Read Online Strangers When We Meet by Marisa Carroll - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marisa Carroll
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anything else he told her was the truth.
* * *
B LAKE STOOD on the deck that overlooked the fields and meadows stretching up the hillside behind Twin Oaks. The night was quiet, as quiet as the nights of his Indiana boyhood, as silent as the deserts of Saudi Arabia or the ravaged Somalian countryside. The stars were high and bright, cold and far away. The scent of fallen leaves and dried grass mixed with the tang of spruce and pine from up the hill, and a chill hung in the air, the harbinger of frost before dawn.
He’d been standing there long enough to notice the chill. Turning up the collar of his worn leather jacket, he faced away from the starlit vista of shapes and shadows, his attention captured by the scene in the inn’s gathering room, just beyond the French doors.
Emma Hart was sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing dominoes with Maureen Cooper’s small twin daughters, Randi and Robin. Blake had met them the evening before when they’d put in an appearance at teatime. He’d avoided tea this afternoon in case Daryl Tubb came by. He didn’t want to be in the same room as the bastard.
The twins were three or three and a half, Blake guessed, sturdy little girls with chestnut hair and blue-green eyes that sparkled with health and mischief. They were well-mannered and well-behaved, but not above wheedling one or two of their uncle Clint’s chocolate chip cookies off a guest’s plate.
The domino game was proceeding with what seemed to be little regard for the rules. There was much laughter and jumping up and down on the twins’ part, and lots of smiles and hugs on Emma’s part. From Blake’s perspective, she looked to be a natural with kids. He bet she wanted a big family of her own, though how he knew that, he couldn’t say. It was something he wanted in life, and had been yet another sticking point with Heather, who thought two kids were more than enough, and then only someday in the distant future.
Finding her naked with Daryl Tubb had been a blessing in disguise.
For him.
But for Emma Hart, it was going to be a heartbreaker.
If she found out, that is.
Should he tell her?
He couldn’t quite see himself in that role. How did you go about breaking a woman’s heart? Over breakfast the next morning, perhaps? Just come out with it? Oh, by the way, that guy you’re with—the one you’re going to marry... Well, the damnedest coincidence. Remember the guy I told you I found my girlfriend naked with? It’s him. Your Daryl. Do you need a little more maple syrup on that griddle cake?
God, how had he gotten himself into such a mess? He supposed if you thought about it, the odds of him meeting up with Emma weren’t as astronomical as they seemed. Cooper’s Corner was a small town, after all. He could accept the chain of events that had brought them into each other’s orbits. She’d met Daryl through her grandparents. He’d met Daryl because he wanted to buy property in the area.
Heather had betrayed Blake with Daryl. Daryl had betrayed Emma with Heather.
And then fate had brought Blake and Emma to Twin Oaks at the same time.
Was he supposed to save Emma from marrying Daryl and getting her heart broken? Because if there was one thing he was sure of in this whole fiasco, it was that Heather wasn’t the first woman Tubb had betrayed Emma with. He was as certain of that as he was of the sun coming up in the east the next morning. And from what he’d seen of the bastard, she damned sure wouldn’t be the last.
Maureen had come to end the domino game and get the twins ready for bed, it seemed. He wondered for a moment what events had led her to leave the city and take up innkeeping in Cooper’s Corners. Had she just grown tired of the rat race, as he was beginning to? Or had there been other reasons behind the move? Whatever the circumstances, she seemed to have made the right choice.
With a smile, he watched the little girls throw their arms around Emma’s neck, nearly knocking her over onto
* * *
B LAKE STOOD on the deck that overlooked the fields and meadows stretching up the hillside behind Twin Oaks. The night was quiet, as quiet as the nights of his Indiana boyhood, as silent as the deserts of Saudi Arabia or the ravaged Somalian countryside. The stars were high and bright, cold and far away. The scent of fallen leaves and dried grass mixed with the tang of spruce and pine from up the hill, and a chill hung in the air, the harbinger of frost before dawn.
He’d been standing there long enough to notice the chill. Turning up the collar of his worn leather jacket, he faced away from the starlit vista of shapes and shadows, his attention captured by the scene in the inn’s gathering room, just beyond the French doors.
Emma Hart was sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing dominoes with Maureen Cooper’s small twin daughters, Randi and Robin. Blake had met them the evening before when they’d put in an appearance at teatime. He’d avoided tea this afternoon in case Daryl Tubb came by. He didn’t want to be in the same room as the bastard.
The twins were three or three and a half, Blake guessed, sturdy little girls with chestnut hair and blue-green eyes that sparkled with health and mischief. They were well-mannered and well-behaved, but not above wheedling one or two of their uncle Clint’s chocolate chip cookies off a guest’s plate.
The domino game was proceeding with what seemed to be little regard for the rules. There was much laughter and jumping up and down on the twins’ part, and lots of smiles and hugs on Emma’s part. From Blake’s perspective, she looked to be a natural with kids. He bet she wanted a big family of her own, though how he knew that, he couldn’t say. It was something he wanted in life, and had been yet another sticking point with Heather, who thought two kids were more than enough, and then only someday in the distant future.
Finding her naked with Daryl Tubb had been a blessing in disguise.
For him.
But for Emma Hart, it was going to be a heartbreaker.
If she found out, that is.
Should he tell her?
He couldn’t quite see himself in that role. How did you go about breaking a woman’s heart? Over breakfast the next morning, perhaps? Just come out with it? Oh, by the way, that guy you’re with—the one you’re going to marry... Well, the damnedest coincidence. Remember the guy I told you I found my girlfriend naked with? It’s him. Your Daryl. Do you need a little more maple syrup on that griddle cake?
God, how had he gotten himself into such a mess? He supposed if you thought about it, the odds of him meeting up with Emma weren’t as astronomical as they seemed. Cooper’s Corner was a small town, after all. He could accept the chain of events that had brought them into each other’s orbits. She’d met Daryl through her grandparents. He’d met Daryl because he wanted to buy property in the area.
Heather had betrayed Blake with Daryl. Daryl had betrayed Emma with Heather.
And then fate had brought Blake and Emma to Twin Oaks at the same time.
Was he supposed to save Emma from marrying Daryl and getting her heart broken? Because if there was one thing he was sure of in this whole fiasco, it was that Heather wasn’t the first woman Tubb had betrayed Emma with. He was as certain of that as he was of the sun coming up in the east the next morning. And from what he’d seen of the bastard, she damned sure wouldn’t be the last.
Maureen had come to end the domino game and get the twins ready for bed, it seemed. He wondered for a moment what events had led her to leave the city and take up innkeeping in Cooper’s Corners. Had she just grown tired of the rat race, as he was beginning to? Or had there been other reasons behind the move? Whatever the circumstances, she seemed to have made the right choice.
With a smile, he watched the little girls throw their arms around Emma’s neck, nearly knocking her over onto
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