His Other Woman: A Renny and Rachel Christmas Romance Read Online Free

slicked back as if going out to dance. If there is kindness visible in facial features, Jonathan Taylor had that in spades.
    Although Renny had only been gone one day his father hugged him like it had been weeks. He gave him a stout pat on the back and turned to me.
    “Rachel, yes?” I nodded. “It is very nice to meet you. You like my babies?”
    “I love them.”
    “You know they’re part of the camel family. Hard to believe, eh?”
    “Rachel’s ridden camels Dad.”
    “Really,” he was fascinated. “Where on earth did you ride a camel little lady?”
    Ah, that’s where Renny gets the ‘little lady’. I was sincerely hoping his Dad didn’t call me ‘baby girl’ –that would have been too incestuous for this tame dame.
    “She was in Afghanistan for two years,” Ren answered for me. He was showing me off, puffing me up. Wow. He was actually proud of me for riding a camel. What a weird guy.
    “What branch?” Jonathan asked me.
    “I wasn’t in the service, sir. I’m a reporter. I, uh, was a reporter at the time.”
    And then Jonathan seemed to drift away in his mind. I could tell he had left ‘the building.’ So could Ren.
    “Dad, Dad, you okay?”
    He answered but didn’t fully return to us. “Sure, sure. What you think of Beatrice here? Gotten big, hasn’t she?” He stroked the smallest of the meandering creatures.
    “She sure has Dad. She’s a beauty.”
    Jonathan turned to me. “They make great wool for coats you know. We’re going to have a whole herd here. Make some money, right son?”
    Something told me that Jonathan had gone into the past. Did he have Alzheimer’s? Oh God, I hoped not, he was such a sweet man and Renny seemed to love him so much. Plus, truth be told, he wasn’t much older than me.
    So, this was Renny’s family situation; an infirm Mother and a partly senile Father. No wonder they built a house for them all to live close by. It explained the maid as well. I had jumped to unflattering conclusions. Renny had never, even once, hinted that all may not be well with his folks. My expectations had been so totally wrong. Isn’t that always the case?
    It turned out that the fantastical little building that looked like a Swiss Ski Chalet was the house of the alpacas. If alpacas are anything like llamas or camels they’re not really into the indoor thing. These didn’t appear any different but we put away the tool Jon had been using in the spotlessly clean alpaca barn and then Renny gently led his Dad into the house.
    I followed behind, even more bewildered as to why Ren would choose someone to love who was so much older than him. Wasn’t he afraid that in a few years I would be in the same place as either of his parents? I already had trouble finishing sentences because words would just fly out of my brain right before I was going to say them. It drove people around me nutso, especially Sam, my editor.
    “Finish, dammit, Rachel, finish your sentence, I have work to do,” he would impatiently demand.
    “Oh, I know what I was about to say, go fuck yourself Sam.” That always went over so well.
    Did I think I had Alzheimer’s? Not really. Turned out that losing words here and there was fairly common once you hit 50 but what did I know. I might be just a few years away from Jonathan, living my life in the past. I groaned thinking about it. With my luck I’d spend my golden years reliving Iraq and Afghanistan. The thought made me glad I lived in the only Right To Die state.
    We got Jonathan settled in the great room, some tea in his hand and a couple of cakes and he seemed to be fine. He and Ruth spoke quietly and I could see the deep, deep affection that ran between them. That was so nice to see since I had grown up in a very contentious family. This family had problems, yes, but there was so much love in the house that I truly envied them.

 
     
    4.
     
    There was no nonsense about us sleeping in separate rooms. Renny led me into his ‘wing’ of the house and my