Fatal Inheritance Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t believe prayer would make a difference, either.
    A cell phone rang, and both men reached for their hips.
    “It’s mine,” Josh said. He glanced at the screen, then caught Becki’s gaze. “Excuse me a sec.” He stepped away from them, his phone to his ear.
    “Why don’t I give you a hand with those boxes in your car?” Neil suggested.
    “I can’t believe you came all the way out here.”
    He shrugged. “What’s a three-hour drive to help a friend? ”
    She winced, certain his emphasis on friend was a dig to her “colleague” reference. “Last time we talked you told me I was crazy to want to move here.”
    “Still think so. Figured I’d come see what the attraction was.” His gaze strayed to Josh, and he snorted. “I talked to Peters. He’s going to fill your job with a temp for a few months. Give you a chance to decide if this is really what you want.”
    “I’ve already made my decision.” She fisted her hands. This was the kind of I-know-what’s-best-for-you attitude that had made her break up with him in the first place. He was more controlling than her mother.
    “Don’t be mad.” He tucked an errant curl behind her ear. “You know you don’t belong here.”
    She jerked away from his touch and stalked to her car.
    “Rebecca.” He trailed after her. “I was just trying to help. Country living may not be as great as you remember.”
    She opened the back door of her car, tugged out a box and plopped it into his arms. “I appreciate that. Really I do.” She grabbed another box and led the way to the front door. “But you shouldn’t have interfered.”
    “You’re still mad at me because I didn’t make it to your grandparents’ funeral, aren’t you?”
    “What? No!” She shifted her box onto one hip and shoved her key into the door lock. “I never expected you to.”
    “I should have been there for you.” He covered her hand and turned the key, pushing open the door.
    She snatched her hand back and plowed past him into the house. She set the box on the old deacon’s bench in the front hall, averse to inviting Neil any farther.
    “Hey, no matter what else happens, we are friends. Right?”
    She stared at him, a tad uneasy about what exactly that meant to him.
    “Where do you want these?” Josh’s voice drifted through the door, wrapping around her ragged nerves like a soothing hug. He held a stack of boxes in his arms.
    She rushed forward and grabbed the one teetering from the top. “The living room is fine. Thanks.”
    “This, too?” Neil asked.
    “No. It can stay here. Could you grab the boxes from the trunk next?”
    The instant Neil went back outside, Josh stepped up behind her. “Do you mind if I do a quick walk-through? Make sure everything’s okay?”
    “Yes, thank you.” Her words came out breathlessly. From the possibility that the prowler had been inside, she told herself, not from Josh’s proximity.
    Becki hurried out after Neil, before he got too curious. One time she’d caught him peeking in her desk drawers while he waited for her to finish getting ready for a date. He’d said he’d been looking for scissors to clip off a loose thread, and maybe he had been, but he had no sense of boundaries. Clearly.
    If he did, he wouldn’t be there.
    It was one thing to stop by her desk and chat for a few minutes every day. It was entirely another to drive three hours to do it.
    She’d appreciated that he had the self-confidence not to let their breakup ruin their working relationship. And okay, it had been really thoughtful of him to bring over supper and flowers from everyone at the office after she’d gotten word about her grandparents’ deaths and left work so suddenly.
    But now that their professional relationship had ended, she really didn’t want to deal with him anymore.
    “What does your neighbor do for a living?” Neil asked, passing her with an armload stacked even higher than Josh’s had been.
    She grabbed the top two boxes. “He’s a