Then Came You: A Prequel to The McPhee Clan Read Online Free Page B

the new building under construction in town—instead of the pain in his life. He pulled a length of twine from his pocket. "He was a brute of a man. Something we have in common."
    She felt sucker punched. She never would have guessed it, that Gil had known the sting of a brutal man's violence. As Gil knelt down before her, a big, powerful man on the ground at her feet, a lump lodged in her throat. Swallowing hard didn't remove it completely. She let the silence settle between them. His confession felt too intimate, as if they were both without defenses and shields, revealed to each other. It wasn't a feeling she liked or was used to.
    "When I was doing time in that orphanage, that's when I was poor. Not enough food, clothes handed down until they were rags. Oh, the place did their best. It wasn't intentional." Gil's gloved hands quickly banded the twine around her ankle, wrapping it snugly. "It was worse with my uncle. I ran off when I was fourteen. Lived on my own for weeks. Slept in fields, ate roots and berries when I could find them. I'd go to bed so hungry I couldn't sleep while my stomach gnawed on itself."
    "Gil." Sympathy swamped her. It burned in her eyes, filled her to overflowing. It was hard to imagine him as a boy, not yet a man, alone and suffering. "I've been that hungry back in Ireland."
    "It takes one to know one." His words reached out to her like a touch, bridging the distance between them. Still kneeling down, the crown and brim of his Stetson hid his face. Her eyes traced the rigid set of his shoulders and back, the muscled length of his arms. He was invincible. Always in a good mood, easy going, he seemed as if his life had always been that way.
    You just never knew what someone else's path has been, she reminded herself, unable to stop her hand from reaching out, somehow needing to touch him, and landing on the outer curve of his upper arm. He felt like a mountain come to life, so solid, so real.
    "I wish things had been easier for you," she said lightly, but she didn't remove her hand from his arm. There were things she couldn't say, things she shouldn't even be feeling, and she somehow wanted him to know that. As if she hoped he could sense it in her touch or read it in her eyes. And even if he couldn’t, her fingers wanted to stay on his arm.
    Not that she had the right to hold on.
    "Hey, things are good for me." He tied the ends of the twine into a bow, neatly binding her shoe to her. "I found a good job as a stable boy, I worked hard, saved my money and worked my way up. Even earned enough to buy Casey."
    From somewhere in the storm, a horse blew out his breath in a horsy comment.
    "Best money I ever spent," Gil said, pitching his voice as if to make sure his gelding heard it. With a grin, Gil stood, rising up to block the wind and snow. "It turned out all right. But what about you?"
    "I'm grateful to Maureen. It's turned out all right for me too." So much better than her life had been in Ireland, that was for sure. The only regret she had was that she was not free, her life was not her own. Maureen owned a contract on her and it had to be paid. "I'm thankful every day."
    "For being an indentured servant?" His sculpted mouth hooked up in one corner, an almost smile the rest of his mouth didn't complete. Something serious flickered in his vivid gaze, but it was hard to tell because of the snow hurling down between them. When she looked again, that seriousness was gone, but the air felt changed.
    She felt changed. As if they were closer somehow than before.
    "It's not so bad." She took a step to test the integrity of the twine-and-shoe combination. It seemed to work. "I have job security, for one thing. No matter what, I'll always be employed."
    "True. Unlike me, you don't have to worry about being fired." Gil's humor returned as he moved to her side.
    "Exactly!" How nice it felt when he ushered her through the snow, protecting her from the brunt of the wind with his big body, making sure she didn't