Heartstrings. Sara Walter Ellwood

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Crawford Ritter stopped before him. She stared up at him with widened almond-shaped eyes the color of brandy. The naturally tan complexion she’d inherited from her Native American mother went pale and taut over her high cheekbones. She fiddled with the purse strap over her shoulder and pulled her long dark brown hair over her other shoulder. “We didn’t think you’d be here.”

      He easily discerned the real meaning: We don’t want you here.

      The past slammed into him with blazing force, transporting him back to the manmade beach of the McAllister Reservoir. Returning him to the night he and Abby let their attraction turn into uncontrolled lust, and under the stars on a deserted stretch of weedy sand, she’d given him her virginity.

      “Uh...I wasn’t sure...I would be,” he stammered and tried to shake off the memory of a passion he hadn’t been able to forget. He forced himself to look beyond her.

      “Sorry about your father.” Mike Ritter stepped forward. His brown eyes were as hard as the bricks making up the walls of the church. Not quite reaching six feet, Mike was four inches shorter, and lanky like Frank. Mike was dressed in a suit as expensive as Seth’s, if not more so. Since when was the county paying its sheriff enough for him to afford an Armani suit and snakeskin boots? Not to mention the Resistol hat in his hand.

      Then Seth noticed the obviously pregnant brunette holding Mike’s hand. An heiress to a fortune made from the railroad, oil and banking. “Tammy Jo McAllister?”

      She smiled and slipped her arm around Mike’s waist, while she rested her other hand on her baby bump. The gray dress she wore had designer written all over it. She must still have more money than King Midas and spent it like there was no tomorrow. “Hello, Seth. I’m now Tammy Jo Ritter.”

      An icy weight settled in his gut as he looked at Abby. She averted her eyes to the floor. “Mike and I were divorced two years ago.”

      The weight grew larger and radiated into his arms and legs. He couldn’t keep coldness from leaking into his words. “Well, isn’t that interesting? How’s Emily?”

      Abby’s face lost all color as she looked at Frank and Carolann. Damn, they’d never learned the truth.

      Mike’s voice held an unmistakable warning not to push the issue. “Thanks for asking. She’s fine.”

      He met Mike’s glare with one of his own.

      “I think we should sit down,” she said in shaky voice before he could respond.

      He snapped his gaze to Abby. Her eyes blazed with anger. She clenched her hands so tightly her knuckles bleached white against the dark blue of her skirt.

      “I didn’t realize you knew our granddaughter,” Frank said without the least bit of curiosity. He obviously didn’t catch any of the byplay.

      I should know her. He’d keep up Abby’s charade. For now.

      “He met her at a concert in Amarillo.” Mike’s tone left no room for discussion on the blatant lie. “I think we should catch up on old times. After the service.”

      Seth glanced away from the cold eyes of the man who’d been his best friend growing up. Abby’s dark eyes held no welcome either, which was a sucker punch in the gut. He wanted to see fire in Abby’s brown eyes, but not from hatred.

      “Yeah.” He mentally shook himself. What was he thinking? She’d betrayed him. He looked back at Mike. “I think it’s time to talk about those old times.”

      * * * *

      Abby had feared this encounter since the moment her mother-in-law had called her with the news of John Kendall’s death. She took her seat behind the Ritters and fisted her hands in her lap.

      Mike had promised this day would never come, but she knew it would. How could she have been so stupid? She opened her hands, and cooling air hit the fine sheen of moisture coating her palms. Cold perspiration beaded on her forehead, and she resisted the urge to wipe it away. She had to control her emotions. If she wasn’t careful, someone would notice her anxiety.

      Mike glanced over his shoulder at her. He’d always been the solid one, her rock. He grounded her while Seth had been her dream. Her flight of fantasy. The one thing she could never really hold. Even now, even after their sham of a marriage had long ago dissolved into nothing but friendship, she had faith Mike would make everything all right.

      Mike had stood by her when Seth left town to chase his dreams in Nashville. Seth had promised her he’d come home, he’d always be here for her, but he hadn’t stuck around. He’d left and never came back.

      Tammy Jo leaned against Mike’s shoulder, and he shifted his focus to his new wife, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

      As Revered Keller began speaking about the kind of man her neighbor had been in life, she sensed Seth’s attention on her and couldn’t concentrate on anything the pastor said regarding John Kendall. Halfway through the service, she dared to look across the aisle at Seth. His gaze seemed to bore into hers, and the bitterness in the green depths of his eyes seared deep into her soul.

      There had been a time when she was his second-best friend. She knew his secrets, and he knew hers, even things Mike hadn’t known about them. She’d believed in Seth’s dreams, had encouraged them when his father degraded and beat him for having them. In return, Seth had always been there for her when she’d needed someone to take her away from the reality of her life of living down her parents’ sins.

      She’d fallen in love with Seth, but she knew they had no future. Maybe if he hadn’t wanted fame and fortune, they could have found a way to a happily-ever-after. Keeping him here would have destroyed him. And if she’d gone with him, it would have ruined them both. When Seth won a place on the new talent show America’s Rising Star, she’d had to let him go--even if it meant lying to him to make him leave. But the passion they’d shared had haunted her ever since.

      At the service’s end, she met Seth’s gaze across the aisle again. He had no intention of letting her forget what happened after that night on the beach when everything changed.

      * * * *

      The service had been typical and, thankfully, neither Johanna nor anyone else seemed to expect Seth to stand and give a eulogy, or worse, sing. He followed the hearse outside town to the Kendall family plot in a small grove of live oaks on the Double K Ranch where five generations of Kendalls were buried.

      He had to talk to Abby. He wasn’t the same boy who’d left her standing on her front porch the night he’d left town. But one thing hadn’t changed; he’d never forgiven her for what she’d done after that night.

      He got out of his SUV, went around, and opened the passenger door for Johanna. She leaned on him to help her out of the high vehicle, then they moved to stand beside the grave.

      The scene of the pallbearers unloading his father’s casket from the back of the hearse overshadowed his need to confront Abby. The oppressive midday sun beat down on him and glistened off the gray granite of the tombstone marking the grave where his father would be laid to rest. His gaze fell on the name of the woman he barely remembered.

      Suzann Harris Kendall, born May 14, 1960, died July 28, 1983. May her voice charm the angels of heaven.

      His mother. Dead at age twenty-three. СКАЧАТЬ