The Moment They Can Never Forgive (The Duke Brothers #5)

Chapter 1

Leah Reynolds looked at the little boy seated beside her. His face was pressed to the glass, taking in everything he saw. She turned into the driveway as the sun started to rise and stopped at the mailbox with the word Reynolds in faded white lettering.

It had been seven years since she’d set foot in this place.

Seven years since anyone had. She’d left that day, telling her friends she was following her dreams, but what she’d actually been doing was running away from everything…

from him. Life had imploded, and there had been nothing left for her in Lyntacky, so she’d gone.

Leah felt the anxiety creeping over her, the same kind that used to accompany walks back up the long driveway on her way home from school or, in later years, from work. Had she done the right thing coming back?

You’re an adult now, and there is nothing here for you to fear.

“Hudson, this place was where me and your mom grew up. Not sure what we’re going to find when we arrive, but we’ll fix it up and make it ours, okay?” The words came out a little high and tight, but just saying them aloud eased some of the pain in her chest.

He looked at her then, through his mother’s eyes, which never failed to make a lump form in Leah’s throat.

Cassie had been gone for two months, her younger sister now the legal guardian to her six-year-old son.

Leah, who could barely look after herself, was now his sole caregiver.

Not Hudson’s father, who was a low-life loser and had run as fast as he could in the opposite direction the day he’d been told Cassie was carrying his child.

“Okay.”

It was Leah who had been there when Hudson was born, and Leah who had spent hours with Cassie and Hudson after moving into the same apartment complex to help her sister navigate being a single mom.

At six, he’d had attitude and challenged his mom constantly, but that had vanished with her death. He was now serious and sad. It took a lot to get two words out of him when one would do. Hudson missed his mom desperately, as did Leah.

Unlike Leah and Cassie’s own upbringing, she’d vowed as her sister lay dying to raise him with love and happiness.

Money was tight right now, but she was going to do everything she could to turn that around, and coming back here, to the place she’d been raised and had run from years ago after her life had imploded, was the start of that.

I will make it work.

They would both be safe here for now, but if it didn’t work out in Lyntacky, she’d leave and find somewhere else. Leah would go wherever she needed to for Hudson and his future happiness. She’d promised Cassie that. Made it a vow just before her sister slipped away from her.

Exhaling, she pressed down on the gas, and the old van she’d traded her sedan for rolled down the long driveway she’d walked up and down twice a day for many years with Cassie. When it was wet, they’d had to jump the potholes.

“I’ll tell you right off, Hudson, your granddaddy wasn’t big on maintenance of any kind, but we’re not going to be like that. We’re getting this place in shape. It will be awesome.”

“Can I ride a tractor?”

He rarely spoke without her prompting him, so it was a surprise to hear the words.

“If it’s still working, I don’t see why not,” Leah said, trying to tamp down the fears clawing their way up her throat. What would she find? Was she an idiot to bring Hudson here to a place no one had set foot in for seven years?

What was I thinking?

It had seemed like a good idea when she’d woken in a cold sweat in the middle of the night.

The wail of sirens screaming outside her window and Hudson nestled into her side had told her it was time to leave Philadelphia.

That, plus the dream she’d always had. Here was the place she could finally try to make them happen.

She’d worried about keeping Hudson safe and decided this was her best chance.

And what? Now you’re regretting uprooting him from the only life he’s ever known and coming back to your demons?

“Can I ride a horse?”

“There’s nothing eating our grass right now, so I think we can arrange that in the future. Your mom and I used to have a horse. I’d be happy to get back on one too.”

The fact that he was talking about something like horses or tractors was a win as far as Leah was concerned. He’d been so quiet since Cassie died.

She thought about the letter in her handbag from the Lyntacky Town Council, telling her this house was empty and needed attention, and as she was the owner, it was up to her to see to that.

So here she was. If things didn’t work out, she’d sell the place and use the money to set them up somewhere else.

Paddocks lay on either side of the drive, the land flat and running to the boundary fences.

The Reynolds acreage was rectangular with a creek at the back—one she would be schooling her nephew to stay away from until he could swim well.

As they reached a fork in the driveway, tall trees started to the left.

Her father hadn’t wanted anyone seeing what went on in the outbuildings, so he’d planted them for privacy.

To the right was the house, and behind it the shade houses he’d put up to earn money…

and then had done nothing with them. Which was pretty much the story of his life. Leah turned right.

