Page 77 of Her Summer Hope

“I know,” she said. “You’re an excellent boss.”

He flashed her a tiny smile before turning serious again. “Your husband may not be so forgiving.”

Crap.

“Don’t worry about that,” she said, waving off his concerns. “It won’t be an issue. I’ll explain everything.”

He looked skeptical. “I’m not sure I would take it so well if my wife came home from work all bruised up.”

“Rob is…different. It’ll be okay,” she promised.

“Rob?” he said, tapping his lips with his fingers. “I thought his name was Christian?”

Crap. He’d thought Christian was her husband?

She hadn’t meant to say Rob’s name. She didn’t think they’d go snooping into her life, but if he started asking around, he might stumble across the truth. The town was small and at the time, the news of his death was pretty scandalous with the lawsuit and everything that followed. It had finally calmed down, but not before she got a lot of pitying looks.

It had been an absolute nightmare.

“No. Christian is my other boss,” she finally said. “At my bookstore job.”

Kyle was staring a hole right through her as she spoke and she felt like he could read the lies on her face. Finally, he nodded and stood, holding out a hand.

“Come on, let’s go check on Jace and you can tell me how to finish up supper.”

She closed her eyes as he pulled her up, wishing that she could change everything.

∞∞∞

That night in bed she lay awake again.

She was thankful that Jace was unharmed. She was even more thankful that his body wasn’t rolled up in a carpet in the wilderness somewhere.

Murdock’s reaction frightened her. He’d been so cold and so still. She finally caught a glimpse of the man that everyone was wary of.

Logically, she knew that he wouldn’t hurt her, but he was still scary…and Kyle…

What she felt for Kyle, and what he seemed to feel for her was so damned complicated. He acted almost…almost as if he was in love with her, at times.

She caught his surreptitious looks, his gentle touches that seemed too common to be accidental. He took care of her. He was solicitous of her. He seemed interested in everything she had to say. He found reasons to be around her. He’d assured her that he would be respectful of her ‘marriage’…

She was in love with him and it terrified her.

Everything she had gone through with Rob had scarred her. Relationships were dangerous things. They caused grief, and guilt, and heartache, and bad feelings. They were deceptive in the beginning, happy and hopeful, but they could go bad at any moment.

And when they went bad, they went really bad.

Trust. Trust…sucked. She hated it. It built you up to heights that you could never imagine and then…it crashed you into a bleak pit. It was as fragile as wet tissue paper, and not worth the energy it took to give.

She and Rob had been so happy, so content with each other and their life together, or so she thought…except, in one single instant, her entire life had been destroyed and it had been destroyed again months later.

The clock on the nightstand taunted her—the red numbers not only counted down the hours left until she saw Kyle again, but they also counted down the hours of her life. It was neverending.

She heard Em shift in her crib and held herself still, hoping she wouldn’t wake up all the way.

She was expected at Kyle’s tomorrow at noon and it was already one in the morning. She still had to get up in the morning and work with the kids on their lessons. It might be Saturday, but they needed the extra practice, especially Ellie with her math and Jackson and James with their reading.

She turned over, wincing at the stiffness in her neck and back. She’d be covered in bruises tomorrow, that was for sure.

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