The Lost Daughter Of Pigeon Hollow. Inglath Cooper

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СКАЧАТЬ her. “Why now? After all these years?”

      “The letter should tell you what you want to know.”

      Willa picked the envelope up again, stared at the handwriting. “This is why you came here.”

      “Yes.”

      “And why you—” She waved a hand at the building they’d just come from, humiliation settling in the pit of her stomach.

      “I think that was more about something else,” he said, his voice softening. “Something I had no right to pursue.”

      She wondered what he meant by that, but at the same time did not want to know. He probably had a wife and five kids waiting at home for him. A flat feeling of outrage slid in behind the humiliation.

      “Read the letter tonight,” he said. “Then we’ll talk again.”

      He got out of the Wagoneer and shut the door with a firm click.

      She sat for a few moments, stunned, then finally started the engine and pulled out of the Hoot ’n’ Holler parking lot. The Wagoneer muffler clanked on the pavement, a shower of sparks visible in the rearview mirror.

      Behind them, he stood, watching her go.

      SO MUCH FOR well-laid plans.

      Owen didn’t think he could have bumbled it more if he’d tried.

      Willa’s reaction to learning about Charles wasn’t exactly surprising. She had a father she had not known existed. Who wouldn’t be blown out of the water by something like that?

      A brown pickup truck with tires that looked like they had been injected with steroids roared into the parking lot, came to a rumbling halt. Two guys in bandanas and muscle shirts got out, swaggered inside.

      Owen headed for his own vehicle, got in and slapped a palm against the steering wheel. He had asked Willa out tonight with the intention of softening the news he’d come here to deliver. So how did he explain the detour he’d taken in there with the dancing and flirting? And that kiss in the parking lot. No one had ever accused him of being the straightest arrow around, but he did have a girlfriend, and it wasn’t his style to cheat.

      Still, there was no getting around the fact that he had wanted to dance with Willa tonight. That he had, without doubt, wanted to kiss her.

      He had been around the block enough times to have had a lot of firsts. He’d known his share of women. But the energy between the two of them in there hadn’t felt like anything he recognized.

      He ran a hand across his face. Or maybe it was just that his back was to the wall, and he was looking for an exit. Ten days to make up his mind. He glanced at his watch. Past midnight. Make that nine days.

      The future had never looked less clear.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      ONE DINNER. One dance. It was always the little decisions that led to the big trouble.

      Willa drove a few miles before letting herself glance at the letter on the passenger seat, no idea what to make of any of it.

      Owen Miller had been a messenger, a delivery service. His asking her out tonight had nothing whatsoever to do with strawberries, or dancing a shade too close, or anything at all resembling romance.

      Cheeks flaming, she fumbled to redo the button of her blouse with one hand.

      A date. She’d thought it was a date. And he’d been nothing more than a messenger.

      Tipp’s Minute Market sat just ahead on the right. Willa hit her blinker, turned in and pulled underneath a parking-lot light. She picked up the letter from the passenger seat, held it for a moment, then began to read.

      Dear Willa,

      I know you have no idea who I am, and most likely at this point, have no desire to. At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself for too many years to count.

      I also know that your mother never told you about me. But I am your father, and I would very much like to meet you.

      I sincerely hope you will indulge an old man’s wish and return to Lexington with Owen so that we might have a chance to talk.

      Sincerely,

       Charles Hartmore

      It had to be a joke, and yet it didn’t read like one.

      But it couldn’t possibly apply to her. Her father had died. What reason would her mother have had to lie about that?

      She flung the letter aside and leaned her head against the seat, a sudden throbbing in her left temple. Crazy. No other word for it.

      She put the Wagoneer in gear and pulled back onto the road, parking in the driveway of her house a few minutes later with little memory of how she’d gotten there.

      Lights were on. Thank goodness. At least Katie was here. That was the last thing she needed to deal with tonight.

      She stuck her key in the lock and let herself in the front door. Sam bounded into the foyer, tail wagging hard enough to send anything in its path crashing to the floor. She leaned over, rubbed his chin, then went into the kitchen and gave him a bone-shaped cookie from the treat jar. He trotted off, tail flagpole straight.

      Music erupted from upstairs, throbbing through the ceiling. The kitchen light fixture rattled in complaint. A drum solo picked up the beat of Willa’s headache.

      “Katie!”

      No answer. No surprise. She climbed the squeaky pine steps to her sister’s room, knocking at the closed door. When she got no response, she opened it and stuck her head inside.

      Katie had her back turned. She yanked clothes from drawers, tossing them into the suitcases on her bed.

      Willa put a hand to her chest, stepped into the room. “Katie.”

      Her sister whirled then, the surprise on her pretty face quickly replaced by irritation. “Can’t you knock?”

      “I did.” Willa’s voice was little more than a whisper.

      Katie reached over and lowered the volume on the boom box quaking on her nightstand. “What?”

      “I said I did. What are you doing?”

      “Packing.”

      “I can see that.”

      Katie dropped a handful of thong underwear into the closest suitcase, not meeting Willa’s eyes. “Yeah, don’t you think it’s time we admitted this isn’t working?”

      “Katie,” Willa said, throwing up her hands. “You’re sixteen. Where are you going?”

      “Eddie said I can stay with him. He’s got a place with some friends.”

      Willa sank down onto the bed, palms on her knees. “Don’t do this, Katie.”

      Katie СКАЧАТЬ