One Tiny Miracle. Jennifer Greene

you come here often?”

      He shifted ever so slightly, and then she felt his lips brushing against the crown of her hair. It was such a sweet and loving contact that her throat suddenly stung with tears.

      “No. The last time I was here was more than a year ago, when I learned that my mother had kept a secret life from me and my sister, Alexa.”

      “I heard bits and pieces about that even before I returned to Hondo Valley. Knowing your lovely mother, it’s still hard for me to imagine her having another family that no one knew about.”

      He sighed and Maura could only imagine what the ordeal with Frankie Cantrell had done to him. It hurt to think of him going through such emotional turmoil. Like her, everything he’d believed in had been ripped asunder and she knew firsthand the deep wounds that deception left behind.

      “No one knew about her first marriage but my father,” he said lowly. “And he took the secret to his grave. Seems my parents decided that it would be too hard on Alexa and me to know that we had brothers in Texas, but couldn’t associate with them. You see, Mom’s first husband was abusive. She was forced to run from him and didn’t stop running until she reached Ruidoso. He must have been a real bastard. On the other hand there must have been some good in the man because my two half brothers are great guys.”

      She smoothed her palm across his broad chest. “You get along with them?”

      “Oh, sure. Why do you ask? Did you think I might resent them?”

      “It would be only natural to feel resentment. Especially since Abe told me that your mother makes regular trips to Texas to see them.”

      His hand lifted from her hip and then his fingers pushed into her long hair to lift the strands away from her cheek and neck.

      “I’d never be jealous of that. Mac and Ripp have families and she needs to be a part of their lives. She missed out on so much. And Alexa lives there now, too. So she has plenty of reasons to go there often.”

      “You ever get the itch to move closer to your siblings?” she asked thoughtfully.

      “Move from New Mexico? Away from Gramps? Never. This land is a part of my soul. And Gramps is—well, ever since I’ve been big enough to walk, he’s been my hero.” With a throaty groan, he rolled her onto her back and poised his lips over hers. “Besides, if I moved to Texas, you’d have to come up here to the cabin by yourself. And that wouldn’t be any fun at all.”

      No. Life without Quint would be boring and lonely, Maura thought. It was something she refused to think about. At least, for tonight.

      “How lucky for me that you’re not a wanderer,” she murmured, then latching her fingers around the back of his neck, she pulled his head down to hers and closed the last bit of space between their lips.