“My mom was born here?”

“She was, buddy.” Leah swallowed down the tears. “Shall we go inside and investigate? We have a van full of stuff to unload, and then we’ll head into town for some supplies. I think tonight might be a take-out night.”

He shot her a wide-eyed look of disbelief, and Leah understood why. She always cooked for him—not very well, but she was getting better.

“I’m tired after that long drive, so no cooking for me tonight. How about you?”

He shook his head.

Stopping before the front door, Leah looked around at the weeds and paint chipping off the siding. It looked pretty much as it had when she’d left.

She tried to hold back the flood of memories and emotion, most of which held her sister, but some leaked into her thoughts.

Leah and Cassie had relied on each other after their mother passed when they were young, and their father cared about no one but himself.

Her gentle sister had always been there when Leah needed her.

Caring for her when she was sick, listening when she had a problem.

Leah had been the same for Cassie. They’d been a team, which was why she’d followed Cassie when she’d left Lyntacky.

That, and the fact that Dan Duke had broken her heart, but she wasn’t thinking about that now.

Leah hoped the spare key was where it always was. Otherwise, she’d be breaking in.

Chuck Reynolds had been a man for spare keys because when he came home drunk and couldn’t find his, he’d know there was another one. He had spare keys everywhere, including underneath the chassis of his vehicles.

“Okay, buddy, if there is no key, we’ll break into the house.”

“It’s against the law to break into a house, Aunt Leah,” Hudson said in that serious way he had.

“It’s not against the law if you own the house.”

She got out, and stretched her back, taking in her family home. She knew when she stepped foot inside that door, the memories were going to hit her from all sides. Especially the last one, when her father had been taken away by her lover in handcuffs.

The two-story farmhouse had been old when her parents bought it just after they’d married, and her father had made improvements right up until her mother died when Leah was little.

The midday sun revealed the faded red roof, which looked in need of serious repair.

But as it wasn’t raining, that didn’t need to concern Leah right then.

A covered veranda ran to the left and right, and the steps were in the middle, leading up to the front door, which still had a cracked pane of glass.

“So, what do you think?” Leah asked, looking down at the boy who had slid his little hand into hers.

“It’s ours,” he said quietly. “We own it?”

She nodded. Technically, it was her father’s, but as he was spending the rest of his life in prison, it would come to her eventually.

“What do you know about vegetables, Hudson?”

He looked at her, considering. “I like carrots, but not much else.”

“That’s a start, but I’m thinking more about growing some to make a living out of.”

“I can help.”

“Damn right you can,” she said, smiling at him. This had been the right thing to do. He’d talked to her more on the journey here than in the entire time since Cassie had been gone. “You’ve got to earn your keep, just like me.”

There, she’d said the words out loud, so she couldn’t walk away from them now. Her father hadn’t made a go of anything, but dammit, she would.

“What about your pottery? Mom said you were amazing at it, and I love those mugs you made us.”

“Maybe,” was all Leah said.

She’d stomped down that dream for a while. Later, when Hudson was settled and she’d made sure he had everything he needed—everything her sister wanted him to have—she’d revisit her passion.

She led him to the baseboard behind a small shrub. “Your granddaddy hid spare keys everywhere, Hudson, and the one for the front door is usually here.” She crouched, releasing his fingers, and searched the top of the board until she found the nail. Hanging on it was the key. “Got it.”

“That’s good.”

Glad you think so, buddy. I’m terrified about this next step. But then, she’d been scared ever since receiving that call to come to the hospital. Since realizing her sister was dying and that Leah was all Hudson had left.

She walked up the front step, put the key in the lock, exhaled slowly, and clicked it to the right. She opened the door. Leah’s first impression was the smell, closed-up and musty. Unused. Walking inside, she took Hudson’s hand again, as much for her as for him, and led him into the narrow hallway.

Memories hit her from all sides.

“See that mark there?” She pointed to a black stain on the white wall. “Your mom did that with her wand.”

His smile made her chest feel warm because it was so rare and so like the ones Cassie used to give her when something excited her.

“We made it out of wood.”

“I want one too.”

“Your granddaddy has four barns. I’m sure we can find the supplies for that in one of them.”

Looking around her, Leah vowed that she and Hudson were going to make good memories here. Memories that would overwrite the old unhappy ones.