In A Heartbeat. Janice Kay Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ How are you?”

      The distress in Molly’s big eyes felt like a sucker punch to Nate’s belly. Instead of answering, she buried her head against her mother’s neck so she didn’t have to see him. Maybe it hadn’t been a punch. A knife twisting, instead.

      Staring straight ahead, Sonja didn’t want to look at him, either, but she said in a near monotone, “The doctor says she swallowed a lot of water, that’s all. Mostly, she was petrified. I’d take her home, except I was too upset to drive. My car is still at the park. I’ll have to take a taxi.”

      He ignored that. Of course he wouldn’t let her take a taxi, and she knew it. “What about the man? Was he brought here, too?”

      Very slowly her head turned. Her eyes blazed, her lip curled. “So they could bring him back from the dead?”

      The air left his lungs in a whoosh. “He really died?”

      “You think I just said that?”

      “No. I hoped they’d pulled him out.”

      “They did. Dead.”

      A man had died rescuing Nate’s daughter. Because I wasn’t there.

      “Who is—” Oh, hell. “Who was he?”

      “Kyle Grainger. His son, Josh, was in Molly’s class last year. Both of Josh’s parents came today.”

      The searing words were bad enough, but the hatred in her eyes...

      No wonder Molly had become so skittish around Nate. What had Sonja been telling his daughter about him?

      “Is she here?” he managed to say. “Josh’s mother?”

      “How would I know?”

      What would he have said, anyway? I’ll come to your husband’s funeral in thanks for him saving my kid’s life?

      “All right,” he said. “We can go pick up your car if you feel up to driving. If not, I’ll take you home. If you’ll give me the keys, I’ll have somebody bring it to your place.”

      “Mr. Fixit,” she jeered. “But why not? Molly needs to go home, not drive all over the county.”

      She was right, of course. Maybe he did suck at being a parent. He loved his daughter, though, and he’d have sworn she loved him, too. He worked long hours, but he’d spent a great deal of his off time with Molly. The one who had been shorted was Sonja, but he’d expected her to understand. But, hey, probably his marriage had been over a lot longer than he’d known.

      Standing, he reached out for Molly. “Let me carry her.”

      “No!” Shielding their little girl with her body, Sonja struggled to her feet. “She needs her mother. Just take us home. Then you can go back to work.”

      Aware that people were staring, he clenched his teeth and said nothing. He might go back to work. Clearly, Sonja wouldn’t be inviting him in so he could talk to Molly about her terrifying experience. His beautiful house wasn’t much anymore but a place where he slept. He’d have happily let Sonja have it, but she’d wanted only money.

      “If I stayed in this house, I’d keep thinking you might walk in the door anytime.” Her ringing endorsement of their marriage.

      He walked beside his ex-wife and daughter down the corridor to the elevator. Molly clung to her mother and didn’t once look at him.

      They had the elevator to themselves until it stopped at the lobby level, where the doors opened. A lone woman waited, blond hair falling out of an elastic, strands straggling around her too-pale, fine-boned face. She looked drained, as if she couldn’t summon the will to so much as step into the elevator even if she had pushed the button to call it.

      Instinct drove Nate to take a step toward her. As he did, her vacant stare shifted from him to Sonja and Molly. Horror took over her face. Her eyes fastened on him, and she lurched back. The next thing he knew, she was hurrying away, walking faster and faster.

      The elevator doors tried to close but bounced back open with him in the way. He didn’t move. It tried again, and finally he stepped back.

      Not looking at Sonja, he said, “That was her, wasn’t it?”

      “Yes.”

      An impassive expression was his default. Inside, he’d been shredded. His heart raced. He didn’t think he’d ever forget the way the new widow had looked at him.

       CHAPTER TWO

      THE MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN gazed at Anna with unmistakable pity. “You weren’t aware your husband cashed out his retirement fund?”

      Given the past weeks, she’d grown increasingly numb, unable to feel much other than a crawling sense of fear. Pity couldn’t touch her.

      She didn’t respond directly to the question. “When did he do that?”

      “The week before...” She hesitated.

      He died.

      The matching fund wouldn’t have been much, given the short time Kyle had worked here, but anything would have been better than nothing.

      Somehow she managed to nod and even smile as she rose to her feet. Pride was a wonderful thing. “Thank you. I so wish he’d kept better records.” Anna held on to her smile until she’d left the building and was making her way across the parking lot.

      Better records? What she so wished was that her husband hadn’t been a fool. She’d begun to realize that much over the past few years, but her attempts to talk sense into him hadn’t made a dent. Learning how deceitful he’d been, that came as a surprise. He’d erased every bit of security she’d thought she had. And for what? She’d been so enraged to see the pittance he’d gotten when he cashed out his life insurance. It hadn’t developed much value, since they’d only purchased it when she was pregnant with Josh, but it would have been paid out in full now that he’d died—$100,000.

      “I want to be sure you and any kids we have are taken care of,” Kyle had murmured in her ear after they’d left the insurance office. His smile had been so tender. “Even if something happens to me, you’ll have this.”

      That shock had been the worst, if not the last. No insurance payout. No savings. No retirement funds. Over time, he had cashed out everything, often paying substantial penalties to do it. With what he’d gotten, he had made risky investments that all bombed, apparently certain each time that he’d make big money.

      No, what she should wish was that she hadn’t been such a fool. She’d asked about money and investments, but allowed him to get away with explanations that didn’t quite make sense and reassurances that he had everything handled. Since he had been working and she hadn’t, she’d felt a little funny about demanding an equal financial partnership.

      And yet Anna had grown increasingly uneasy and frustrated with Kyle’s inability to stick with a job. Early in their marriage, she had believed in him wholeheartedly, but by the time СКАЧАТЬ