A Mother at Heart Read Online Free Page A

sorry to hear that. We never heard a thing…” Tilly let the sentence trail off. She paused, then asked, “How are you doing with it?”
    Miriam reached up and carefully wiped her eyes. “It’s still hard, but I think she was glad to go.”
    Jake heard the hint of sorrow in her voice and wondered who had comforted her when it happened. Was there someone important to her who had been with her? She was only twenty-seven years old. Old enough to be independent, yet quite young to be without either parent.
    â€œSo now you’re here for a visit?”
    Miriam nodded again. “I’m only here for a while, but it’s nice to be back.”
    â€œAnd now your car is broken down.” Tilly shook her head, clucking sympathetically. “Well, don’t you worry. Fred and Jake will make sure it gets fixed.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do about Miriam’s car?” Fred asked, looking up from his paper.
    â€œIt’s okay where it is right now,” Jake said, pushing his potatoes around on his plate. “Tomorrow wecan tow it into town and bring it to Denny’s Auto Parts. All it needs is a new radiator, I’m assuming.”
    â€œIt was leaking already in Winnipeg,” Miriam said quietly. “I think all they did was put some stop-leak stuff in it.”
    â€œDo you want me to take care of it, Jake?” Fred offered.
    Jake shook his head. “You’re finally out of bed. I don’t think you should overdo it.”
    â€œBut you’ll fall behind in the field work,” Fred said. “You won’t have time to run around.”
    â€œLook, I can call a tow truck,” Miriam interrupted. “I don’t want to put anyone out.”
    â€œIt’s not a problem,” Jake said, trying to sound nonchalant. Actually it was a problem. He was nicely on top of the field work, and taking Miriam’s car to the garage would use up a good half day. He didn’t really have the time, but knew it would look churlish not to help. People called a tow truck in the city, not in the country.
    He just prayed that everything would work out.
    Miriam tried once more to protest, but Fred insisted that it would be no problem.
    â€œDo you want any dessert?” Tilly asked, when Jake was done.
    â€œNo thanks, Mom. I’m full.” He smiled up at her. “It was delicious, though.”
    Tilly stroked his hair the way she always did, and for a moment Jake was conscious of Miriam’s deep brown eyes watching them. He felt a little foolish. Not too many twenty-seven-year-old men had mothers who still stroked their hair. But he had never protested, not even as a young man.
    Whenever his brother Simon would come for a visit from the stricter home he’d been placed in, Tilly naturally treated him exactly like Jake. Like they were both Fred and Tilly’s own sons. Neither he nor Simon had received much of a mother’s love growing up. Their natural mother had given them up when he was five and Simon four after their biological father had died. They never did find out where she was, although Simon was now actively looking. Simon had been looking most of his life. He had run away from his last foster home at sixteen and wanted Jake to come. But Jake knew he was in a good place with Fred and Tilly and refused to go. Simon said that Jake would never hear from him again.
    And Jake hadn’t. Until five months ago when Jake got a phone call from a nurse named Caitlin Severn who had Simon as a patient.
    Jake had overcome his own wounded pride at Simon’s silence and traveled to Vancouver to see him. Now Simon was happily married. But he still wanted to find their mother.
    Jake wasn’t as interested. Each time he saw Taryn, he wondered anew how his mother could give up her own children and not even leave them with a name to track down. It was as if she wanted them swept out of her life.
    â€œHi, Daddy. Here I am.” Taryn stood