AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She slapped him away before their skin could connect. “Okay, I guess we’re clear.”
“Caroline, I’m sorry…Idon’tregret last night.” Then he ran a weary hand through his hair. “But I still can’t be your diversion while you’re in town.”
“You don’t have to say anything else. Because you’re right. This was a mistake. A bad one. I’m on the job—we know it can’t go anywhere. It would only hurt us both more in the end.”
She was right. She was voicing exactly the same words that had been swimming in his head for the past half hour. Somehow, however, they hurt a lot more when she said them. “If we could change things—”
She cut him off. “We can’t. We already know that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready for work.” She walked toward the door, her spine straight. “Thanks for helping me…blow off some steam last night.”
After she left, he stared at the closed door, listened to her enter her room, slamming the door behind her. Within a minute or two he heard what sounded like a mournful little cry.
Mick stood there for a long time, wondering if he’d just saved himself some serious heartache. Or if he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life.
HESTER, HAVE YOU been out again so early?”
Hester froze in the kitchen as she was locking the back door early Monday morning. She took a few quick breaths, trying to hide her frustration that her brother was up at this hour. Bob usually never got up until 8:00a.m., which was why Hester ran her more secretive errands so early.
Turning around, she gave him her usual, comforting smile. “Oh, I hope I didn’t wake you. Where are your slippers? The floor is much too cold for you to walk around in bare feet.”
Her brother wasn’t distracted. “Where have you been? You’re going out a lot lately.” He gave her a conspiratorial look. “Is it possible you’ve…well, have you met someone?”
Met? As in met aman?Hester nearly barked a laugh at that idea. Bad enough to have to put up with any male. At least living with her younger brother, she could come and go as she pleased. And she certainly wasn’t interested in any physical goings-on with a man. She’d had enough of that nastiness.
“I’m just taking lots of walks,” she finally explained, knowing Bob was too honest and good-hearted to doubt her words.
Thank goodness he had her in his life. That honesty and good-heartedness meant someone could easily take advantage of him if she wasn’t around to keep him safe.
He gave her a pat on the shoulder. “I’m so happy to see you taking better care of yourself. Would you like me to make you a fruit plate for breakfast?”
“No, thank you, I’ll make us some pancakes in a little while, all right? Why don’t you go back upstairs for an hour while I get cleaned up? I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
He gave her a brotherly kiss on her forehead, and her heart tightened a little. Bob had been very good to her. Better than she deserved, some would probably say. But she’d certainly tried to repay him for the past three years. As far as Hester was concerned, she’d done enough.
Before he walked out the door, Bob looked over his shoulder and cleared his throat. He sounded nervous for some reason. “Oh, by the way, can you set an extra place for dinner tonight? I’ve invited someone to join us.”
Hester lifted a brow.Someone?
“Certainly,” she finally said, keeping her tone even and patient. “May I ask who?”
“Uh, Miss Flanagan.”
Flanagan…Flanagan…She thought frantically, then placed the name. “You mean Louise?”
Bob nodded, and an unusual color pinkened his cheeks. “I’ve been meeting with her, and we’ve become…friends. I’d like her to share a meal with us, if it’s all right with you, Hester.”
All right to have some cheap young woman come into her house and eat with her easy-to-fool brother? Hester would sooner sit down and dine with the wicked Torrence family.
But she couldn’t say so. Not if she wanted to keep up appearances. And she had to do that, at least for a little while longer. At least until she found out whether the notes she’d been sending a certain Hollywood type were going to pay off.
She’d sent three now since Saturday. She would soon find out whether she could pull it off and set herself up for the rest of her life. No more housekeeping for a widowed brother. No more scrambling for extra pennies by ferreting out other people’s embarrassing secrets and being paid to keep them quiet.
She was going to be out of Derryville so fast Bob would barely remember her face. Then he could have all the Louise Flanagans he wanted over to supper.
Only a little longer.
Bob stared at her, waiting for her response, probably wondering if she’d say something disparaging about him having a woman twenty years his junior come over for a social evening.
It was on the tip of her tongue to do just that. Then she thought better of it. If Hester truly was going to get her way and get out of town, Louise might be an answer to a prayer. Not worrying about Bob would sure make things easier in her new life; he was the one person who’d been truly good to her in the past thirty years. Having a wife, instead of a sister, meant he could go on living his boring, staid life, and she could disappear.
