LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Two

      Amy fretted, knowing it was useless, but worried just the same. Her mother hadn’t asked, and by late evening Amy felt she should have been pushing for answers to Amy’s relationship with Jake Collins. That she hadn’t was so out of character, Amy grew worried. Her mother must already suspect the truth.

      When her parents had asked her about Kelsey’s father all those years ago, she’d never mentioned Jake by name. She’d told them the simple truth—she’d foolishly fallen for a man she’d met in Annapolis. A man who hadn’t been interested in being a father any more than he’d been interested in a long-term commitment. Being the sort of parents they were, they’d never pushed her to reveal more. She’d been grateful, because it had been so hard to think about Jake back then without crying.

      Actually, not crying had never gotten as easy as it should have until she’d firmly locked away her thoughts of Jake.

      Amy decided to approach her mother after Kelsey had gone to bed. Though she’d told her daughter pretty much the same story she’d told her parents, she’d always known the time would come when Kelsey would want more detailed information about her father. Amy didn’t intend to lie. She just wasn’t sure how to handle the situation now that the time appeared to have arrived.

      Amy found her mother puttering in the kitchen, alone. Taking a deep breath, she decided to get it over with.

      “About Jake—”

      “Charming man. So gracious and kind.”

      “Yeah. Kind.” So kind he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge his own child. “I guess you’re wondering how I know him.”

      “Well, actually, dear, I was simply hoping you could put paid to the rumor about him being in the Mafia.”

      “Mother!”

      “Well, it does seem ridiculous,” she said, briskly wiping her hands and folding the dish towel.

      “He was in the navy, not the Mafia.”

      “Good, dear. That’s such a relief.”

      Her mother could be exasperating when she chose to be. And there was only one reason Amy could think of that would explain why she was choosing to be so obtuse about Jake. She suspected the truth. Amy needed to disabuse her mother of any idea she might be harboring about matchmaking.

      “I met him that summer after I graduated college.”

      “When you were staying in Annapolis with your friend?”

      The college friend she’d forgotten all about the night she was introduced to Jake. “Yes.” She waited for the inevitable questions. Her mother couldn’t fail to make that connection.

      “I’m glad, dear.”

      “You are?”

      “Yes, of course.” Her mother pushed absently at a wisp of silvery hair. “I never did like the idea of the Mafia in Fools Point. You know, dear, I’m feeling awfully tired this evening. Would you mind if I turn in a little early?”

      Amy gaped at her. While true that her parents had always respected her right to privacy, her mother wasn’t even going to ask?

      Then concern set in. “Are you okay? You’re not having any pain or anything, are you?”

      “Who’s having pain?” her father demanded, coming into the kitchen on the end of her question.

      “Now, Corny, don’t go getting all upset. I just said I was tired. I’d like to go up to bed and read for a while but I didn’t want our daughter to think I was ignoring her.”

      “I wouldn’t think that.” But she was puzzled and very concerned. Her mother hadn’t looked well since the incident outside the restaurant. If Amy hadn’t been so caught up in her own dilemma she’d have realized that much sooner. The walk in that heat and then being thrown to the ground like that…

      Cornelius Thomas laid a wrinkled hand on his wife’s arm. “That sounds like an excellent idea,” he agreed tenderly. “I just bought that new science fiction book R.J. and some of the others were talking about down at the general store. I’ll come up with you and read, too. You don’t mind, do you, Amy?”

      “No. Of course not. You two go ahead. If you need anything, just call out.”

      For the first time Amy accepted that her parents had aged a great deal in the years she’d been gone. They’d always been older than most of her friends’ parents. Amy had been a surprise baby coming to them late in life. That fact had never bothered her until now.

      “Good night, dear. Don’t forget to check the locks before you come up, will you?”

      “I won’t forget.”

      She kissed them good-night, then wandered aimlessly around the house she had always called home. Despite the newly installed satellite dish and its variety of stations, there was nothing on television to hold her interest. She flipped through the channels, trying not to wonder what Jake had been doing with himself all these years. Had he stayed in the military or had he gone on to do something else? It was hard to imagine him running a restaurant. She couldn’t remember him cooking anything more than steaks on the grill when they’d been together.

      Jake had changed in others ways, as well. He seemed stern now—more aloof and forbidding. No wonder the town thought he was a gangster. His facade placed a wall between him and the world at large. His eyes were watchful, but in their depths a person glimpsed a soul that had seen too much of the hard side of life.

      Amy tried to shake off thoughts of Jake. But the feel of his body over hers this afternoon had brought about a resurgence of so many emotions.

      Amy finally turned off the television and settled back on the couch with a book. Unfortunately, the novel couldn’t hold her attention, either. Jake’s face kept intruding.

      He’d always been a private man until one really got to know him. And he’d always carried an air of arrogant competence. But where was the man she’d laughed with? Made love with?

      It was hard not to remember his hands engulfing her small breasts, stroking and readying them for the pleasure his mouth could bring.

      Amy closed the book with a snap. She was not going to think about that.

      “Idiot!” She set the book on the coffee table. A romance novel couldn’t compete with the reality of their past. It had been nine years since they’d parted, but his every touch lined her memory.

      Amy stood and walked to the living-room window, gazing out over the porch without really seeing. She had to purge her recollections somehow. She had to—

      A flicker of motion caught her attention. Had she just seen someone move from behind the maple tree on the curb to the cluster of pines in the front yard?

      She strained to see, watching the dark yard intently. Should she turn on the porch light for a better view? Maybe she’d just imagined…No. Definitely not her imagination. Something or someone had just slipped from behind the tree to blend into the overgrown bushes that surrounded the porch.

      Her pulse quickened. Eleven o’clock was definitely too late for neighborhood children to be playing hide-and-seek in her parents’ front yard. Besides, the figure had been too tall for a young child.

      Someone was up to no good. She curbed the instinct to step onto the porch and call out. Ten years ago she wouldn’t have hesitated, but Fools Point was no longer the safe, quiet town she’d grown up in. Heck, the downtown area practically looked like a war zone.

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