A Love To Come Home To (Preview)

Prologue

Jasper Cain and Ethan Roy had been best friends from the moment they met. They were just
boys at the orphanage, Ethan having been there most of his life, and Jasper coming in as a young boy
whose parents were killed in a stagecoach accident when he was ten. For six years, they palled around
at the orphanage, getting into one shenanigan after another. That’s what Sister Myrtle always called
them – “shenanigans”. They never set out to hurt anyone and their pranks were always silly and
harmless.

At the age of sixteen, Ethan and Jasper decided to set out on their own, to the dismay and
against the advice of Sister Myrtle, who had become a mother to them both over the years. She was a
tall, plump woman with an easy smile and a good demeanor for a woman heading up an orphanage.

She was kind and gentle to the children in her charge, regularly having birthday parties and celebrating all
the holidays the best way she knew how. She would be fondly remembered for sitting in a rocking chair
by the fireplace on cold winter nights, reading aloud to the children. Even the teenagers would sit
around and listen to her stories, although the story told was for much younger children.
Ethan looked back at the building as he and Jasper walked away.

“I hope we’re doing the right thing, Jasper,” he said. “Sister Myrtle is right, ya know. Maryland is
a big state and this is a big country. It’s dangerous.”

Jasper rasped out a laugh, throwing his head back. “It ain’t nothin’ we can’t handle! Don’t tell
me you’re turnin’ chicken on me.”

Ethan shook his head, despondently. He wasn’t about to go back and let Jasper go out into the
world on his own. Jasper was thinner and shorter, and not much of a fighter. If he got into any trouble at
all, he wouldn’t last long. Ethan was the opposite. He was tall and strong, with broad shoulders and a
chest that was built for someone much older than 16. He looked at least three years older. Just his looks
would keep men from bothering Jasper, who didn’t look a day over 15.

Jasper led the way to the train station. Using the money they’d saved from odd jobs for the last
few years, he and Ethan got tickets to the biggest station they knew of – Grand Central in New York City.
They were going to be businessmen, Jasper had been saying for years. They were smart, they had
startup money and both were good talkers. Communication is vital, Jasper always said.

He was right. He quickly became a master at saying the right thing to the right person whenever
they arranged trade deals between manufacturers and sellers. They were able to contract deals
between companies with ease. The only negative was that they had spent the better part of the first few
years shortchanging themselves. They would have made better money if they’d known what they were
doing sooner.

Ethan crossed the station house to the ticket window and stopped in the short line to wait. His
heart was beating heavily in anticipation. He’d told Jasper to wait because he felt like they would be
questioned if the clerk thought they looked too young. He didn’t want to be stopped or questioned by
anyone.

He was already missing the security and warmth of the orphanage and Sister Myrtle’s care. Of
all the people in the world Ethan trusted, she was at the top of the list. She’d never lied to him and
never let him down. She’d never hurt him in any way. Her punishments were made more severe
because no one at the orphanage wanted to disappoint her. She had a way with children of all ages.

He still felt like he and Jasper were leaving too soon. Just another year and he’d have felt more
comfortable about it. But Jasper had insisted. He was the one who had experienced life outside the
orphanage. He hadn’t been there since birth like Ethan had.

Ethan supposed that even though Jasper had lived a normal life until he was ten, he still didn’t
really know what he was getting into. Jasper’s parents loved him and gave him everything he ever
wanted. Having had it all taken away and be thrust into the care of a stranger, with very little personal
property to be proud of, Jasper held a bit of resentment in him that Ethan tried to understand. It had to
be hard for him at ten years old to be put through a tragedy like that.

They waited outside on the platform for the train to pull in. It was a fine, beautiful day in
Maryland. The sky was blue, dotted with white, fluffy clouds. There was a cool breeze blowing down the
platform, keeping everyone from baking under the heat of the sun.

