Forever Hers by Walters, Ednah (new ebook reader .TXT) 📗

Nolan to screw up her day, she gave Eddie directions to the bridge.

They didn’t get a chance to talk until after Raelynn was asleep that evening. Amy left the bedroom after reading to Raelynn and found Eddie in the kitchen putting dishes in the dishwasher.

“You don’t have to do that,” she said.

“It’s the least I can do after that amazing dinner,” he said.

Another silence followed as they worked side by side, the air heavy with unanswered questions. She had dreaded this moment, when Raelynn wouldn’t act as a buffer and it was just the two of them.

“Where did you learn to cook like that?” he asked.

Surprised, she answered truthfully. “Culinary lessons. My parents thought it was a productive way to spend my summer.” At seventeen, the private lessons had felt like a prison sentence.

“So your parents live here in Sandpoint?”

“No, Virginia.” Their disappointment in her at their last meeting was so vivid. Amy sighed, regret eating at her.

“And Raelynn’s father?”

“He died before she was born.”

Eddie frowned and a pensive expression settled on his face. He closed the dishwater, dried his hands on a paper towel then studied her as she wiped the counter.

“Then what the hell is going on, Amy?”

Time to bullshit her way out of this. “What do you mean?”

“I understand that some kids are shy around strangers, but what I saw today went beyond that. Raelynn was terrified in the store. At first I thought it was just the cops, but then I saw your face. Then there was your behavior afterwards in the parking lot, during our drive to the auto shop and home. What are you hiding from? And why are you two terrified of the police? Who did you see in the store?”

“Nobody.” And that was exactly what Nolan was, a nobody.

Eddie’s jaws tightened. “Is that the best answer you can come up with? Again?”

“It’s the only one I have.” She started out of the kitchen, but he moved so fast she was forced to take a step back. Her lower back connected with the counter and pain shot up her spine.

She must have winced because Eddie asked, “Are you okay?”

She shrugged.

“If you are in trouble, I can help you.”

Amy smiled and shook her head. “I had a feeling you’d say that. One, I’m not in trouble. Second, my life is complicated, so I won’t lie about that, but it is my life and I’m dealing with it. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

“If you are dealing with it. Which one is the real you? Jessica Franklin or Amy Kincaid?”

“Jessica is my middle name, Franklin is my married name and Kincaid is my maiden name,” Amy fibbed. “I started using Kincaid after I moved here.”

“Yet everyone around here calls you Mrs. Franklin.”

Her face grew hot. Lying had never been one of her talents.

“That’s not a crime.” She lifted her chin and added, “Unless you need me to get you something, I am off the clock starting now and need to start my other job.”

For one brief moment, she thought he would refuse to move or ask more questions. Instead, he stepped aside and let her pass, but the determined gleam in his eyes told her he wasn’t going to roll over and play nice just because she’d given him some answers.

CHAPTER 5

Amy Kincaid. Jessica Franklin.

Eddie stared at the names, his hand itching to press the send button. For three days, he’d been tempted to investigate her. Instead of pressing the enter button, he deleted the names and exhaled. He refused to resort to going behind Amy’s back. The only way to learn about her was to gain her trust.

Voices drew his attention to the window and Amy standing on the pier, talking to Catherine, Sam’s grandmother. The woman was a talker and nosy. He’d met her the day after he arrived and was forced to explain his relationship with his cousin Baron. Worse, he had to listen to her life story. How she and her husband grew tired of living in L.A., retired early and moved to their lake house to be closer to their daughter, Sam’s mother, who lived in town.

His gaze moved back to Amy. She looked amazing in a red one-piece swimsuit. No wonder he hadn’t heard her this morning. She still sang off key while cooking, and despite her assertion that she hated routine, she kept one that revolved around her daughter—breakfast, morning chores while Raelynn colored or played indoors, working on her computer outside while keeping an eye on Raelynn and her two admirers, lunch followed by reading time and nap while she worked, dinner, more reading, bed for the daughter, then she disappeared behind her laptop.

He’d never met a more stubborn woman in his life. For three days, she’d retreated behind a wall of silence, not even complaining when he’d mowed the lawn. That was about to change. If she was scared of someone, he would teach her how to deal with her fear. That she was scared was a fact. Every time the phone rang, she jumped. If he appeared behind her without her realizing he was there, she gasped. It was driving him insane. The one time he got a verbal response from her, she’d told him the call was from Randal and that her car needed a new starter.

He was in the kitchen when she entered the house, a towel wrapped around her waist, her pouty lips more pink than usual against her skin. She was shivering.

“Coffee?”

She looked from the cup in his hand then his face and scowled.

“Don’t worry, I make a mean cup of coffee and I don’t go about scaring off people by offering to help them with their problems.”

She chuckled at the rendition of the words she’d said the morning after his arrival. “I made the coffee, Fitzgerald.”

“I added the cream.”

She took the cup and sipped. “Not bad. FYI, you didn’t scare me by your offer.”

He’d missed her sharp tongue. “I did, but let’s agree to disagree. So,