Old Loves Die Hard (A Mac Faraday Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

for the two of them.
    After Mac told her about the scene that Christine had caused in the lobby of the Spencer Inn, she asked, “Why did you take her up to the Inn instead of letting her stay here? It isn’t like you don’t have enough room.” She collected the cream and sugar for their coffee.
    “Would you have wanted her to stay here?” After Gnarly attacked the food in his bowl, Mac took two mugs from the cupboard. He paused to watch her reaction.
    “Spencer Manor is your home. You can let whoever you want to stay here.” Those beautiful emerald saucers seemed to bore into him.
    “I asked if you wanted her to stay here.”
    Each one dared the other to say what was on his or her mind.
    The only sounds in the kitchen were the churning of the coffeemaker and Gnarly devouring his breakfast. When he was finished, the German shepherd sat between the two of them and licked his chops while looking from one of them to the other as if to ask what was going to happen next.
    “I’m going to step out on a limb here,” Mac announced.
    “You first.” Leaning back against the counter, she looked as if she was bracing for him to punch her.
    Crossing his arms across his chest, he leaned against the kitchen table. “If the situation was reversed, and it was your ex-husband—”
    “I don’t have an ex-husband.”
    “Imagine you did,” he said. “If you had an ex and he came here, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with him spending the night under the same roof as you—even if nothing happened between the two of you.” He plunged on. “The cottage is yours. Even if it legally belongs to me, Robin said that you can live there as long as you want. That makes it your home. Since it’s your home, you can invite whoever you want to spend the night with you, but…”
    “But…”
    He hated that but.
    Haven’t I said enough? I told you that I don’t want you having other men around. What more do I have to say?
    “You were upset because you thought Christine had spent the night with me,” he came back at her. “Why were you upset about that?”
    There. Let’s put it back on you.
    Seeming to have seen the invisible ball tossed into Archie’s court, Gnarly turned his gaze from Mac to her.
    “Because I was jealous.”
    Mac waited for her to go on, but she didn’t. “Of what?”
    Now her hands were on her hips. “Christine kicked you out of your home. She and her lover conspired to wipe you out. They stripped you of everything and then she had the gall to come here to ask you to take her back. When I came home last night and saw her car here, I thought—” She clenched her jaw shut.
    “You thought I had taken her back,” he finished for her.
    “Meanwhile…” Seeming to change her mind about what she was about to say, she turned her attention to the coffee. She took the pot from the burner and filled both of the mugs.
    Mac stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms about her waist. “Meanwhile, you’ve been here for me,” he whispered into her ear.
    Saying nothing, she nodded her head.
    He kissed her ear. “I’m sorry I’m not good at saying how much people mean to me. But you do mean a lot to me. I missed you last night.”
    Suddenly, her arms were around his neck and her mouth on his.
    He welcomed the return of her scent and her taste as he held her against him. It was as if she didn’t want to lose the chance to have him now that he offered the opportunity.
    With no clear memory of the last time that he had felt wanted by any woman, Mac had forgotten the joy of the touch of feminine hands on him. He gasped with shock and pleasure when he felt her fingertips and nails on his back when she pulled him to her.
    The bongs of the grandfather clock in the foyer chiming the eight o’clock hour brought Mac to his senses with a jolt.
    “No,” he gasped out while pulling away from her. Apologetically, he unwrapped her arms from around his waist.
    “No?” she whimpered.
    “I have to go.” He kissed her