It was a pleasant day. Ethan would always remember it, he was sure. It was the day he and his
friend set off to make lives of their own. He couldn’t help looking back over his shoulder once they were
seated and the train began to rumble away from the station. How long would it be before he returned
to the place he called home? To the warmth of his mother, Sister Myrtle, and her smiles and hugs?
His appearance may have been one of a much older boy but inside, Ethan was still just sixteen.
He felt obligated to stand with his friend and protect him if need be. Besides, he liked being around
Jasper. They got along better than some of the brothers he’d seen.

But it would take a long time for him to shake the feeling that he’d left home too soon, the
departing words of Sister Myrtle ringing in his ears.

“You are both strong, smart boys,” she’d said. “But it’s a cruel, tough world out there and you
need to be aware of that. I wish that you would stay here just another year or two. But I won’t keep you
here against your will. Just know that whatever happens, you will always have a home here.”

Those words meant everything to Ethan. The very day he left Maryland was the day he began
making plans to return.

Chapter One

Selina Walker took the stairs down slowly. Her heart was beating anxiously, wondering what her
parents wanted to talk to her about. Hettie had been so vague when she came to Selina’s room to fetch
her. And once she delivered the message, she hightailed it out of there, disappearing down the back
stairs to the kitchen.

Selina noticed how pale the girl had been, her colorless skin contrasting against the rings around
her eyes. It looked like she’d been crying.

That worried Selina, but instead of making her urgently want to know what was wrong, it made
her dread what she was going to hear. It took a lot to make the servants cry over something happening
in her family. They were good people, but they had lives and families of their own.

She stood outside the door of the parlor for a moment. What would she see when she went in?

Had her parents married her off to an unseemly stranger? She almost giggled. Her parents would never
do something like that. Hank and Shirley Walker were upstanding citizens in their town of Glenmore,
Texas. Her father was one of the wealthiest and most successful ranchers in the surrounding counties,
mostly because of his quick wit and easygoing charm.

Trying to slow her heartbeat by breathing steadily, Selina slowly turned the knob and opened
the door. Her heart wrenched when she saw her parents, both sitting on the couch by the bay window,
both hunched over. They were facing each other and their hands were intertwined between them. Her
mother was whispering words in an encouraging way, though the look on her face was distraught.
They both looked up when she entered and her father stood up.

“Selina,” he said in a strained voice. “Please come and sit with us. We have something to discuss
with you.”

Her heartbeat ramped up again and she consciously tried to slow it down as she walked to the
large cushioned chair by the couch they were sitting in. Her father sat back down and took his wife’s
hands again. Their eyes stayed on their daughter.
She swallowed, keeping her eyes on the table in front of her, not wanting to see the look on her
parents’ faces.

“We have to tell you something, Selina,” her father began, his voice low. “It’s something very
important. Something we should have told you about a long time ago. But you’re nineteen and this issue
has come to a head. We’ve received a letter. From your aunt Lola. Do you remember her?”

Selina pulled her eyes up to her father and stared at him for a moment. She hadn’t seen or
heard from her aunt since she was a very young girl. There had been a falling out between her aunt and
her father, who was Lola’s brother. Any correspondence between them had ceased that Selina knew of.
But there was no reason Lola would have forgotten the address.

And now a letter had come.

“What is this about, Pa? Why is Ma on the verge of tears? Please tell me what’s going on.” She
heard the desperation in her own voice. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, pleading
with her eyes.

Her father’s hesitance made it worse for her. Her heart was beating so hard she was sure they
would hear it, too. When he looked at her again, meeting her eyes with his, she knew she was right to
dread what was coming.

“You know that after your mother had you, she was told we would have no other children,” he
said.

Selina nodded. It was a fact that she’d never been able to forget. For her father to have a
firstborn daughter and then be unable to have any more was a blow to her father’s ego. She’d known
throughout the years that he longed to have a son but knew he would never be able to.

She tried everything she could to make up for being a girl, learning to ride and shoot early, going
hunting with her father while at the same time attending the sewing circle with her mother. She took on
the load of being a son along with being a daughter without even thinking about it. She wanted to
please her parents.

