LITMIR.BIZ

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never brought a woman home. Then there was the whole thing of being pregnant with his baby.

      “Has he not told you?” Then his mother frowned. “Have you told him how you feel? That you’re in love with him?”

      “I don’t love Ty,” she denied, but even as she said the words, she realized that she did.

      That perhaps on the night he’d rescued her at the ribbon-cutting she’d fallen hopelessly in love with Ty Donaldson.

      Standing just inside the open door of his bedroom, Ty recalled exactly why he’d been taught not to eavesdrop.

      He flinched at the words that stopped him cold.

      Hearing Ellie say she didn’t love him cut straight through his chest, right to the soft center of his heart.

      Hell, he was making a habit of eavesdropping today and nothing good had come out of it yet.

      Squaring his shoulders, he cleared his throat.

      Both women spun toward him.

      “Ty!” Ellie gasped, her face flushing, her eyes bright, guilty. Guilty because she didn’t love him and he’d heard her say so.

      Thank God he hadn’t poured his sappy heart out to her earlier.

      “The plane is fueled up and Harry is going to fly you to Houston. I’ve booked you a seat on the first available flight back to New York.”

      Her gaze dropped, then she nodded. “Thank you.”

      “Ty,” his mother said, stepping toward him, “I was just trying to convince Ellie to stay. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”

      “Her name is Eleanor and, no, I don’t think her staying is a good idea at all.” Never would he be accused of forcing a woman to be with him when she’d so plainly said she didn’t want to be.

      His mother let out a loud sigh. “You’re as stubborn as your father.” With a shake of her head she hugged Ellie. “For whatever it’s worth, I hope you change your mind and decide to stay. This family needs to heal and you started that process today. Please don’t leave without seeing it through.”

      Heal? His mother thought what had happened between him and his father had been healing? Wrong. The confrontation had been like ripping the scab off a deep wound. Nothing more.

      Looking torn, Eleanor hugged his mother back. “Thank you for welcoming me into your home.” She hesitated. “With the baby, I’m sure our paths will cross in the future. Please take care.” Then she turned to Ty. “I’m ready to go.”

      She reached for her suitcase, but Ty beat her to it.

      “No way am I letting you carry that.”

      “I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”

      He shrugged. “Makes no difference. You’re not carrying it.”

      When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Ty’s mother stopped them.

      “You can’t leave without saying goodbye to William. He’d be heartbroken.”

      Yeah, well, his nephew wasn’t the only one who was going to be heartbroken when Ellie left.

      “He’s in the pool. I’ll go get him if you’ll wait?”

      Eleanor nodded.

      She and Ty stood in silence, then she sighed.

      “We should have just walked out to the pool instead of her having to drag William inside.”

      She nodded, sure he was right.

      “Ty!” His mother’s scream echoed through the house.

      Both Ty and Eleanor took off toward the door that led out to the pool.

      What met their gazes made Eleanor’s stomach tighten into a nervous ball.

      Ty’s father was in the pool, holding a lifeless little body to his chest but apparently frozen with fear and unable to move further.

      Ty immediately jumped to action, crossing the distance and jumping into the pool.

      “Give him to me,” he demanded of his father.

      His pain-filled eyes dropping to the lax body of his grandson, he did so.

      Ty took William, prayed he wasn’t too late, assessed him while carrying him from the pool.

      As best as he could tell, there wasn’t any trauma or neck injuries. God, he hoped William hadn’t dived into the pool, injured his neck, been paralyzed and drowned.

      But his nephew had drowned.

      No heartbeat. No respirations.

      A pain unlike any Ty had ever experienced slashed across his chest, but he drew on years of experience with dealing with medical emergencies to move automatically.

      “Oh, Ty,” Ellie cried, as he laid William’s tiny body on the concrete and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

      Ellie pulled her cell phone from her purse, dialed 911 and realized she had no idea what Ty’s address was.

      “The Triple D Ranch,” she told the emergency worker. “We’re at the Triple D Ranch.”

      Behind her, Ty’s mother gave the address and Ellie carefully repeated it to the voice on the other end of the phone line.

      She handed the phone to Ty’s mother and bent beside him, meaning to help him with the CPR, but her gaze caught on Ty’s father.

      The man still stood in the pool. She didn’t think he’d budged since he’d handed William over to Ty.

      Worried that more might be going on than just shock, she called out his name, but he didn’t even look her way.

      Kicking off her shoes, Ellie went into the pool to Harold Donaldson.

      “Mr. Donaldson?” She touched his arm.

      He jumped, seeming to come out of the trance he’d been in. He glanced around, his eyes landing on where Ty was working on William.

      “I didn’t know what to do,” he began, his voice trembling.

      Despite her differences with the man, her heart squeezed with compassion. She put her arm around him. “Come on. Let’s get you out of the pool.”

      Ty counted compressions in his head, gave a breath at the appropriate times and prayed. In his mind, he prayed and prayed and prayed.

      But nothing happened.

      No lub-dub of William’s heart.

      No gasp of breath or sputtering or cough.

      Nothing.

      He couldn’t let this happen. Couldn’t not revive William.

      Couldn’t ever forget the pallid color on his father’s face, the pain in his father’s eyes as he’d taken William out of his shaking arms.

      Never had Ty seen a weak link in his father’s armor. Never had he seen the man not know exactly what to do.

      His father was a man of action, a decisive man who never questioned, just did.

      Ty gave another breath.

      Nothing.

      The longer he couldn’t revive William the less likely he was to be able to.

      How long had the boy been in the pool? How long had his father just been holding his lifeless body?

      From the corner of his eye he saw his mother go to his father, wrap her arms around him and start talking to him. He saw Ellie reassure herself that nothing more was wrong with his father than fear, then she moved to him, knelt next to where he desperately tried to save William.

      “Let me help.” She didn’t wait for him to answer, just

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