Heartstrings Read Online Free

certificate. You said so yourself–I’m her father. He left you. He abandoned Emily. Hell, he came to the house and practically gloated, since I was married to you, he was relieved he didn’t have to be saddled with a baby.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek. “Abby, we can’t tell anyone. Do you understand what the truth would do to them? To Emily?
    She nodded and clutched the folds of her skirt. The falsehood suddenly rubbed wrong on the painful spot in her heart belonging to Seth. “I suppose.”
    He smiled and stepped away from the railing. “I better get back before someone sees us and thinks the unthinkable.” He squeezed her hand again before letting it go. “Abby, I’ve always been your friend. Nothing’s changed. I’m here if you need me. Don’t let your feelings for Seth sway you. Keeping Emily away from him is best for her. Think about how finding out about this will affect Mom. None of us want to bury her next.”
    She nodded and smiled, but it felt forced. He was right. Carolann’s sick heart couldn’t take the pain or the stress if she discovered the truth about her only grandchild. “I know. Now, get back in there to that jealous wife of yours.”
    He ambled across the yard and went around the corner of the house. She hugged herself and made her way to the old gazebo in the corner of the green expanse of grass. A grove of pecan trees provided shade for the structure. She plunged into the cool darkness when she stepped under the deeply pitched roof. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the dimness.
    She ran her hand over the chipped white paint of the banister.
    “Remember when you, Mike and I painted this old thing?”
    At the sound of the deep voice, she spun, her hand going over her heart. Seth stood up from the swing hanging from the rafters on the other side. “Seth...”
    She sucked in a breath and it caught in her throat. Time had changed him, but it had also made him even more devastatingly handsome. The dark tailored pants showed off his long legs and above-average height. The white dress shirt fit like a custom glove, outlining his broad shoulders. He’d lost the power tie he’d worn to the funeral. The top two buttons of his shirt lay open, and he’d rolled the sleeves to his elbows, showing off powerful forearms.
    His coppery-blond hair curled over his collar and fell over his high forehead. A trimmed ginger-colored goatee hid the scar on his chin from a riding accident. The green ice of his eyes captured her gaze and made her heart race.
    He gestured toward the pasture with a tall glass of what looked and smelled like whiskey. “I saw you and Mike. So, what happened? I thought you two would be together forever.”
    She shrugged and turned away from him as he took a long sip from the glass. “I don’t see how that’s any of your damned business.”
    A board in the floor creaked as he approached. She looked over her shoulder. He was so close. Her heart stuttered over a beat or two and something warm curled in her belly. How could he still affect her after everything he’d done to her?
    He smiled, but it never reached his eyes. They remained two stormy seas ready to devour her in their relentless waves. “Oh, but I think it is very much my business. I want to see my daughter, Abigail.”
    “You lost that right when you drove away that night.” She fisted her hands and faced him. “You lost that right when you let another man take your place in her life.”
    He narrowed his eyes and leaned closer. His breath reeked from the whiskey. She wrinkled her nose at the painful memories of her father’s addiction to alcohol as much as from the stench.
    “You know why I had to leave. It was my one and only chance. Goddamn it, you didn’t give me any other option.”
    She snorted and squared her shoulders. “You had fame and fortune to chase. I’m glad you achieved your dreams. But it came with a price.”
    “I told you I’d be back. But when I returned you were married to