Hummingbird Lane by Brown, Carolyn (good books to read for beginners TXT) 📕

she would do them pro bono, but I told her that when I sold some paintings, I would pay her. Tell me that I’m strong,” Emma said. “I need to hear you say those words.”

“You are very strong. Look what you did for me. Just be yourself, and you’ll be f—” She braked so hard that if Emma hadn’t been wearing a seat belt, she would have hit the windshield.

Emma shifted her focus from Sophie to the trailers right ahead of them. “Josh, Teddy, and—oh my God!”

“Is that your father?” Sophie gasped. “When I saw three guys, I just figured the other one was Arty, but I see now that it’s Wyatt. What’s he doing here? He doesn’t look much different than he did when we were kids. And what in the hell is Teddy doing here already?”

“I guess Mother sent Daddy as a last-ditch effort to make me leave this place. I hope he doesn’t ruin my homecoming with Josh.” Emma sighed.

Sophie took her foot off the brake and inched the SUV the rest of the way to the spot where she parked. “Teddy’s walking toward us,” she whispered.

“I guess he wants to talk. I’m getting out. He can sit right here and y’all can figure things out without all the rest of us hearing.” Emma unfastened her seat belt. Suddenly, the door swung open on her side, and Josh held out a hand.

He helped her out of the vehicle and kissed her on the cheek. “I really, really missed you. Your dad is here, Em. He wants to talk to you.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “Did he say about what? He came quite a ways.”

Josh looped his arm into hers and walked with her across the yard. “No, he didn’t. He’s just been sitting on the porch waiting all this time.”

“Daddy?” Emma pulled her arm free and held her hands tightly to keep from twisting them. “Did Mother send you?”

“Hello, Emma, and no, Victoria didn’t send me,” Wyatt answered.

“Why don’t y’all go around to your back porch, Em, so you can talk in private,” Josh said and then turned around and headed toward the picnic table.

Emma wanted to call out to him not to leave her, that she needed him to help her, but then she sucked it up and nodded toward Wyatt. “Follow me.”

I am strong. I can stand up for myself. Nancy said I’ve made great strides, she thought.

Wyatt was one of those men who could easily get lost in a crowd. Nothing about him stood out except his light brown eyes that were so much like Emma’s.

Awkward.

That’s the only way that Emma could explain the situation. A morning breeze sent the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee right to her nose, and she wondered how her father took his coffee. Most of the time he was either off to work or about to leave by the time she made it to the kitchen.

She walked up onto the porch and found a pot of coffee, two mugs, and a plate full of cookies on the table between the two red chairs. Whoever did that had had the right idea, but she couldn’t even think about eating cookies or sipping coffee right then.

“Help yourself,” she said.

“Don’t mind if I do.” He poured a mugful and raised a dark eyebrow at her. “Want one?”

“No, thank you.” She slumped down into the other chair.

“I wanted to see you before I leave the country,” he said.

“Mother said you were getting a divorce.” Emma’s voice sounded strangely hollow even in her own ears. “Where are you going?”

“I know that she sent Jeffrey and that she was plenty mad when you called her that day.” Wyatt smiled again. “She hates confrontation, even as mean as she is.”

“I’m tired of the way she’s made me feel, Daddy.” The last word seemed a little strange in her ears when she said it this time, but he was her father, after all. “I’m not mentally ill. So, you are really getting a divorce?”

“Don’t you think it’s about time? Our marriage was a mistake from the beginning. We got married for the wrong reasons,” Wyatt said.

“Did you stay together for my sake?” Emma asked. “If you did, neither of you did a very good job.”

“I know that, too.” Wyatt nodded. “I didn’t know how to be a father, especially with Victoria griping about everything I did, so I gave up too easily and let her have her way. You know how she is.”

“Oh, yeah, I do.” She sighed and was beginning to feel comfortable enough to pick up a cookie and take a bite. “Think she’ll ever change?”

“Not really. She’d have to want to change, and in her eyes, she’s perfect the way she is. I wish her the best, but I can’t spend the rest of my life with her, so Betsy and I are going to Belize to live. We’ve signed all the divorce papers, and an agreement has been reached. Your mother isn’t happy with it, but I am.” Wyatt laid a folder on Emma’s lap.

Betsy? The name seemed to come out of thin air. Why hadn’t she seen his dissatisfaction before now?

“These are your bank accounts with a pad of checks and a debit card. I set it all up in a bank in Dallas, but you can change it to one in this area if you want.”

“How . . . what . . . ,” Emma stammered. “Mother said . . .”

“I know what she told you, but the only way I would agree to let her have my part of the house was if she gave you back what was rightfully yours. She has been throwing a fit about Sophie hiring a lawyer, and this gives her a way out that makes her feel like it’s not her fault. She’s giving you the money to get me out of her life. She can blow the money from the sale of the company if she wants, but we’ve caused you enough pain without leaving