But as much as she’d done over the years, she’d always harbored the feeling she just didn’t
measure up in her father’s eyes. She was missing the strength and logic a man possessed. She was
emotional when he wanted stoic. She thought with her heart when he wanted logical thinking.
He never told her he wished she was a boy. He’d never even implied it. He showered her with
love and encouragement every day of her life. But the feeling never left Selina’s heart.

“Here’s the letter,” her father said, holding up a folded piece of yellow paper with a pretty
design around the edges. He shook it in the air as he spoke. “Your aunt Lola has brought something to
my attention that will change our lives from here on. Please listen carefully to what I’m going to tell you,
Selina. I don’t want to speak of it again after this. I’m going to tell you the story and you must remember
it because I don’t want to tell it twice. I’m very ashamed, riddled with guilt over what I’ve done.”

He dropped the letter on the table in front of him and Shirley snatched it up when Selina leaned
to pick it up. She shook her head in response to Selina’s confused look. “There is something your father
needs to tell you before you read this letter, Selina.”

Selina moved her eyes back to her father, frustration running through her. “Pa, please. Tell me. I
can’t take much more of this.”

Hank pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. He pressed his fingers into
the bridge of his nose at the corners of his eyes.

“When I was young, I was not what you might call a reputable character.” He gave her a direct
look. “I wasn’t an outlaw. I didn’t go around stealing or hurting people. But I was careless with the
hearts of women. I was well-known at the schoolhouse and into my teenage years. I was a ruffian and
got in a few scuffles when I went to the saloon. But when I was seventeen, I got in trouble of a much
deeper nature.”

Selina braced herself. She couldn’t imagine what her father was going to say next.

“It would be another year before I met your mother and when I left Baltimore…”

Selina frowned. “Baltimore, Maryland?” she interrupted him with the question.

“Yes.” He nodded. “I lived in Baltimore when I was a teenager. I left there and came here when I
was seventeen after… when I felt I had to leave.”

“Why did you have to leave, Pa? What did you do?”

Her father swallowed, lowering his head. “I got a woman pregnant when I was seventeen,
Selina.”
Chills ran up and down Selina’s arm. Did she have a sibling? Thoughts raced through her mind.

Had the child survived? Was it a boy or a girl? Did her father finally have the son he had wanted all
along?

“I didn’t stick around for the birth and I did nothing for the mother. In fact, when she told me
she was pregnant and wanted to get married, I left that very night. I heard from mutual friends that she
was taken in by her parents and they helped her get through.”

“So the child lived?” Selina asked. Again, she was overcome with chills. “I have a brother or a
sister?”

“You have a brother.”

The words fell like a hammer in Selina’s mind. She had a brother. Her father had a son.

“Why did you never tell me about this?” For the first time, she felt hurt by her parents. They had
hidden this secret from her for twenty years. She had a brother who was three years older than she was.
She felt the tingling of tears behind her eyes and she leaned forward to take a tissue from the stack on
the table. She dabbed at her eyes, understanding now why Hettie had looked the way she did.

She couldn’t decide if she was happy for her father or if she was angry with him. Her emotions
swirled and mixed inside her, making her head and heart hurt at the same time.

“I was a troubled young man during that time, Selina,” her father said in a weakly defensive
voice. “I know that I did wrong now and… I feel so terrible about keeping this from you. I… I chose not to
think about it. I didn’t want to confront it and have to face what I’d done.”

Selina heard the pain in her father’s voice loud and clear. Her love for him prevailed over any
anger she could have felt. Instead, she felt sympathy toward him. She felt sorry for him.

“He did try at first,” her mother added in defense of her husband. “He really did. He tried to
reach out to Evelyn just after we married but she wanted nothing to do with him. He was ready to move
back to Maryland and help take care of the child. But she refused any contact. It wasn’t until she found
out he and I were married that she turned her back. She said she wasn’t going to let her son have any
other mother but her. Your father did try to help.”

Selina looked at the pain in her parents’ faces. She let a few tears slide out from her eyes and sat
back, taking it all in. She couldn’t picture her father being a ruffian or getting into brawls. He had built
such an empire and was so well-respected that she doubted anyone could see him that way.
She turned her eyes to the fireplace, thinking about the brother she didn’t know.

