A Simple Twist of Fate Read Online Free PDF Page A

on him coming out of the shower.” There. Short, clear and now it was out.
    Leah smiled. “Well, now. That sounds promising.”
    “He was naked.” Oh, so naked and delicious . . . until he started talking.
    Leah finally put the mug down. Even offered what looked like an encouraging hand pat against the table. “I had hoped that’s where you were going with this story.”
    “What would you—”
    “I mean, I figured you two had a run-in, but Beck without clothes is better.” Leah’s hands were in constant motion now. “For you, of course. Not me. I’m happy with Declan.”
    Of course she was. Declan was the easy one, and his eyes all but glowed with love every time he looked at Leah. No wonder the woman chose him. Not that Declan ever gave Leah much of a choice on that decision. The guy had the chasing-his-woman thing down.
    “Beck isn’t Declan.” Sophie bit back the rest. The part where she kind of liked Beck the way he was, big talker, over-analyzer and all.
    Leah nodded. “True. They’re very different yet exactly the same.”
    Wait . . .
“I’m not sure those things can co-exist.”
    “May I ask you something?” Leah’s head tipped to the side.
    Sophie dreaded the rest of the sentence. “Anything except for a description of Beck and his—”
    “Hell, no.” Leah’s smile flatlined and the shine in her eyes dulled. “I think of him as a brother, so a black horror just descended over my mind at your comment.”
    For some reason Leah’s disgust comforted Sophie. “Sorry.”
    “I’m talking about you. Why are you really doing this job?”
    Sophie’s defensive wall clicked right back into place. “There’s nothing wrong with honest work.”
    “Whoa.” Leah held up her hands in mock surrender. “I’m not knocking the job. Honestly, I know cleaning is hard work. It’s a job I wouldn’t want to do and would suck at. If these guys didn’t pay you, I’d probably be stuck as housemother around here, because we both know there is just enough Neanderthal in the Hanover men to assume I would pick up after them. And, again, I suck at anything remotely related to cleaning.”
    Sophie doubted Leah sucked at anything. Many in town had lined up against the Hanover brothers when they first arrived, including Leah’s father, yet she stood up to them all and even now was estranged from her father as a result. She did marketing for the town’s tourism and basically blackmailed everyone into backing off, or at least not being so publicly vocal about their Hanover hate.
    The strong stand made her a bit of a legend among the women of Sweetwater. They cheered her on. Declan moved her in.
    Sophie’s troll knuckles dragged even lower.
    “You can stop evading the question now.” That was it. Leah made the comment then commenced staring. She didn’t move. Hell, it didn’t even look like she was breathing.
    Something about Leah sitting there with her in the comfortable kitchen pulled at Sophie. The pros and cons of telling the truth battled inside her. But she barely knew the other woman and this wasn’t Sophie’s story to tell. The task that put her at Shadow Hill and straight in Beck’s path grew out of loyalty and love and a lifetime of debt. She just couldn’t betray any of that.
    She went with a reasonable response. “I needed the work.”
    “And?”
    Clearly Leah didn’t buy it, but Sophie refused to waver. If she used any extra words, the woman across from her was smart enough to latch on to a stray one and start picking.
    Sophie cleared her throat. “That’s it.”
    “You might feel better if you confided in someone.” Leah’s traced her finger around the rim of the mug until it squeaked.
    “You sound like Callen.”
    Leah’s hand froze and the tiny noise stopped. “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment.”
    “I mean the part where you assume I’m hiding something.”
    “Are you?”
    Sophie shrugged. “Isn’t everyone?”
    “Nice comeback. I can see why Beck is itching