Read Online Cara O'Shea's Return by Mackenzie Crowne - Free Book Online Page A

“I didn’t say that. Finn’s as fine a man as they come. He’s just led a charmed life. That kind of thing can make a man overconfident.”
    “He is that,” Cara complained beneath her breath.
    “So, you’ve come to talk about Finn.” Maive lowered to her favorite seat and waved for Cara to sit. “You won’t find a more talented craftsman in this county.”
    “His talent as a carpenter isn’t in question.”
    When Cara fell silent, Maive scowled at her. “Spit it out, girl. I’m ninety years old. I could keel over before you say what’s on your mind.”
    Cara choked on a laugh, though she needed to tread lightly. The old lady was too perceptive for her own good, and Cara had never been very adept at concealing her emotions when it came to Finn. To avoid blurting out the entire embarrassing incident at the studio the other day, she asked, “Has he always gotten everything he wanted?”
    “What kind of idiotic question is that?” Maive snorted. “You want me to answer your questions, you ask me straight out. What is it you want to know?”
    Swallowing nerves threatening to choke her, Cara inhaled a deep breath. “I want to know about Andrea.”
    “You want to know about his ex-wife?” Maive eyes glittered with speculation.
    “It’s not what you think,” Cara quickly added.
    “And just what is it I’m thinking?”
    She was digging a hole deeper every time she opened her mouth. In the interest of self-preservation, she got to the point. “Finn told me Andrea left him because he retired from football.”
    Maive nodded and her eyes went hard. “The woman was and is an insatiable social climber. I never knew what the boy saw in her. She loved the idea of being the wife of a famous quarterback infinitely more than she ever loved him—if she loved him at all. She married a congressman from Pennsylvania three months after the divorce. Good riddance, I say.”
    Hearing his claim validated, a knot of guilt tighten in Cara’s stomach. Not that she’d actually doubted him. She simply found it hard to believe any woman would walk away from a man like Finn of her own accord. Apparently Andrea the Addlepated had done just that—and assigning ridiculous appellations to a woman she never even met was a sure sign she was losing her mind.
    She realized she’d been staring into space for too long when Maive purred, “So, our Finn told you about his ex-wife, did he?”
    Too rattled to be evasive, Cara muttered miserably. “I sort of asked him about her.” When Maive didn’t prod further, only sat there grinning, Cara rolled her eyes and explained. “Actually, I...sort of accused him of being unfaithful to her.”
    Maive’s gray brows snapped together, all hint of amusement gone. “The hell you say! My boy would never do any such thing.”
    “I know that…now.” Cara squeezed her hands together on her lap.
    “What were you thinking? Accusing him of something like that?”
    “I had my reasons.” Her defense sounded weak, even to her own ears. When Maive continued to frown, she blinked guiltily. “Okay, so I was wrong. I’m going to apologize, but he’s so angry with me he’s refusing to do the work on the studio. He told me to call some guy named Gillespie.”
    “Of course he’s angry. I’d have been shocked if he wasn’t.” Maive leaned back on the settee. “His divorce is a sore spot for him. It’s the one time in his life he failed, and failed big in his mind.”
    Cara grimaced and bit her lower lip. “You’re not making me feel any better.”
    “Was I supposed to?”
    She closed her eyes at the caustic reply and flopped back in the chair, defeated.
    “Why would you accuse him of something like that, anyway? Do you even know Andrea?”
    She opened her eyes and met Maive’s steady gaze, unsure what to say. She wasn’t sure she could explain, even if she wanted to. “It’s a long story.”
    “And an even longer history?” Maive observed keenly.
    Far too perceptive, Cara decided.