Chapter Two

Dear brother,

It is with great excitement that I’m writing this letter to you. We have not spoken in so
many years. We both know why. I don’t believe you are the same reckless young man you used
to be so I’m hoping this letter will find you with an open mind.

I know where your son is. I have been keeping contact with his caregivers over the years
and I feel it’s time to let you know what’s happened with him. When he was ten, Evelyn and her
husband were in a tragic stagecoach accident and Jasper was sent to–

Selina stopped reading and focused on the name. Jasper. Jasper what? What last name had he
been given? It would be Walker, if he chose to remain in the family. If he even wanted to come.

-the orphanage in Baltimore. Evelyn never left Baltimore. She gave up on you long before
you left when she realized she couldn’t count on you. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings;
that’s just what she said to me. It was the last thing she said to me actually.

There is a woman at the orphanage named Sister Myrtle. She’s been writing to
me over the years, keeping me updated on what Jasper’s been doing. She wrote to me
last about four years ago, almost five, when Jasper left the orphanage to make his way
in the world. He left with very little money but high aspirations.

Jasper went traveling with his friend, Ethan Roy, another boy from the
orphanage who was the same age.

Ethan recently wrote to the orphanage that he was planning a trip back to
Baltimore. He is still with Jasper and is bringing him along. The Sister wanted to know if
you would be willing to let yourself be known to him. She thinks he needs to know and I
do, too, Hank. You shouldn’t have let that boy wonder for 20 years. That is a shame on
our family that we will forever bear. But you can make it better now. I want the Sister to
approach Jasper with your information so you can invite him to your ranch and let him
get to know you. It would be good for you both.

Additionally, I’m sure the boy has no money. He is entitled to something from
you, don’t you think?

Selina could almost hear the anger in her aunt’s voice. Her words were only a little harsh but
Selina knew her aunt was seething when she wrote the letter. She looked up at her father.

“Why haven’t you told me all these years, Pa? Don’t you think this is something I should have
been told about?”

“I knew that you would want me to get in touch with him,” her father confessed in a pained
voice. “Your mother has been doing that all these years, trying so hard to get me to reach out to him
but… I lived with the fear that he would reject me. That if you knew, you would reject me, too, for what
I’d done to your brother. I felt blessed that Shirley was willing to stay with me.”

Her father gave her mother a warm, loving look that was immediately returned. Her mother
squeezed her father’s hand. She turned her eyes to Selina.

“It’s true, I have encouraged him. But it was never the right time for your father. And now, with
this letter from Lola, it seems he wouldn’t have been able to find Jasper anyway. The boy was only two
years old when Evelyn cut off communication. Your Pa wouldn’t have been able to track him down.”

“But it looks like Lola did,” Selina said with just a trace of sarcasm. She was immediately
regretful and continued, looking at her father, “What are you going to do, Pa? Are you going to invite
him here?”

“If he is willing to come here, I will allow it. I… I would like to meet him. I want to make up for
not being there for him all these years. It was wrong of me, I know it now. I just… I don’t have a good
feeling he will be forgiving.”

“You don’t even know him, Hank,” Shirley said, squeezing his hand again. “He may have a heart
just like you do now.”

“I didn’t have this heart when I was his age, Shirley,” Hank said in a gentle voice. “I was hard and
mean back then.”

Shirley shook her head. “No, my dear, you were a married man with a little girl when you were
21. You don’t know what he’s been through. He might be married, too. You might have a grandchild!”

The prospect of having a brother was compounded by the fact that he might be married and
have children of his own. Selina’s mind whirled with the possibilities. She had to shake her head to clear
her thoughts.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Hank said, his voice dropping to a level Selina could barely hear. “But
even so, if he wished to find me, he would have done so. I don’t think he will want to come here. I don’t
see it happening, I really don’t.”

He lowered his head and pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes.
“You mustn’t stress yourself so, husband,” Shirley said, comfortingly. “You will know the right
thing to do when you decide on it.”

