Loving Lydia (Atlantic Divide) Read Online Free PDF

honey,” Jack said from the doorway, where he’d been watching for some time. He sauntered over to the coffee machine and gave his brother a “come over here” jerk of his head.
    *
    As he pulled down coffee cups and pressed the grind button, Jack kept sending glances over at him as Sam leaned against the counter, a deceptive, calm look on his face.
    “How long did it take you before you hit on her?” His older brother’s voice was filled with disapproval.
    Sam flicked him a sideways glance, and then continued to watch the women and children across the other side of the kitchen.
    “I haven’t hit on her.”
    “Could have fooled me,” Jack muttered out of the side of his mouth.
    “Well, you’re going to have to take my word for it. I haven’t made any inappropriate advances.”
    Jack got the milk out of the fridge.
    “But…?”
    Sam leaned on the counter and gazed out of the window across the fields. “How long did it take you to know that Katie was the one?”
    “Oh shit.” Jack’s voice was a little louder than he realized, and he lowered it as Kate gave him a look of disapproval and nodded toward the children. Sam smiled. He took coffee over to the women as Jack took juice for the kids, and then indicated for his brother to follow him onto the veranda. As they walked slowly around the house, Sam felt Jack glance at him several times.
    “Jesus, you’re serious.”
    “Yep.”
    “She only just arrived last night. When the hell could that have happened?”
    “The moment I saw her. She walked through the arrivals gate and … wham! ”
    “And Lydia? How does she feel?”
    “Well hell, I haven’t said anything to her yet,” he blurted. “She’s scared to death of anything that moves. If I looked sideways at her right now, she’d run a mile. I’m going to have to gently bring her round to my way of thinking first.”
    “Sam, Lydia comes with a lot of baggage. Sometimes you can’t have your own way just because you want it, you know. It doesn’t always happen that way.”
    “It did for you.”
    “Yeah, but it nearly didn’t.”
    They both turned together and leaned on the balcony, cradling their coffee cups.
    “I want her.” The second he had seen her, he’d had an immediate reaction to her looks, but since then he found he couldn’t take his eyes off her. The way she moved. The way she watched her kids. The way her eyes skittered away from his. He knew she felt the attraction.
    “Jesus.” Jack stared down at the floor as he scuffed his boot back and forth. “You’re going to have to have a lot of patience, boy, because this ain’t going to come easy. What about the kids?”
    “I like them. You know I like kids. They’re cute. They belong to her.” It was that simple for him.
    “So, did you hit on her?”
    “Nope, and I’m not going to. She’s going to come to me. I’ll let her make the moves. We’ll go at her pace.”
    Jack snorted.
    “Yeah, right. If you’re waiting for that to happen, it’s going to be a long time.”
    Jack was right of course. Lydia was never going to come chasing after Sam, but Sam was a patient man. He could feel the attraction between them, but he could see she was hurt and running scared, so he could afford a little time. If he knew why she was scared, he could help her, but he needed her trust for that to happen. In order to gain her trust, she was going to have to spend quite a lot of time with him. He was just going to have to manipulate circumstances so she got in his way more than she expected to.

Chapter 3
    It never ceased to amaze Lydia just how adaptable children were. They’d travelled such a long way, and while they may not have been perfect on the plane, they had certainly never made a commotion that disturbed anyone else. Except maybe the lady in front of Aaron, who’d been treated to an occasional kick in the back of the seat.
    Having arrived, they’d slept like babies and revived so quickly she could barely keep up with them. It