Lies That Bind. Barbara McMahon

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ when she comes home that I may need help. So rest up. You can stay awhile, right?”

      “For a few weeks anyway. When are you two getting married?”

      “When I know Maddie will be okay on her own.”

      “Unless we move up the date and take care of Maddie together,” Cade said.

      April watched as Eliza gave him a loving smile. For a moment envy struck. She had never had that kind of devotion from either of her husbands. When Cade’s sister committed suicide, something had driven Eliza and Cade apart, but it looked as if that rift was totally mended.

      April couldn’t picture anyone else with her friend. She wondered what had happened to Eliza’s fiancé from Boston as she let her head fall back on the seat cushion and closed her eyes. She smiled to herself. Maybe being married twice wasn’t any more egregious than being engaged to two men in the same month.

      “APRIL?” Eliza shook her gently. “Wake up, we’re home.”

      Slowly April came awake and looked out the window. They had reached the old house she’d grown up in. She stared at the place, noting the peeling paint, the riotous flower gardens, the freshly mowed grass. Surprisingly, tears came. She was home.

      “It needs work,” Eliza explained when April climbed from the car and cast an appraising glance at the front of the house. “Especially to get the clearances and approvals we need to open the home for unwed pregnant teens that Cade and Maddie are planning. Renovations have started inside. Not on the bedroom floor yet, but downstairs. It’s a mess, but Cade assures me it’ll look great inside and out when the work is finished.”

      Eliza had told April in one of their phone calls that Cade had a successful construction firm. “I hope he knows what he’s talking about,” April said a few moments later as she stepped over drop cloths and dodged scaffolding. The front room and hallway were crammed with construction tools, wood and paint. “You said Maddie took out a loan to look for Jo and me. Couldn’t she have used some of the money to keep this house up?”

      “I think finding her girls was more important,” Eliza replied. “Come on, you have your old room. It didn’t take much to get it ready for you. Seems Maddie kept our rooms pretty much the way they were. Yours will soon have a bathroom between it and Jo’s room. In the meantime, we have to share the one bath at the end of the hall.”

      “Just like the old days,” April murmured, following her up the stairs.

      Once April’s suitcases had been deposited in her room, Cade pulled Eliza aside. “I’m heading out. You two can visit to your heart’s content. I’ll call you later.”

      “Don’t leave on my account,” April said. Despite the nap in the car, the bed beckoned.

      “I have things to do. And I know Eliza’s been dying to talk to you. You two will do better with me gone.”

      “You just don’t want to listen to us reminisce,” Eliza teased.

      “That, too.” He kissed her—a hot, erotic kiss, definitely that of one lover to another.

      April looked away. It had been a long time since anyone had kissed her like that. She had been very popular with the boys in high school and had enjoyed a healthy physical relationship with her ex-husbands. But there had always been something just beyond her grasp. Something that Eliza and Cade had, she thought.

      When Cade finally left, Eliza bounced on the bed and grinned at April.

      “Okay, give. I want to know everything that you’ve done since we were separated.”

      “After all our phone calls, you know most of it already, but I can fill you in on the details. And I want to hear your news, too. All of it.” She sat on the bed, leaning against the headboard. Unpacking could wait. She wanted to catch up with Eliza.

      “Deal. I probably know even more about you than you think. Maddie hired that private investigator I told you about to find you and Jo. He succeeded with you. One of the things he was able to do was get clippings from the French newspapers. Maddie has a whole scrapbook devoted to you. Wait, I’ll show you.”

      Eliza jumped up and left the room. April couldn’t help smiling. It was hard to believe twelve years had passed since she’d last seen Eliza. She hadn’t changed that much. She looked a little older, and her clothes were certainly nicer than when they were kids. But her shining happiness hadn’t dimmed at all. April wished she could be as happy.

      Funny how three girls raised by the same woman could turn out so differently. She wondered where Jo was, and what she was doing.

      Eliza had mentioned on the phone that Maddie was the only mother she really remembered. But at least she knew who her real parents had been. Maybe that private detective could help April find information about her own parents. Why had she thought she had to do it on her own? Given enough time and money, a detective could probably unearth anything. And money was something she had plenty of.

      Eliza hurried back into the room, carrying a scrapbook. “Here, you can probably read it all. I can’t believe you speak French.”

      “I took it in high school, remember? One of the few courses I did well in. I seem to have an ear for languages. Of course, there’s nothing like living in Paris to perfect your French. I also speak German, Spanish and a little Italian from trips over the years. German was hardest to learn.”

      “I barely mastered English,” Eliza said, plumping a pillow behind her back and sitting beside April. “I took these to Tulane University to have them translated.”

      She opened the book and April looked at the first clipping. It was six years old, when she was just starting out in modeling. Taped to the opposite page was a type-written translation.

      “These clippings couldn’t have been easy to get,” she murmured, leafing through the scrapbook. “Some of them are ancient.”

      “The detective is very thorough. That’s why he’s so expensive. Is there any chance you could lend Maddie some money? Cade and I paid down the overdue amount on her bank loan so she wouldn’t lose this house, but I’d love to get the whole thing cleared by the time Maddie’s out of the hospital.”

      “I might,” April hedged. Over the years she had learned to be careful about money. “What’s wrong with just making regular payments?”

      “I thought I told you on the phone. Maybe not. Remember the assistant vice president back when we were kids? Allen McLennon? He was dating Maddie right before we left.”

      “Vaguely. Wasn’t he always staring at us? Like we had the plague or something.”

      “I don’t remember that. Anyway, he’s now president of the bank, and he was going to sell the house and property to some consortium that wants to build a golf and country club on Maddie’s land. He’s against the home for unwed pregnant teens that Maddie and Cade proposed. The City Council has granted provisional approval, so Cade has to make sure he can do all that’s required to get final approval. We stalled foreclosure by bringing the overdue part of Maddie’s bank loan as close to current as we could. But I don’t have the money to pay off the loan and Cade’s money is tied up in his construction firm.”

      “How much are we talking about?” April asked.

      Eliza СКАЧАТЬ