“So you still don’t know what you want to do?” Selina asked, keeping her frustration hidden.
How could he not know what to do? He had a son! He needed to find him and bring him home.

Especially if he was wandering the country with another wayward orphan. No telling what kind of
trouble that friend of his might have brought. Aunt Lola had said he was bigger than Jasper. That
probably meant a lot more fights, not fewer.

Selina couldn’t believe she was worried about a brother she’d never met, a virtual stranger to
her. She pushed herself to her feet and walked to the bay window behind the couch her parents were
sitting on.

She looked out over the land, past the field and pasture where the cows were grazing, to the
woods beyond that led up to the mountain like a blanket around the base. The mountain stretched up in
the distance. Her father owned it all.

All of this would now go to Jasper, if he decided to be a member of the family. And if he didn’t,
some of it would be his. There was no way her father would disown him in the will. Now that women
were allowed to own land in the great state of Texas, her mother would inherit it unless she passed
away first.

Selina pulled her mind away from the thought of her parents dying and where their inheritance
would go. None of that mattered to her.

Her father had a son.

She had a brother.

It was almost too much to comprehend.

“I think I need a breath of fresh air,” she said, turning back to her parents. She realized he hadn’t
answered her question but didn’t ask it again. She knew the answer already. He didn’t know what he
was going to do.

Just thinking that made irritation slide through Selina. She walked past them and didn’t stop
until she heard her mother call her name.

She turned back, knowing the hurt she felt was showing on her face. Her father’s head was still
down but her mother was looking at her. Her eyes softened when she saw the look on her daughter’s
face.

“Don’t go far, dear. Dinner will be ready soon.”

Selina nodded. “I’ll be on the porch, Ma. Might walk around the house but I won’t go far.”

“Good girl. Thank you. We love you, Selina.”

“Love you, too, Ma,” she replied. She meant the words. “I love you, Pa.”

Her father finally looked up at her. He had tears streaming down his face. Selina couldn’t
remember the last time she had seen her father so stricken with sorrow and guilt. He had bottled it up
so well for so long, it was pouring out now like a broken dam.

She left the parlor and went through the foyer, noticing Hettie standing on the other side of the
stairwell, pretending to dust a statue there. It only took a glance to see Hettie was still crying. She
probably wanted to talk to Selina about it, just to make sure everyone was okay.

But was everyone okay?

Selina didn’t stop when she went out onto the porch. She just kept going, down the steps and
across the compound toward the stables. She turned at the stables and went around the wide dirt area
in between all the buildings, making a wide circle. She tried her best during the walk to clear her mind of
all doubts and worries, but she couldn’t do it. It was nearly impossible.

She wondered what Jasper looked like. For that matter, she wondered what Evelyn looked like.
And what had her mother thought when she found out about all of this?

A wave of sadness and hurt slipped through her, bringing fresh tears to her eyes. How could
both of them keep such a major secret from her for so many years? All of her life, essentially?
She understood her father felt deep shame and guilt for leaving the woman and his child behind.
But her mother should have said something to her over the years. She knew about Jasper. Yet she said
nothing.

She tried to convince herself it wasn’t her place to demand something like that. It was a family
secret that her parents chose to keep from her until she was old enough.

Selina was 19 years old. How much longer would they have kept it a secret if Aunt Lola hadn’t
finally written with information about Jasper?

Would they have ever told her?

Chapter Three

There was a lot of silence at the table for dinner. Selina thought her parents probably shared her
lack of appetite. They were both picking at their meal the same way she was. And it was good food, one
of her favorite meals – pot roast and potatoes.

But she couldn’t stomach it. She wasn’t in the mood to eat at all. Finally, when she couldn’t
stand the tension any longer, Selina pushed her chair back and went around the table to her father’s
chair. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and embraced him.

I don’t want you to feel so guilty anymore, Pa, please. I can barely stand to see you this way.”

Hank reached up and patted her arm, smiling. “Thank you, dear. That means a lot to me.”

