Loving You Always Read Online Free PDF

her voice.
    Walsh paused, glancing down before looking back at Shelby. Kerris wondered if anyone else detected the shutters he had just pulled over his eyes.
    “Like you said, it’s been quite a year. I haven’t had a lot of time for much besides work and doing my part with the foundation.”
    “So there’s no one special?” Shelby fished, using her grin as bait.
    “There are many special women in the world.” Walsh offered a scrap metal smile, giving Shelby nothing new to work with. “Just not for me right now.”
    “If you were ready for your someone special, what would she be like?”
    Walsh lowered a thick fan of lashes, concealing his eyes. Concealing his thoughts. For a moment it seemed he wouldn’t answer Shelby’s question, but then he looked back up, and there was an unexpected intensity in his eyes.
    “She’d be compassionate. She’d be someone with a strong sense of what’s right, and doing what is right, no matter what. She’d be loyal and fearless.”
    Shelby leaned forward, obviously thrilled that the usually reticent Walsh Bennett was revealing so much.
    “And beautiful?”
    “It would be incidental.” Walsh pushed his broad shoulders into a dismissive shrug. “The qualities I’d be looking for are…elusive. Rare.”
    “Have you ever met a woman who embodied all these things?”
    “Yes,” Walsh said without pause, his face a riddle no one would be able to solve. His quick smile, the answer. “My mother.”
    Kerris hastily wiped the tears she hadn’t meant to shed. She turned the TV off, jumping at the sound of Al Green crooning “Call Me (Come Back Home),” the ring tone Cam had chosen for his phone. She doubted he had one song from this century in his collection. If it wasn’t on vinyl, he didn’t want it. She glanced around the room, searching for his phone before she realized the sound was coming from the office. She grabbed it in case he was calling looking for it. The ringing stopped abruptly, replaced by the ding signaling he had a new text message.
    I told you I had something special for you. Call me when you get this.
    A picture came through of a blonde, her face partially obscured by the T-shirt she was raising to expose her naked breasts. Nausea tensed the muscles of Kerris’s stomach. She swallowed a lump comprised of hurt and shame and inadequacy and indignation. They had barely been intimate over the last few weeks. She’d thought it was the pregnancy and the memory of Walsh between them, but maybe this was the real reason.
    Was this how Cam felt when he walked in on that kiss? Betrayed? Angry? Helpless?
    A car door slammed. Kerris peered through the office window. Cam climbed out of his pride and joy, the Land Rover Kristeene had left him. He stopped by the battered old Camry Kerris insisted on keeping, inspecting the tires and frowning before heading down the walk toward the cottage door.
    “Ker, I’m home.” She heard Cam open the refrigerator and then the stove. “I’m starving. You cook or want me to order something?”
    Kerris walked toward the kitchen, looking for the wisdom and the strength to handle this properly. She watched Cam riffling through the menus in the junk drawer.
    “You need new tires, by the way. I’ll get ’em.” Cam studied a menu and patted the pocket of the jeans hanging low on his lean hips. “You hungry? I’m gonna call my order in.”
    Kerris watched him pat his jeans again and then walk back into the living room, searching for his phone. Kerris held it up.
    “Looking for this?” She leaked anger in her tone, saving the hurt for later.
    A look of relief washed over his face.
    “Yeah, I was. The day was so crazy I just realized I didn’t have it.” He extended his hand, palm open. When she held on to the phone, Cam frowned. “Ker, my phone.”
    “Why?” Kerris willed her voice not to wobble. “Afraid I’ll see something I shouldn’t? Like a message from your friend?”
    His dark brows jerked together over confused