Page 19 (1/2)

CHAPTER ONE

SWEAT TRICKLED DOWN Jason Kendall’s neck It had been years since he’d fled this sa a small hurricane as he vowed to never set foot on his fahts, a town forty ot to the farm, the harder it was to hold the memories at bay

Rain pelted the car s like large splats of paint falling fro the windscreen a second at a tilimpse of a road that appeared s tree-lined ribbon without lights that led to the house at Kendall Far house when he lived there The Kendall, as it was known by the locals, was a world unto itself, but it was a world that was stuck in time His half brother, Sheldon, made sure of that

Thinking of Sheldon, Jace alhed Wouldn’t he be surprised to find the family’s black sheep on his doorstep?

Jason Kendall had grown up here Maybe grown up was too strong a term for what had happened to him He supposed he could say it was the place that made him into the man he was today He was proud, resourceful, cynical and steadfast Although e to throw a punch as a solution to an arguround

The Kendall hat the farm had been called since the end of the Civil War when Jameson Kendall returned from the conflict to find hi succumbed to disease or died on the battlefield It took hi it back to a profitable enterprise As it passed froeneration, it had been well ed

Peering through the rain-soaked , Jace tried to spot the house He’d last seen the i with every fiber of his being that he wouldn’t ever return

But here he was, driving up the narrow road, returning not as the Prodigal son, but still as a son, even if he was illegiti back and it outweighed his emotions

Would the place be the sa with the colued in his life in the intervening years He was ry, yet no one would call him humble

He hadn’t let Sheldon knoas co Why should he? Jace frowned The Kendall was as much his as it was his half brother’s, even if their father had referred to Jace in his will as a distant relative How distant were direct genes? The sah Jace’s, “tainted” though it ht be

Jace gripped the steering wheel strongly enough to crush the hard plastic What would Sheldon say when he saw him? Would he throw him off the property now that he was the sole owner? Jace didn’t put it past his brother The two had never been real brothers, even saying they were friends would be a stretch, but underneath that tough exterior, Jace had the feeling Sheldon wasn’t totally indifferent to him He was simply his father’s son

When the juht outside But quickly the light had gone, giving way to the dark, rainy sky Lightning flashed and in that instant, Jace saw the house Unconsciously his foot eased off the accelerator and the car rolled to a gentle stop Windshield wipers tossed water back and forth as Jace stared at the white house that shih the raindrops

The house grew larger as he approached it The six-thousand-square-foot structure had sat on five hundred acres for over a century The other five hundred that co the Depression, but the majority was still intact Jace reuests, when the ballrooet to the horses in the back stables

The road ended in a semicircle in front of the house For a e didn’t show on the old homestead The pristine white color he remembered was as fresh and new as if the paint job had been completed yesterday The five-bar fence he’d cli as it had been when he sat atop a horse and raced the wind The giant lawn,even in the darkness, led to the front door

He let out a relieved breath Looking over his shoulder, Jace checked on Ari, his four-year-old son sleeping in the backseat Jace sh a war It was because of him that Jace was here Ari needed a quiet, private place and betterin South America So Jace was back on American soil

He got out of the car Instead of cli at the house, oblivious of the water drenching hirass with the faint hint of horseflesh over the rain He hadn’t ridden in years, but he rerounds with Sheldon shouting at him to slon Not that his half brother was concerned about him He didn’t want the horse to suffer a fall

A sht he’d miss the Kendall But he had It wasn’t his brother or father that he rooms, the horses, the races and the few people he’d beco the wind as he edged the horses faster and faster Hefences and even the splash of dirty water and flying debris that hit him in the face He missed the silent rush of exhilaration for that tiny space of ti there would be a reprimand at the end of the ride didn’t stop Jace

Rain sh his clothes, breaking the memory that held him in place Quickly, heAri onto his shoulder Taking the wide steps up to the porch, he carried the boy and stopped in front of the century-old door Jace reached into his pocket and pulled out a key ring he hadn’t done old-colored key into the lock It resisted his effort to turn