“I want to help you find him. I think you should invite him here and see what he says. At least
give him a chance, Pa. If he rejects you, you already knew that was a possibility. If you never reach out to
him, he’ll never know. That’s not fair to him, is it?”

“No, my dear. It’s not fair to him.” Her father’s dejected voice tore at Selina’s heart. But
everything that was to come was going to be very emotionally painful. It was best to brace herself for it
now.

She returned to her seat after giving her father a peck on the cheek. She basked in the glow of
her mother’s loving smile as she sat down and began to eat.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Selina said, “Where should we start looking for him,
Pa? Do you know the name of the orphanage where he grew up?”

Her father shook his head. “No, Lola didn’t give me an exact name. You read her letter. She
spoke of this Sister Myrtle that she’s been writing to. I can only imagine what he must have gone
through having had a nun as the headmistress of his orphanage. I hope he was treated well.”

Selina frowned. “I’m sure they aren’t all bad, Pa. Though I guess I really wouldn’t know. And this
orphanage is in Maryland?”

Hank nodded, wiping the juice from his plate with a biscuit. “Yes, it was Baltimore. Pretty little
town. I enjoyed living there very much. You should see the green of the fields there. Simply amazing.”

Selina longed for a place she’d never been to just because of her father’s description.

“So I reckon the only thing you can do is write to Aunt Lola. She’ll tell you how to get in touch
with the orphanage. And they’ll know how to contact Jasper. Right?”

Her father shrugged but nodded at the same time. “I have to assume that’s right, yes. I don’t
know how much contact this Sister Myrtle has had with Jasper over the years but if his friend is heading
back to Maryland, now would be a good time to contact them. Thank you for helping me, my dear. I… I
have a hard time doing anything productive when it comes to this subject. Do you know what I mean?”
Selina had never experienced anything like what her father had described to her. She knew in
her heart there was no way she could ever have a child and abandon it. Then again, she was a woman
and not an unruly young man. Young men were more wild and free than young women, no matter
where they were from.

“I understand, Pa. I don’t mind taking care of it for you. I’m glad you want to meet him. I think
he deserves to know his own father.”

“I hope he agrees with you, Selina dear. I really do.”

“Was it because of this that you and Lola stopped talking?”

Her father sat back, having finished the food on his plate. He dabbed at his mustache with his
napkin before answering.

“It sure is. She was angry with me for leaving Evelyn behind. They were friends. That was how I
met Evelyn to begin with.” His eyes flicked to his wife. When he looked at her, Selina did, too. She
suddenly realized it had to be a little painful for her mother to hear about her father’s wild and crazy
days as a youth. A time he’d spent with women other than her.

But Shirley’s face hadn’t changed. She was gazing at her husband with the same pleasant, loving
look that was always there. She liked to call Hank her “beau”. He would always be her “beau” no matter
how many years they were married.

Selina wanted a love like she saw between her parents. Their mutual respect for each other was
on constant display. Their love was great. It was what she wanted to share with her husband.

“Lola and Evelyn went on a lot of trips together. They used to go down to Virginia and to the
beaches out on the coast. That’s how I met her. When they came back from one of their trips, Evelyn
stayed at our house. She and I became close and it carried on a little too far. By the time she left for
another trip, she was pregnant and didn’t know it. When she came back a few months later, she did
know it and informed me on the spot.”

“How long was it before you left?”

“I left on the next morning train.” The regret was deep in her father’s voice. She could see it was
painful for him to talk about it.

“I’ll try not to ask too many questions, Pa,” she said, gently. “I’m just curious to know, that’s all.”

Hank nodded. “I know, my dear. It’s all right. I am having an easier time talking about it now that
you know. I’m glad I can talk openly to you about it now.”

Selina gave him a soft smile.

“I think we should all have coffee on the porch and enjoy the beautiful weather this evening,”
her mother said in a cheery voice. Selina liked hearing that much more than the tear-filled tone she’d
heard earlier that day.

She finished the last of her biscuits, soaking up the gravy the way her father had and wiping her
mouth with her napkin as she stood up.

“Delicious,” she said, rubbing one hand on her stomach. She looked at her mother. “We should
really tell Cookie how good her food is much more often.”

