Chapter One Hundred and Eight

Neal Patchett didn’t even sound sorry.

“Because he doesn’t love me,” she fairly shouted into the phone. 

“No reason to yell, missy. I may be getting old, but I hear just fine. The man wants you and for him, that’s probably as close to love as any woman will ever get.”

She curled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. Could her father be right?

“You should not have done it.” She said. 

“Tess, you wouldn’t take anything else from me.”

“I didn’t want anything, just your love.” That was all she’d ever wanted from the two most important men in her life and the one thing she was destined not to get. “I’ve got to go.”

“No, wait, child.”

“What?” she asked with a lackluster voice. 

“I do love you.” he said. 

Four words she’d longed to hear since she was a child. They touched her now, healed some thin