Judith’s review of Branded by Emma Petersen.

They’d always been there for each other, until a moment of comfort turned into something neither of them were prepared for.

Five years later tragedy has brought Jenny Gardner back home to Parsons’ Pass and the man she walked away from.

Jenny’s read to face the past, forgive, forget and let go. Too bad Tyson isn’t. He had done the honorable thing yet Jenny walked away. And now she’s back and expects him to pretend nothing happened between them. Tyson can’t do that, just like he can’t deny himself the one thing he has always wanted.

Jenny.

Tragedy has brought them together again. But it’s the past that may keep them apart.

Tyson has inherited his father’s estate, the estate of a man who had been absent from his early life and who had borne the brunt of his mother’s ranting against this man who failed her. Tyson was prepared to hate his father when, after his mother’s death, he had come to live with his father. Now his father has died, and he has to admit that he had come to love the man, would miss him terribly, and now must assume the responsibilities his dad seemed to carry so easily. He is also engaged to be married and as an honorable man, believes that he must follow through on his commitments. In spite of his engagement, when Jenny came to comfort him as he grieved over his father’s death, their passion for each other erupted and it appeared that the friendship they had cherished as children had grown into something else. But Ty once again rejected her and when he awoke after refusing to take the virginity she offered, she was gone, and for five years she remained absent from his life. He was married three weeks after his father’s funeral

Five years later Jenny Gardiner was back–Dr Jenny Gardiner–an equine veterinarian who now had a thriving equine practice in California and had returned to South Dakota. She was staffing her grandfather’s clinic before the new vet came that had bought his practice. Jenny had come home to be with her grandparents as her grandfather slowly died after his stroke. When she came to Ty’s ranch to attend a mare who was due to foal, she ran into him and into his anger and bitterness over her flight five years earlier. She didn’t know he had decided to call off his wedding–he really didn’t love his fiancee–but in Jenny’s absence he had married Shanna, a woman who had twice been unfaithful before the ink was dry on the marriage certificate. Jenny know that Ty was now divorced, but instead of seeing it as an opportunity to mend his failed relationship with Jenny, Ty drove her away with his anger. Yet it was to Ty that Jenny turned when her grandmother gently slipped away out of this life, unable to face another day without her soulmate. For two weeks their relationship was idyllic until, much to Jenny’s surprise and dismay, Ty declared that she deserved more and that he didn’t have more to give. The next day she was gone back to her practice in California and six weeks later realized she was pregnant.

Released in 2010, this short story is beautifully written and in a very few pages the story of Tyson and Jenny’s on-again-off-again relationship is told. Their friendship began as Jenny comforted Ty after he came to Parson’s Pass and was still grieving over his mother’s death. In subsequent years, neither of them were willing to admit that what had been building on that childhood friendship was so much more than sexual awareness and lust. And it seemed that they could only come together in times of family tragedy.

This story points up the fear adults often bring into their love relationships because they don’t want to have to be vulnerable any more, having experienced that sense of vulnerability and emotional insecurity during their childhood. Add in the sometimes betrayal of spouses when such a fearful person finally tries to make a permanent commitment, and you have a human being that would rather be alone than be open to that kind of emotional abandonment and disappointment. So it was with Ty. I think there was the matter of timing as well–these two just couldn’t seem to “find their groove.” I’m also convinced that Ty had to do some significant maturing between the time his father died and the occasion where he had to face his own responsibilities as a father.

This is one of those short but poignant reads that grabs the emotions almost from the first sentence. The author has used an impressive economy of words to tell a rather complicated story in just a few pages. Ordinarily I am not a big fan of short stories–I always feel there is far more that could have been and possibly should have been said about the characters and readers would have loved to had their story expanded. However, the author has given readers a tiny bit of literary excellence and even as I re-read the story in preparation for writing this review, I was again impressed with the excellent composition, writing style, and good use of language to draw some powerful word pictures. So I give this short story a 3.75 out of 5 rating, not because it was lacking, but because I just wish it were longer. I think it will be a satisfying read for most romantic fiction fans.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Emma Peterson. You can buy it here or here in e-format.