For Love and Family Read Online Free Page A

going in all directions.
    â€œNo, I think they musta just getted that way when I dried off my face ’cuz the water in my hair dripped.”
    â€œSo can I fix them?”
    Johnny nodded and Hunter licked his thumbs and smoothed his son’s eyebrows into place.
    Then he glanced down at Johnny’s rodeo pajamas. And the way his son had accessorized them.
    â€œThat’s one of my best ties, isn’t it?”
    â€œYup. I wanted to look nice.”
    â€œAnd you do,” Hunter assured him. He couldn’t stop the smile that escaped. The tie was knotted into a wad at his throat and hung nearly to his knees. “I’m just thinking that this might not be a necktie kind of night. See? I don’t have one on.”
    â€œMaybe you should put one on.”
    â€œI don’t think so. And you know, a tie is sort of fancy for pajamas. Even for the good rodeo pajamas.”
    â€œI look nice,” Johnny insisted.
    â€œYou do. You do. I’m just thinking that our company might not have dressed up quite that much and we wouldn’t want her to feel bad, would we?”
    Johnny creased his forehead and looked down at the striped tie. “We could tell her it was okay that she didn’t get dressed up good as us.”
    â€œYou really want to leave the tie on, huh?”
    â€œYup.”
    Hunter nodded. He didn’t have the heart to force the issue. “Okay, then. Well, I guess since you’re all ready, you can help me get the rest of your toys put away so this place doesn’t look like a cyclone hit it.”
    Apparently feeling dressed up made the little boyagreeable because he didn’t balk at that suggestion the way he usually did. Instead he turned and went right to work.
    â€œWho’s this lady again?” Johnny asked as he picked up his toys.
    Hunter hadn’t known how to explain Terese Warwick. Johnny knew he was adopted; Hunter and his wife had decided when he was still an infant that they would be open and honest with him on the subject. Despite that, the whole concept seemed slightly out of his grasp yet. Whenever they talked about it Johnny seemed only concerned with the fact that Hunter was his dad no matter what.
    Hunter hadn’t wanted to confuse him by trying to explain that Terese Warwick was the sister of Johnny’s birth mother, so he’d opted for a more simple description. Which he repeated now.
    â€œShe’s a friend who knew you when you were only a baby, and she’s the person who has the same kind of blood that you have, so she gave you some of hers when you were in the hospital.”
    â€œWhen I was bleedin’ on accounta the hemolilia.”
    â€œWhen your nose was bleeding so badly because of the hemophilia, yes.”
    â€œIs she your girlfriend like Mindy Harper wants to be my girlfriend and kiss me?” Johnny asked, being silly.
    â€œWhen did Mindy Harper want to kiss you?”
    â€œBefore last week. At preschool. When we were havin’ graham crackers and yogurt. She told Mikeyshe loooved me and she wanted to kiss me and I said yuk.”
    Again Hunter suppressed a smile. “No, the lady who’s coming to stay with us for a while is not my girlfriend and there won’t be any kissing going on. She’s just a friend who’s a girl. And really she’ll be here to see you more than to see me.”
    â€œOh, no!” Johnny shouted in a panic.
    It was an indication of how on-edge Hunter still was about his son and his son’s health that that simple exclamation was enough to tense his entire body and make him spin around to face the boy.
    But Johnny’s current crisis was far less distressing than the one the week before.
    â€œI forgetted about my hair and put my hat on!” the little boy informed him, holding up his cowboy hat. “I gotta fix it!” Then he dashed back upstairs.
    â€œDon’t put any more soap in it,” Hunter called after him. “Just use