Read Online Rekindled by Barbara Delinsky - Free Book Online

that Ross had risen beside her, Chloe kept her eyes on the approaching figure. “You met Lee at the house, didn’t you?” she asked.
    “No,” he said with something of a grunt. “Another character let me in and directed me to you. Is this some kind of commune you live in?”
    Lee’s booming call spared Chloe from having to answer. “Is everything all right, Chloe?” He covered the last of the distance at a more cautious walk, making no effort to disguise his wariness of an equally wary Ross. “It’s getting dark. I was beginning to worry.”
    Chloe absently clutched her left wrist, a habit dating back to the days when she wore a watch. Her fingers easily circled the bone. “Oh, my. I’m sorry. I lost track of the time. We were going to-” Suddenly aware that the two men were staring at each other, she interrupted the thought and said, “Lee, this is Ross Stephenson. We knew each other a long time ago. Ross heads the corporation responsible for the Rye Beach proposal.” She looked at Ross. “This is Lee Haight. Lee and I co-own ESE.”
    For a brief instant, she pictured the two men squaring off, and there was that moment’s antagonism. She was relieved when Ross extended his hand. It was met by an equally large one of Lee’s.
    Chloe was struck by those hands, but they were only the start. The physical similarities between the two men, each of whom had been instrumental in shaping her life, was amazing. Both were tall and lean; both had athletic builds. While Ross’s dark hair had faint wisps of gray at the sideburns, Lee’s highlights were more auburn, but both men were tanned and inordinately good-looking. Only their dress differentiated their approaches to life. Whereas Ross was the image of the casual male of the more traditional school, Lee was, in appearance, reminiscent of that earlier, more nonconformist phase through which the other had passed. While Ross wore slacks, Lee wore denim. While Ross wore a sports shirt, Lee wore a T-shirt emblazoned with an apt MAN. Ross wore well kept loafers, Lee had on a pair of battered running shoes. And then there was that neatly trimmed beard of Lee’s that stretched from ear to ear, much as Ross’s had on the night Chloe had met him.
    It had never occurred to her to compare the two men before, but on all counts the likeness was astounding.
    Apparently Ross saw it, too. He grinned slowly, almost slyly. “It looks like Chloe’s taste in men hasn’t changed all that much, after all,” he said, with such a lack of malice that Lee relaxed a little.
    “I intend to take that statement at its most positive, friend. This little lady is very near and dear to me.” He threw a protective arm about Chloe’s shoulder, drawing her to him with his customary possessiveness. She had always liked that, and did even more so now. His presence made her feel less vulnerable. She chuckled when Lee added, “Are you friend or foe?”
    “Friend, by all means,” Ross replied.
    “Then I take it you’re not here on business,” Lee concluded. “And you can’t be passing through.”
    Chloe laughed this time. “I’ve been through all that with him, Lee. He knows precisely where he is.”
    Lee glanced her way. “Sounds ominous.” He looked at Ross. “How long are you in for?”
    “I was hoping to spend the weekend here,” Ross answered with a calm that had the opposite effect on Chloe. Her stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies. They fluttered wildly when those amber eyes turned to her. “If Chloe is free.”
    Chloe didn’t know whether Lee sensed her internal turmoil, but she was eternally grateful for the arm that tightened around her shoulders. “You’ll have a fight on your hands,” he said. “I have a prior claim on her. Your big corporation may be able to do without you for the weekend, but our small one isn’t so generous.” Looking down at her, he said, “There were several calls for you. Alabama called again on that toxic waste burning problem. I