Read Online Welcome to Paradise: Welcome to Paradise, Book 1 by Elle Kennedy - Free Book Online

couldn’t.”
    “Sure you could. You could’ve just packed your bags and left.”
    “He threatened to take my boys.” Distress filled her honey-brown eyes. “And besides, I couldn’t have supported myself. I’m a housewife, honey. All I know how to do is bake and clean and mend. I couldn’t have supported you boys, even if your father had let me take you with me.”
    Nate was utterly dumbfounded. His father had threatened to take her kids from her? Why was he only hearing about this for the first time now?
    “And now the subject is closed,” his mom said firmly. “Your father is gone, the past is buried, and I have cookies to bake.”
    He blinked a few times, still trying to sift through all the information she’d given him. Finally he quit trying to make sense of it and asked the question he’d come here to ask in the first place.
    “Have you heard from Austin?”
    Della’s hands froze on the dough. “No. Have you?”
    “No. That’s why I came by today.” He raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Owen hasn’t spoken to him either, and we’re getting worried.”
    His mother’s hand began to knead again, furiously working the dough.
    Suspicion rose inside of him. “Mom. Do you know something?”
    She didn’t answer.
    “Is there a reason Austin has gone AWOL?” he pressed.
    She finally met his gaze, her chest rising as she drew in a troubled breath. “Your brother and I had a falling out the last time he came home.”
    Nate narrowed his eyes. “About what?”
    “Nothing important.” She pushed on before he could object to the vague reply. “He just needs some time to sort it all out, honey. He’ll come home when he’s ready.”
    Fuck, this really was a day for shocks, wasn’t it? First he found out his mom knew that he’d lied about his breakup with Charlotte, then he learned his father was screwing Charlotte’s mother , and now he heard that Della and Austin had had some mysterious argument that nobody else in the family seemed to be aware of.
    He let out a sigh, suddenly wondering what other fun secrets he would discover today.
     
     
    “I love your house,” Charlotte announced as she followed Nate onto the giant deck that overlooked his sprawling backyard.
    And she wasn’t just being nice. From the moment she’d walked into Nate’s A-frame home, she’d been at a loss for words. Two-stories high and made of dark logs, the place resembled a ski chalet, complete with a stone fireplace, a second-story deck and polished hardwood floors. She’d seen Della’s decorating touches throughout the house, in the form of thick burgundy rugs, comfortable leather easy chairs and pretty red drapes at every window. Nate’s masculine presence was emphasized by a fifty-inch plasma TV mounted to the living room wall, and the stacks of Sports Illustrated magazines on the long wood coffee table.
    In the kitchen, she’d been surprised to find pots steaming on the stove and an abandoned cutting board sitting next to an impressive-looking salad bowl.
    “And I can’t believe you learned how to cook,” she added, flopping down in one of the wrought-iron chairs ringing the large glass table outside.
    “I had to when I moved out,” he said with a shrug, sitting on the chair opposite hers. “I couldn’t keep coming home and making Mom cook for me.”
    “I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded.”
    A lump lodged in her throat. Della Bishop had always seemed like the perfect mother to her. It was clear to anyone who saw her with her kids that she absolutely adored her boys. She doted on them, helped them with homework, cheered at all of their football games. In all honesty, Charlotte had been wildly jealous of Nate back then. When her own mother wasn’t taking her clothes off for sleazy men, she was screwing them with Charlotte in the other room.
    “Probably not.” Nate paused. “I saw her earlier today and she asked me to tell you to drop by. She’s eager to see you.”
    “I’ll do that