times, she babysat. She would have no doubt been at Remi’s party and had taken the photos.
He debated what to do with it. Yeah, it was a happy family shot all right and worthy of framing, but it might spur a fresh round of grief for his dad. And because it might not sit well with Audrey, either.
Egan suspected that’s why there were no photos of his dad and mom together here in the office or in any of the living areas of the house. In fact, here in the office, pictures were in short supply, period. There was one of Egan and his siblings taken when Egan had become an officer in the Navy. A stiff pose where it appeared everyone but Egan wanted to be somewhere else. That was it.
Unlike next door.
That room had been his mom’s crafting “studio” where she’d quilted, done stained glass, knitted and seemingly done a dozen other things in what had to have been very little spare time. After all, she’d had four kids, helped her husband run the ranch and even dabbled in barrel racing for charity fund drives at the local rodeos and fairs.
His mom had died in that room, too.
She’d been hospitalized for weeks before her death, and then when she had gotten the news that time was running out for her, she had decided to come home for her final days. Egan had been eight and therefore old enough to sneak around and hear some of the conversations that had taken place back then. Conversations that had stuck with him even after the passing of three decades. His mom had wanted to die at home but not in the bedroom she’d shared with his dad. She hadn’t wanted him to have to deal with the memories of her death on a daily basis just by walking into it.
Ironic since his dad had ended up moving rooms when he’d married Audrey and presumably not wanted to bring his new wife to the suite he’d shared with his first wife. Still, his mom had been thinking about her husband when she’d chosen to live out her last moments in the craft studio. Her space, surrounded by dozens of family photos and some of her finished and unfinished projects.
Egan didn’t go into that room. To the best of his knowledge, none of his siblings did. Which meant his mom had had it right about not wanting to die in a spot they’d have to see or walk through daily. Still, he knew it was there, and sometimes, that was a comfort.
Sometimes, just thinking about her was still unbearable.
Since his dad might be having one of those days, where he couldn’t think about the woman he’d loved and lost, Egan didn’t add the photo to the stash he’d take up to Derek. Instead, he made a note to send Tammy a thank-you note, and he’d set the picture aside for when his dad was further along in his recovery.
Shoving aside the thoughts of the photo, the craft room, his mom and everything else that wasn’t work-related, Egan continued to make his way through the mail. He sorted through at least a dozen invoices for supplies and such when he came to a manila envelope addressed to him. When he opened it, he did some more cursing.
Because the blasted letter from Colleen was inside. It was now splotched with garbage stains, and there was a sticky note attached to it.
“This must have accidentally fallen off the counter and into the trash,” his housekeeper had written. “Thought it might be important.”
Crap. He didn’t want to deal with reminders of his ex on top of everything else, but this was partly his fault. He should have shoved the letter deeper into the trash. Or poured ketchup on it to completely cover it. He didn’t have any ketchup available right now, but he did the next best thing. He tore it in half and put it at the bottom of the wastepaper basket next to the desk.
If his dad had had a shredder, he would have used that, but Derek could be old school and a pack rat when it came to that sort of thing. He saved paper copies, which was the reason his filing cabinets were jammed to the hilt.
Egan was ready to dive back into more mail when his phone dinged with a text from Maybell.
I’m running late at the grocery store. Could you meet Alana in the kitchen?the cook asked.
To the best of his knowledge, Maybell had never run late in the entire time she’d worked at the ranch so this might be yet another attempt at matchmaking. Then again, there was a lot going on this morning so it was possible Maybell’s shopping time had gone way over its usual because of the items she’d have to be getting for Derek’s new diet.
Both wanting to see Alana and wanting to avoid her, Egan grumbled his way from his dad’s office and toward the kitchen. He passed one of the housekeepers, Reba Neumann, along the way, and like Maybell, she was a long-time employee.
“I let Alana in,” Reba let him know, and carrying a stack of folded towels, she headed toward the stairs.
Egan took a deep breath, stepped into the kitchen. But he didn’t see Alana. It didn’t take him long to hear her, though, and he followed the sounds of some shuffling around to the pantry. Then, he saw her, all right.
