Read Online Where You Least Expect It by Tori Carrington - Free Book Online Page A

finish her thought. And she didn’t need to. Aidan knew all too well what she was trying to say.
    “I bet business picks up at your shop during these…stretches.”
    Penelope gazed at him for a long time before finally smiling. “You’re right. It does.” She fingered the bracelet around her wrist. “Just today I could barely deal with all the customers.”
    “Did they ask about Mavis?”
    “They asked why we don’t have any doors on the house. I told them we were having them replaced.”
    His hand was still resting comfortably on her shoulder, his finger almost absently stroking her cheek. God, what he would have given to kiss her in that one moment. But even if her mere existence convinced him to stay in town, no matter how strongly his instincts were telling him to leave, he would have to fight his attraction to the woman before him. Because even if he was wrong about his past catching up with him, he knew that wouldn’t always be the case. One day very soon everyone would see him for who he really was. And he thought it only fair that Penelope do that without any false hope that circumstances could be otherwise.
    “Here we go,” Mavis said, reentering the room with a small tray of mismatched cups.
    Penelope gave him a beseeching look. He chucked her under the chin. “I won’t stay long. I promise.”
    “Actually,” she whispered. “I was going to ask you never leave….”
     
    From the moment the words exited her mouth, well into the following day, Penelope couldn’t bring herself to believe she’d said what she had to Aidan. As she counted out change for Jolie Conrad, she hoped her cheeks weren’t flaming red and that her thoughts weren’t transparent.
    “Is everything all right, Penelope?”
    She stared at the woman she had gone to school with. Jolie had always been kind to her. And unfailingly bought teas and lotions from her once a month. But Penelope had never really felt close to the woman who was now the fire chief of the town. She glanced down to where Jolie held the hand of little Eleanor Johansen. Jolie and her husband Dusty had taken the girl in while her father recovered from massive burns sustained when he’d tried to save his wife and Ellie’s mother from their burning house a year and a half ago. She’d heard Elva say something about the now five-year-old being the glue that Jolie and Dusty had needed to paste their lives back together. Secretly Penelope had always known the two would find their way back into each other’s arms.
    She cleared her throat as she realized Jolie waited for an answer. “I’m fine.”
    “Spot!” Ellie cried, tugging her hand from Jolie’s and chasing the black-and-white cat around the counter.
    Jolie looked first at the girl and the feline, then back up at Penelope. “Spot’s been hanging out here?”
    Penelope made a fuss over closing the register and straightening the jars of cream on the counter. “Not that I’ve noticed.”
    Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jolie smile.
    “I wondered where the little troublemaker had gotten to now. She comes by the station for a few minutes, then up and disappears. Which means…”
    Penelope looked at Jolie. “Which means what?”
    Jolie shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s just that every now and again even I believe the rumors about her.” She stepped around the counter to collect the five-year-old. “Come on, Ellie. Say goodbye to Miss Moon so we can go home to make those cookies to take to your daddy.”
    “How is Mr. Johansen doing?”
    Jolie’s smile widened. “Better. His latest skin grafts are taking and physical therapy is going well. Ellie and I are trekking up to Toledo for a visit where he’s being treated. The doctors say he may be able to come home for good in a couple of months.”
    Penelope shared her smile. That was, indeed, good news. She already knew that Jolie’s husband, Dusty—who had long since turned in his firefighter’s hat for a hammer—was overseeing the