Read Online One Track Mind by Bethany Campbell - Free Book Online

was so patently insincere that she knew he was mocking her, and she wasn’t sure why he bothered. He held all the winning cards, didn’t he? He’d always had a talent for jibes, a gift for needling those who were pompous. Did he think she belonged in that category?
    “Oh, act normal,” she said under her breath. “People are looking.”
    His eyes widened as if she’d told him he’d just landed in Oz and was surrounded by hidden Munchkins. But he smiled more naturally and whispered back, “Let ’em.”
    “Fine,” she said with a brisk nod. “Let ’em indeed.”
    For people were eyeing them, the café’s few patrons and Clara, the heavyset waitress behind the counter, and the owner,Otis Jr., sitting as usual in the front booth, so he could see what went on both outside and inside.
    “So,” Kane said, “this is what it’s like. To be seen with you in public. I finally know, after all these years.”
    “And so do I,” she said sweetly. “Hardly worth the wait, was it?”
    “Depends on your vantage point, I’d say.”
    His expression was one of cocky self-satisfaction and made her want to throttle him.
    Clara materialized by her side, setting down water glasses before them. “Hi, hon,” she said to Lori. “You want a menu?”
    “No. Just a glass of iced tea, please.”
    “You?” Clara asked Kane.
    “Tell me,” he said, “do you still make that hamburger steak with the fried onions and hash browns?”
    “Specialty of the house,” she said, studying him carefully. “And to drink?”
    “Same as the lady,” he said.
    She nodded and lumbered off.
    “I looked over the contract,” Lori said. “I have it in my bag.” She reached for her oversized white tote. “I had my lawyer review it.”
    “No, no,” he said with a dismissive gesture. “Business later. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
    “Do we?” She met his gaze and held it.
    But suddenly the derision in his eyes disappeared, and his face became so tightly controlled she couldn’t read it. “I know you’ve had a hard time,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
    This took her aback. For a moment she could summon no words. But then she changed the tack of the conversation. “But you’ve had a very good run. Tell me about it. I didn’t know for the longest time what happened to you—”
    “Did you wonder?” he interrupted. He asked the words with no expression at all.
    “Of course, I wondered,” she said. “I wondered for years. And then I heard you were a…a lawyer.”
    He held up his hand as a signal to stop. “Yes. And I’ve heard every lawyer joke in the world, so spare me.”
    She studied him more closely. This is the boy that I loved. This is a stranger. Who is this man, really? “I never thought it was a joke. I was glad for you. And proud of you. S-so you obviously finished high school. Where? In Charlotte?”
    “Yeah,” he said in the same tone. “Went to Charlotte. Did odd jobs. Worked as a cleanup man at the Motorworks store and got my GED. Then took any kind of job I could to make it through college. And law school.”
    “You always were smart. Aileen said you were brilliant.”
    His face softened slightly at the mention of her aunt’s name. “Aileen. How is she?”
    “Fine, thank God,” Lori said. Aileen was the only family she had left. “She still lives in that little cottage on Ingalls Street. She walks a mile a day, still has her garden. She drives over to the county seat and works one day a week as a volunteer at the pet shelter.”
    He nodded. “Good for her. I want to see her.”
    “And she’ll want to see you,” said Lori. “And she’ll ask me all about you. So tell. After law school, what?”
    He raised one eyebrow as if he himself didn’t quite understand how it had all come about. “I was interested in contract law. I went to work as a consultant for a firm of sports agents in Atlanta. Then I went with an agency back in