Her mother smiled at her, linking arms with her as she passed. They walked to the door of the
dining room. “I think she’d like that very much,” her mother said as she took a step back to let her
daughter go through first.

Selina felt a measure of peace as she settled on the porch while her mother went to find Hettie
and ask her to bring coffee out onto the porch. She pulled one leg up under her so her dress fell in front
of her and pushed off on the porch swing with the toes of her other foot.

Her father sat back in his favorite chair, a huge rocking chair built just for a man his size. He ran
his hand over his mouth and chin, pressing down his mustache and trim beard. His dark eyes gazed out
over the land contemplatively.

“Do you think he’ll forgive me, Selina?”

It would be a while before any other subject would dominate their thoughts. Selina gave her
father a soft look. “I don’t know, Pa. I really don’t.”

“I hope he does.” Her father spoke with an almost melancholy sound to his voice. She could tell
he was deep in his memory, probably remembering Jasper when he was just a baby.

She tilted her head to the side. “Did you ever see Jasper, Pa? Even once?”

“Evelyn sent me a photograph when I asked her for one. He was a precious baby, I’ll tell you
that. I could see my eyes. The rest of him looked like Evelyn.”

“That doesn’t mean he does now. He might look just like you now.”

“I hope he doesn’t look like me now,” her father joked, winking at her. She chuckled.

“Oh, Pa, you know what I mean.”

“I do, my dear. And I guess we’ll find out sooner or later. If he decides to come here. The more I
think about it, the more I hope he does.”

“I feel the same way.” Selina fell quiet, her mind daydreaming about what it would be like to
meet him. Would he come on a train? Would he come by stagecoach? No one really traveled by
stagecoach since the railroad had expanded since the tracks were first laid so long ago. After the turn of
the century, it seemed everyone was traveling by train if they wanted to go anywhere in the United
States. Unless they were going overseas, of course.

When they met him, what would he be like? She felt an anxious twitch in her heart, thinking of
him as an angry, bitter young man. He wasn’t sixteen anymore, thank goodness. At least he was at an
age of understanding. He was an adult. She hoped he was a forgiving man.

She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to him. To suddenly find out his father wasn’t his father.
A stranger in Texas was his real father. Had Sister Myrtle even told him the truth of his parentage? How
much did he know? What had he been told by his mother and stepfather about Hank?

There were so many questions without answers. But those answers would soon come. And
when they did, she would be there to witness it. She was going to do everything she possibly could to
help her father bring his son home.

She ignored the hurt in her heart, knowing this was what was best. It would be good for her
father to have his son. It would be good for Jasper to know he had a family, that he wasn’t alone in the
world. It would be good for her to have a brother.

Wouldn’t it?

She pushed at the floor with her toes, making the swing move backwards. The gentle rocking
motion made her feel peaceful again. She folded her arms over her chest and gazed out over the
horizon, her thoughts on the brother she had somewhere out there.

---

“A Love To Come Home To” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!

Selina Walker has been trying her whole life to meet as many of her father’s expectations as possible. However, she could feel that he had a deep-seated disappointment for not having a son, no matter what she did. To her misfortune, an eye-opening secret is soon revealed. How will Selina’s relationship with her father be influenced? Now that Selina, discovers the unbelievable truth in a heart-stopping moment will she manage to cope with the truth?

Ethan Roy has been raised in an orphanage in Baltimore. Having his best friend as a companion, they decided at the age of 16 to go after their own luck. The road, though, is tougher than they expected. What happens next will complicate their life even more, after the sudden delivery of a mind-blowing letter. Ethan desperately wades through the muddy waters of conflicting emotions and personal pain as the people he cares about the most try to untangle the web of their lives. When a huge dilemma crosses his path, will he be able to find balance?

Selina and Ethan have been brought together under weird circumstances. Their feelings for each other are strong, but this is not always enough. Will they choose their happiness over their closest people? Is there any chance that a perfect solution is found, so nobody gets hurt?

“A Love To Come Home To” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

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