Read Online Out in the Country by Kate Hewitt - Free Book Online Page B

street lights she couldn’t quite make out his expression. “No, not this time,” she answered, her voice as light as his. “Next weekend, though.”
    “That’s good, then.” Luke leaned forward to address the cabbie. “Take Seventy-Second through the park, please, and go up Madison.” He turned back to Molly. “Well, get some rest this weekend if you can. Round two on Monday.”
    “Right.”
    They didn’t speak as the cab sped through the nearly empty Central Park transverse, emerging on a deserted Fifth Avenue. The doorman of Molly’s building was at the ready as soon as the cab pulled to the curb at Eighty-First and Park Avenue, so there was no need for Luke to get out. Still, he did, bidding the cab to wait to take him to his less classy digs uptown. “Did I mention what a nice place you have?” he said with a smile, glancing at the elegant building.
    “It’s my mother’s,” Molly said quickly. She felt a bit embarrassed to admit that she was still living at home.
    “Saves on rent,” Luke replied with a shrug. “Manhattan living on a teacher’s salary isn’t easy.”
    “No.”
    The cab honked his horn, and the doorman cleared his throat. Luke leaned forward and brushed her cheek with his lips. It was no more than most New Yorkers would do in farewell, yet Molly still had to suppress a shiver.
    “’Night, newbie,” he murmured, and then disappeared back into the cab. Molly watched the taxi head uptown, disappearing beyond the next set of traffic lights, before with a little sigh she turned inside.
     
    “So how are things with the inn?” Mark Sheehan as he placed a plate of The Mountain Café’s Sunday special, white chocolate and raspberry waffles, in front of Lynne.
    “It’s not an inn,” she corrected with a smile. “Just a bed and breakfast.”
    “Ah.” Mark grinned, wiping his hands on the apron that covered his spotless three piece suit. “No competition, then.”
    “Well, maybe a little,” Lynne joked, grinning as well, although inside she still felt the familiar pang of discouragement. She hadn’t told anyone about the zoning commissioner’s visit; Jess hadn’t asked, and Kathy and Graham were absent this morning, with Graham still in hospital. She felt as if she were carrying an unexploded bomb, and its detonation would create a wasteland of disappointed hopes. Hers... Kathy and Graham’s... and now Jess’s.
    “You all right?” John asked as he took a bite of his own breakfast. Lynne glanced at him, trying to smile. He’d joined them in their pew at church this morning, and had asked if he might go with them to visit Graham this afternoon. She still didn’t fully appreciate the closeness John Tyre had with the Marshall family, especially when she had experienced so little of it herself, yet right now she found she was glad of his strong, comforting presence.
    “A bit tired,” she admitted finally. “A lot’s gone on this weekend.”
    “How long are you staying?”
    “I meant to return to the city tomorrow,” Lynne replied, “but I’m thinking I might stay on a bit, if Jess doesn’t mind. For Graham’s sake.”
    “He and Kathy will both be glad to have you here.”
    Lynne nodded, her mind still on Anne Jeffries’s news. She stayed distracted all morning, barely aware of the conversation over brunch. Jess seemed almost transformed, her face flushed, her eyes bright, as she regaled both her and John with recipes and plans for the bed and breakfast that might now never be.
    After brunch they headed over to the hospital in Rutland in John’s pickup truck. The air was cool and crisp, the leaves nearing the height of their blazing glory. When they arrived at the hospital, they found both Graham and Kathy in good spirits, Graham looking far livelier than he had the day before.
    “What are they doing, keeping you in here?” Lynne joked as she kissed his cheek. “You look like you have more energy than I do!”
    “I feel fine,” Graham proclaimed, and Kathy