Page 42 of Her Summer Hope

“You’ve got some crazy fast reflexes,” she said, carefully putting the blade back over the potato that had slipped.

“Comes with the territory,” he said, calming his anxiety.

What the hell was wrong with him?

She seemed to hesitate a moment then words burst from her in a rush. “I need to work as much as you’ll let me,” she said. “I need the money.”

His mouth snapped shut and he scanned her face for any clues as to why she needed money so badly. There were none.

“Is something wrong?” he asked carefully, looking out the window so he wouldn’t intimidate her so much.

“No. Money is just tight right now is all,” she said, smiling. “It is for many people, I’m sure.”

He sniffed and looked over at the other window. “I bet daycare must be expensive too,” he said and then wished he hadn’t.

Her mouth dropped open and she looked incredulous…and yes, guilty. She looked like a deer in headlights and that told him all he needed to know.

The question was, why was she trying to hide the fact that she had a child?

She recovered quickly, he’d give her that.

“What do you mean? I don’t need daycare. My husband just isn’t getting as many commissions lately, and—” S

he cut herself off and Kyle waited, but she didn’t continue.

She didn’t owe him any explanations, but he’d hoped she’d trusted him…at least a little.

What was he saying? The woman barely knew him, and just because he’d manufactured some kind of feelings for her didn’t mean that she had to return them, or acknowledge them. Hell, he hoped she didn’t because the way he was going—

He needed some space from her before he did something extremely stupid, like demand that she tell him everything…or kiss her senseless.

“That’s fine. Let John know the days you want to work or need off and we’ll fix your schedule,” he said politely and pushed through the kitchen door and out into the fresh, rainwashed air.

He needed to get out.

Chapter Eleven

Madison

As soon as he left the room she rushed to the pantry and shut the door, leaning against it and covering her face with her hands.

Why? Why had she thought this would be a good idea?

The lies were stacked ten feet deep it seemed like and Kyle didn’t deserve to be treated that way. Now he knew that she was lying to him, at least about having a baby.

He must have heard Em over the phone, though she thought she had hung up fast enough.

Did he suspect that she was lying about other things too? Was he thinking about firing her?

The food wouldn’t wait while she had a meltdown, so she washed her hands and went back to work. She mixed up the horseradish sauce and coated the vegetables with it before tossing them into the oven for an hour and a half. They would be done when the corned beef was.

She decided to make some cornbread to go with everything and got out two large iron skillets for it.

While she mixed it up and let the pans heat for the batter, she thought about her husband…her dead husband. Sometimes it still startled her to think about, to think that he just didn’t exist in the world anymore.

Rob hadn’t been a very good husband or father, but he hadn’t deserved to die. He’d tried to do right by the children at least.

In the end, it didn’t matter. He was dead and they all had to suffer the consequences of his actions.

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