Cold Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

groaned inwardly anyway, upset that she wasn’t looking her best. Carter sauntered over to the stairs and up onto the porch.
    “Good morning,” he said. “Doing a little cleaning I see.”
    Lexi tried not to let her embarrassment show. “Yes,” she said.
    “You know, there are people you can hire for that,” he said.
    “I’m not afraid of a little hard work,” Lexi said defensively, then seeing him cringe ever so slightly she said. “Besides I am sort of taking stock of everything at the same time.”
    “So what’s the plan?” he said and he walked right past her and headed into the entry and on into the great room. People certainly made themselves at home out here in the sticks
    “I see you’ve already had a gift from Montgomery,” Carter said nodding at the box of wine that still sat on the dining table. “Did he come himself or send one of his lackeys?”
    “It was a guy named Mitch,” Lexi said a little miffed at the forwardness of his just walking inside without an invitation. “Tucker did not like him one bit either.”
    “Well Tuck is a good judge of character, aren’t ya boy?” he said giving the dog a pat on the head. “Just watch out for Montgomery and his boys. He’s had his eye on this place for a really long time and kept pestering Max about it.”
    “Well I knew he wanted to buy it as I was approached almost the moment I learned I had inherited it,” Lexi said. “I was told by Bert Beatty, Uncle Max’s lawyer that Max was intending to sell it to Montgomery.”
    “Well, that’s just not true,” Carter said and continued to look around the great room surveying the work that Lexi had already done.
    “Really?” she said. “Why would he lie?”
    “Because he’s a bottom dwelling, low life, scum bag just like Montgomery, who by the way, keeps him on a very sizeable retainer to do his bidding for him. Max was sick to death of being pestered to sell. He said he’d never sell it to that no-good you know what,” Carter said turning to face her, his face a little red.
    “Well, tell us how you really feel,” Lexi said, smiling for the first time since Carter had shown up.
    Carter laughed a little. “I guess you can tell I don’t think much of the works of them.”
    “Yes. That does kind of show. It’s funny though, the more I check out the place, the more I don’t understand why Uncle Max never opened for business. It’s got everything really and is pretty much ready to go. I just don’t understand why someone would spend all that time and money and then not do anything with it.”
    “I hear you,” Carter said. “Afraid I don’t really have any answers to that question. I did ask him one time and all he said was it was a dream he had shared with someone else. Then she left town. He thought that if he built it maybe she would come back and share it with him. But she didn’t come.”
    “Oh my, I wonder who that someone was,” Lexi said.
    “Beats me,” Carter said. “We only talked about it that one time. Which makes me remember what I was going to ask you yesterday, why’d your family stop coming here?”
    “I have no idea, really” Lexi said, “Just that there was a big fight between my father and Uncle Max and I remember all the yelling and my mother was crying. I was twelve. No one would tell me anything. After that visit, everything changed and we never came again. I learned not to ask about it because it got things all stirred up between my mom and dad and I would hear them fighting again. I never got to see my Uncle Max again. It wasn’t until my Mom and Dad’s funeral that I saw him and I barely even got to talk to him then. I always intended to come out here and visit him after that and well I ...” Lexi’s eyes began to well with tears, “I was always too busy with work and then it was too late.”
    “I was very sorry to hear about your parents, by the way,” Carter said. “I wonder what the fight was about.”
    “I should get back to work,”