Between Land and Sea Read Online Free PDF Page A

temporary login and password. You can use it while I finalize your card. I will need some I.D.”
    Barbara pulled out her driver’s license and gave it to Hannah. Hannah handed her a small receipt with the login and password information. She pointed to the row of empty computers in front of them. “I’ll put you down for Computer #1. You can use it for an hour. If you need more time, you can use your new library card number. I’ll have it ready for you before then.”
    Barbara thanked Hannah and made her way to the computer area. She followed the instructions on the screen and Googled Paul Armstrong’s name. She skimmed the information, but decided not to print it out. This was a small town, and she didn’t want anyone seeing her printing out information about Paul Armstrong.
    Paul Armstrong was a wealthy developer who had been born and raised in Carden. She looked at his birth date—July 25, 1937—and calculated his age to be seventy-five. She noted that he had left Carden about twenty years ago and settled in New York City. He had two ex-wives and three children. He was presently married to Belinda Armstrong.
    Barbara decided to look at the photographs. She was particularly drawn to those that featured a red-haired woman. She zoomed in on one of them and gasped. She found herself gazing into a pair of green eyes as familiar as her own, surrounded by a mane of red-gold hair. Deep in her core, she knew that Belinda Armstrong was Mirabella, her mother. Barbara pored over each picture of Mirabella. Her mother had aged very little. In one of the articles, her age was mentioned as forty-five. Barbara was older than her mother.
    It’s not fair , Barbara thought angrily. Mirabella kept all her looks and got her man, while she lost everything. And to make matters worse, Mirabella had not even bothered to contact her. All she did was send Paul to arrange for her accommodation. With an expiration date.
    Mirabella and Annabella are on speaking terms . How else would Paul Armstrong have known about Isabella coming to Carden? This also explained Annabella’s selection of Carden. Her grandmother would have known that Paul owned property here. But why couldn’t they have brought her to New York to be near Mirabella? Barbara longed for answers to these questions, but she had no way of getting them. Lisa738 had made it clear that Annabella would not be communicating with her.
    Barbara could easily pick up the phone and call Mirabella, but she hesitated to do so. Why should she make the first move? She looked up and saw Hannah approaching. She quickly exited the Internet and started to collect her purse and folder.
    “I have your card. Did you find all the information you needed?” Hannah asked.
    “Thanks for your help.” Barbara accepted the library card, flashed a smile, and waved goodbye as she left. She walked briskly toward the apartment building, trying to process all that she had learned about her mother. She was startled by the deep, masculine voice that penetrated her thoughts.
    “It’s too lovely a day to be thinking so hard. And a beautiful woman like you should be smiling not scowling.”
    Barbara looked up into the lively, hazel eyes of the attractive man before her. He was dressed casually in jeans and a leather jacket. She stammered, “I . . . Hello.” She stopped and looked at him expectantly. After the fiasco with Andrew, she didn’t really know how to respond to another man’s flattery. And she still wasn’t that comfortable with Barbara Davies’s body.
    He held out his hand. “Hello, yourself. My name is Graham Scott, and I don’t bite. I own the Art Shoppe on the main drag.”
    Barbara smiled and shook his hand. “I’m Barbara Davies. I just moved here from Arizona. I got a job at ReCareering and I start tomorrow.”
    “That calls for some kind of celebration. It’s too late for lunch and a bit early for dinner. How about coffee and éclairs at Solange’s?”
    Barbara agreed to coffee. It was