Read Online Mountain Song by Ruby Laska - Free Book Online Page A

certain.
    But what about the way
she’d touched him? The hunger in her kiss? The path of her hands still
smoldered on his skin. Her passion was real .
Andy would wager everything that Claudia’s had not been the embrace of a woman
whose heart was already committed .
    “No,” he said
abruptly, deciding, shaking his head. “No. I don’t believe you.”
    “I don’t care if you
believe me or not.”
    “Not after the way you—after
what just happened here.”
    He watched as deep
color rose in her face.
    “I—don’t know
exactly what happened. But what I do
know is that I love Paul.”
    “But you want me.”
    Silence. Her gaze
fixed on a spot past his shoulder, and her thick lashes lowered to conceal any
emotion in her eyes.
    “Admit it, Claudia,”
Andy demanded, refusing to back down. Lack of options made him deadly stubborn.
Having been born with his back against the wall, standing his ground had become
a way of life for him. He’d spent the better part of his professional life
trying to learn the art of compromise, but at this moment he felt like the self
he’d thought he’d left long behind. Like a struggling 24 year old again, ready
to burn it all down to prove some principal he wasn’t sure he could even
define.
    “All right,” she said
softly. “I still...respond to you, Andy.”
    Once the words were
spoken, Andy felt not a rush of triumph, but a frustration, deep and wide,
building inside him.
    He wanted her. She
wanted him. He was a grown man now, a respected professional with diplomas and
awards. His car was paid for, he owned a home, had a comfortable bank account. He
was a man who woman aspired to be with.
    And still he wasn’t good enough for Claudia
Canfield.
    “Congratulations,
Claudia,” he said, tightly. “So you’ve found yourself someone. Someone with the
right pedigree, the right name in the social register, whose ancestors came
over here on the right damn boat. I’m glad. When he holds you at night, I hope
you remember every one of those advantages. Count ‘em good, because they’ll
have to make up for a hell of a lot of—”
    Passion. Fire. Heat. What
they’d shared—what they’d almost stumbled into again, today, he was sure
was nothing she’d ever come close to again. He sure hadn’t. Never in the string
of women who’d briefly shared his life had he ever felt something even close to
what he felt with her.
    And yet she wanted no
part of him, simply because of who he was. Or, more aptly, who he was not.
    He didn’t bother to
finish his sentence.
    “Forget it,” he
muttered, turning to go. “I’ll put together some materials for you. The
standard stuff on nursing homes and other assisted living alternatives. You’ve
got a lot of options in the area. I’m sure you’ll want to discuss it with your
father. I can go over it with you or, if you prefer, I can have the social
worker meet with you. And I’ll schedule Bea to meet with Dr. Dupree, the
specialist I think would be appropriate. If, that is, you have no objections.”
    “Fine,” Claudia
sighed, pressing a palm to her temple and squeezing her eyes shut. It was as if
all the life had drained out of her.
     
     
    The ding of the
microwave roused Claudia from her semi-dazed state. She rose from the kitchen
table and stirred the contents of the frozen meal, a mélange of pasta and
unidentifiable vegetables in a white sauce.
    Claudia rubbed at her
eyes and glanced at the clock. Nearly eight. The clock, at least, was
battery-powered and so hadn’t been affected by the power outage. When Claudia
had returned from the grocery late that morning, the electricity was back on,
and she’d spent half an hour replacing light bulbs and resetting the digital
displays on appliances and clocks, until the house had been returned to some
semblance of normalcy.
    For several hours
Claudia had dusted, scrubbed, and organized. Somehow she kept putting off her
visit to the hospital. She would get
the house put back together. Because