Read Online Sugar Springs by Kim Law - Free Book Online

questions a mile a minute about his dog. When she finally slowed, Cody shot one more look in Lee Ann’s direction, then picked up the cinnamon rolls he’d set down and took a step back.
    “It was a pleasure meeting you two. I was asked to pass along a message from Dr. Wright.”
    “Yeah?” both girls asked, Candy finally perking up.
    Keri was a good friend whom the three of them had “taken in,” as she had no family close by but the baby she was carrying. In return, Keri encouraged Kendra’s love of animals by letting her spend many Saturday mornings at the clinic helping out where she could. Candy didn’t care about the animals so much but had been promised the chance to babysit when the time came. She couldn’t wait.
    “Yeah,” he said. “She’s working today, but asked me to tell you ladies hello from her, and that she is looking forward to seeing you both after the baby is born.”
    Identical grins bloomed on their faces as the oddest look passed through Cody’s eyes.
    With a hurried good-bye, he turned and headed across the gymnasium floor to the now-empty table of Larissa Bailey. She was the local librarian, and her whole body seemed to smile when he leaned down and spoke to her. Even from this distance, Lee Ann could see the blush touching her cheeks. Hard not to be flattered when someone like Cody turned his attention on you. Even furious with him, she could admit that. The man simply radiated testosterone. At that moment, every woman in the room was turned to watch him.
    Larissa surprised her by pulling one of her lemon bundt cakes out from under the table to pass over to him. She’d saved one for him? Wow, he worked fast. She wouldn’t have guessed he’d even met her in the two days he’d been in town. Larissa spent most of her time either at the library or her own house. She didn’t get out and around too much.
    Cody said something else as he took the cake, and that made Larissa laugh out loud, her cheeks growing darker. The man hadn’t changed. He could charm the pants off anyone.
    “You dated him, right?” Kendra’s words, followed by a dramatic sigh, infiltrated Lee Ann’s mind, and a tight pinch pulled at her heart. Dated? Right. The one big date they’d been saving up for had never happened.
    “Where did you come up with that?”
    But she knew. The whole town shared everything they knew with whoever would listen, and too many people knew she’d once done some serious mooning over him back in the day. Not to mention that she and he had once spent months hanging together every afternoon. At first as friends, but then the friendship had grown.
    Of course they were being talked about now.
    She peered into Kendra’s eyes and had no doubt what she was thinking. She was too much like her grandmother, the dreamer. What surprised her was the matching look in her sister’s eyes. They’d both recently gotten it in their minds that she needed a man, and they’d been on the hunt since. It seemed they’d come to the unanimous decision that rekindling an old flame was the solution.
    She laid a hand on both their arms. “I’m sure since you heard rumors about him and me, you also heard about what he did to the original statue up on the square?”
    They nodded, so she continued, “Then surely you can see that he’s not someone I’d want in my life. He’s trouble. Plus he’ll be leaving at the end of the year.”
    “But—” It was Candy who started.
    “Do
not
get any ideas,” Lee Ann insisted.
    Both girls grew pensive as they emptied the contents of the basket into one of the canvas bags Lee Ann had used to tote the cinnamon rolls to the sale. Finally Candy spoke, her voice questioning. “I thought you believed in giving people a second chance.”
    Lee Ann dropped into her chair. The whole day had been nonstop go from the beginning, then add on the stress of Cody and she felt as if she’d run a marathon. And the simple fact was that some people didn’t deserve a second chance. But