Breathless by Helen Hardt EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Helen Hardt
- Language: English
- Genre: Contemporary Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
MARJORIE
I’m happy to be doing this. She’s my best friend.
I repeated the mantra to myself as I tore romaine lettuce for a Caesar
salad. Again as I mashed potatoes, adding cheddar, sour cream, and
crumbled bacon. Again as I carefully spooned the mixture back into the
potato skins and placed them in the oven. And once again as I salted and
peppered the round steak, preparing it for the skillet.
I loved to cook. As much as I’d tried to fit in around the ranch that was
a quarter mine, I’d finally admitted it. My brothers had control. Joe loved
tending to the cattle. Talon was king of the orchard. Ryan made the
vineyards sing while creating perfection in a wine bottle.
I wasn’t needed on the ranch. I’d have taken off to Paris to study but for
my best friend in the world, Jade Roberts Steel, my new sister-in-law.
According to my other new sister-in-law, Dr. Melanie Carmichael Steel,
Jade was experiencing hyperemesis gravidarum, a fancy name for really
bad morning sickness—the kind that incapacitates a pregnant woman.
Not fun.
Add to the ingredients that Jade and Talon had just adopted two troubled
little boys, ages ten and seven, and that their housekeeper, Felicia, had gone
on an extended leave to help her ailing mother. Mix well, and what do you
get?
Auntie Marj to the rescue.
I was happy to help. Truly, I was.
Jade was the best friend a woman could ask for and had been there for
me more times than I could count. And Talon was my brother—my brother
who had been to hell and back, largely because of me.
It’s not your fault, Sis. No one blames you.
Words all three of my brothers had drummed into my head.
They were right. I knew that. I couldn’t help being conceived. Being
born. It hadn’t been my choice.
Still, the fact remained.
But for my conception and birth, Talon wouldn’t have been taken.
Wouldn’t have been beaten, tortured, and worse as a ten-year-old child.
I bit my lower lip and opened the door to the refrigerator. The cool air
always helped, for some reason. When I found myself strolling down this
ugly path, a chill on my skin reminded me not to go there.
Melanie had initially suggested a rubber band around my wrist. I was
supposed to pull on it and sting myself when I had these unwanted
thoughts. Problem was, the thoughts had been so overwhelming that I’d
ended up with a swollen and bloody wrist that was still a little tender to the
touch.
Since I spent so much time in the kitchen, Melanie then suggested a
whiff of cold air. It helped.
A little.
At least it didn’t lead to self-mutilation.
I laughed aloud.
Self-mutilation.
Mel—I was the only one who called her Mel—knew my horrible secret.
She’d apologized profusely about the rubber band idea once I’d told her. I’d
sworn her to secrecy, and as a therapist, I knew she’d never give me up.
Even Jade didn’t know…and I told Jade everything.
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