Her Texas Family (22 page)
Authors: Jill Lynn
“Lloyd was your age.”
“And she is barely ten years older than Timothy.”
“True. That might have made a difference years ago, but now you are adults with
kinder
. And you need a wife.”
“I don't need a wife right now. I need someone to watch the
kinder
.” He held up his hand. “And Rebekah lives too far away for me to ask her to do that.”
“What about the housework? The laundry? The cooking? Rose did much of those chores for you, and you eat your other meals here. Deborah can do some of the work, but not all of it. With Esther having to do my chores as well as her own around the house and preparations for the end of the school year, she would appreciate having fewer people at the table each night.”
“
Mamm
, I doubt that,” he replied with a laugh, though he knew his sister worked hard at their local school.
His
mamm
wagged a finger at him. “True, true. Esther would gladly feed anyone who showed up every night.” As quickly as she'd smiled, she became serious again. “But it's also true Rebekah Burkholder needs a husband. That poor woman can't manage on her own.”
He didn't want to admit his own thoughts had gone in that direction, too, and how guilty he felt that he'd turned his back on her.
His face must have betrayed his thoughts because
Mamm
asked, “Will you at least think of it?”
“Ja.”
What else could he say? Rebekah likely had no interest in remarrying so quickly after Lloyd's death, but if she didn't take another husband, she could lose Lloyd's legacy to her and his
kinder
. The idea twisted in Joshua's gut.
It was time for him to decide exactly what he was willing to do to help his best friend's widow.
Copyright © 2016 by Jo Ann Ferguson
ISBN-13: 9781488007255
Her Texas Family
Copyright © 2016 by Jill Buteyn
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ⢠are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.