Angel Falls (Angel Falls Series, #1) by Babette Jongh (inspiring books for teens txt) 📗

mouth, a wary expression on her face. Skirting Ian’s outstretched legs, she climbed into my lap. “Who’s that?” She pointed at him with her little finger without taking her thumb out of her mouth.

She’d seen Ian before. Probably knew his name. She just didn’t know him in this context, in her house, lying on top of her babysitter-honorary aunt. “This is my friend, Ian.”

“Hi, Amy.” Ian held a hand toward her, but she only curled closer to me, and he dropped his hand onto his lap after a second. “Couldn’t you sleep?”

“You were kissing my Aunt Casey,” she accused. “You were on top of her.”

Ian cleared his throat. “Well, Amy, we’re...” his voice trailed away and he sent a desperate glance my way.

“We’re really good friends,” I finished for him. “We were kissing because we were glad to see each other.”

She turned in my lap and cupped my face in her small hands. “You don’t kiss my daddy like that.”

I sent another silent prayer of thanks up through the ceiling. Amy, unknowing, had said exactly the right thing.

Ian stood and held a hand out. “Would you like a glass of water?”

To my everlasting surprise, she bolted from my lap and took his hand. “Yes, please. I’m so thirsty. I dreamed I was living in the desert.”

Ian took Amy’s hand and cast another glance my way. I nodded toward the kitchen. Together, they left the room. “Was it a nightmare,” he asked in a serious tone, “or only a dream?”

I sat on the couch, listening to their voices.

“It was a horrible nightmare,” Amy told him. “There were prickly cactus plants, and big orange snakes that chased me all over the place.”

Ian asked Amy where the glasses were. He chatted her up to the grind of the ice dispenser, and then at her direction led her back to her bedroom. Again, I listened to the conversation as he tucked her in, and started the bedtime music again.

He would be a wonderful father.

My foolish heart envisioned a future with him tucking our children into bed while I waited for him to come back and make love to me.

And I didn’t even want children. At least, not yet.

Ian came back into the living room. “Thank God she got thirsty when she did, and not fifteen minutes later.”

“I guess we’d better stick to talking.” I patted the couch beside me.

“I was afraid you’d say that.” Ian sat and took my hand in his.

“Okay.” I took a breath and let it out. “Where do we start?”

Ian cut to the chase, completely skipping over Bianca’s midnight-kitchen-appearance. “I’m selling the newspaper. Bianca and her husband are colleagues of mine, and as you’ve probably figured out by now, they’re buying it. We had just signed the papers when I saw you at the realty office.”

“Oh.” My heart stopped beating, my lungs quit working, and I doubled over from what felt like a punch to the solar plexus. He wasn’t just planning to sell the newspaper at some possible future date that might not occur. He’d already done it. “So that means...”

“Sweetheart.” Ian stroked my back, but I didn’t feel it, not really. “I never meant to stay. I buy failing newspapers, revive and flip them. Then I move on and repeat the process in another place. I’ve already bought another paper in South Carolina. I’m sorry.”

I clenched my hands against my belly to keep my guts from falling out. A meaningless fling with the curvaceous Bianca would have been better than this.

He ran a hand down my back in a soothing gesture that didn’t soothe me, not at all. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“So, you’re leaving.” Why had he come here tonight and wrapped me in his arms like I meant something to him? Why had he called me sweetheart, and kissed me like he’d been starving for me? Why had he made me fall in love with him all over again when he’d been planning to leave all along?

“I had to break our date that night because her flight had been cancelled. She’d come to see the newspaper, and ended up staying at my house because—”

“Do you think that matters now?” I stiffened, pulled away, shut down. But he didn’t seem to notice. He stroked my back as if I were a cat or dog who’d be grateful for any show of affection. “You’re leaving. That’s all that matters.” Every slide of his magic fingers on my skin made me angrier than I already was. How dare he? How dare he treat me with such tenderness when all he’d ever meant to do was leave?

“Casey, please, this doesn’t have to change—”

“Stop touching me!” I shoved his hand away.

He didn’t try to touch me again, but let his hand hover over my back in a way I could still feel, damn him. “The deal in South Carolina closes next week. I usually move right away, but this time I’ll stay in Angel Falls until the South Carolina paper is officially—”

“Move today.” I jerked upright, stood and pivoted toward him like a wooden marionette who’d just had her strings pulled. “Leave as soon as you can.”

“Casey, honey, please.” His quiet, reasonable tone made me want to pick up the nearest sharp object and hurl it at his head.

“Please what?” I backed away from him as if he were holding out a poisonous snake. “Please let you fuck me even though you’re planning to leave? Please admit that I’ve fallen in love with you even though you...” I choked on the words, and turned away before he could see the hurt I knew was plain on my face.

“Casey, honey, it’s just business. It doesn’t have to mean anything about us.” He stood and came toward me but I kept backing up, always a step away from him.

“You meant to leave from the very beginning.” I skirted the piano and edged into the entry hall. “You had a chance to buy the house you’re renting, and you turned it down. I