Once Burned Read Online Free PDF

wrong,” Pat replied. “I take your surprise to mean he’s never mentioned this to you.”
    “Not exactly, but now that I think about it, he and Mom never did like Melanie much.”
    “What happens now?”
    “I left. For good this time. Quit my job so I could move home for a while and regroup.”
    “That’s drastic.”
    Henry shrugged. “I couldn’t stay in the city anymore. I may spend most of my time fighting it, but I am a country boy at heart. Besides, the fact that you know more about my father’s suspicions than I do…. Well, maybe it’ll be good for me to spend a little quality time with my family.”
    “And just maybe you’ll realize you’re not as much of a black sheep as you’ve tried to convince yourself you are.”
    Henry studied Pat for a moment, wondering what the former detective was getting at. Shrugging again, he decided not to worry about it tonight. He had enough to drown already with Melanie’s deceit still fresh in his mind.
    When the pretty redhead perched on the stool beside him and asked to join him for a drink, he almost declined her offer, but when she wasn’t put off by his bad mood, he smiled and decided the company of a beautiful woman might be just the thing to get his mind off Melanie and Dylan. Unless she had a boyfriend and was looking to cause trouble…. So, he asked and wasn’t sure he believed her when she said she hadn’t been anyone’s woman in a long time until he saw the shimmer of something in her eyes that sliced right to his heart. She was telling the truth, and there was surely a story behind why she was single—and had been for some time, apparently.
    “Well, all right then,” he replied, curious. He offered her a lopsided smile, trying to be as playful as she had been a moment ago. “What are you drinking?”
    “Rum and Coke. Thanks. I’m Lindsay Miller, by the way.”
    “Henry Hammond. It’s a delight to meet you, Lindsay Miller.”
    Pat moved off to make her drink, and Henry turned to face her fully. With time to gather the pieces of a more accurate impression, he was quite intrigued. Despite the fact that she’d asked to join him, there was a subtle shyness and caution about her that provoked the same instinctive need to shelter and protect that Dylan’s conception had triggered.
    “So, you’re a Hammond,” his companion inquired. “Any relation to Nick and Beth Hammond?”
    “Nick’s my older brother.”
    “Beth, then, would be your sister-in-law, which means you’ll be at the wedding tomorrow.”
    “Yep. Of course, just about everyone from the Valley will be there, too. Welcome to Northstar,” Henry said with a laugh.
    “It’s the quintessential small town, then, huh?”
    “Oh, yeah. But in the best way.”
    “From what I’ve seen so far, I have to agree. I love small towns.” She leveled those exquisite blue eyes on him, narrowing them briefly and pursing her lips as she studied him with an intensity and curiosity that kicked his pulse up a notch. “Should we just get our reasons for being bad company out in the open so we can get down to the more pleasant task of salvaging the evening?”
    Playful, Henry noted, but serious, too.
    The thought that she might be maneuvering for more than a drink tiptoed across his mind, and he ignored it. No way. She might be, but he knew himself well enough to know that anything beyond drinks and conversation would be a very bad idea.
    “I’m sure you heard most of my reason.”
    Pat briefly interrupted when he brought Lindsay’s drink and another beer for Henry, then ambled off to tend to other patrons, leaving them alone to talk.
    “I’m sorry for eavesdropping,” Lindsay said. “That’s a terrible thing to find out, and I’m sorry for that, too.”
    “Thanks. What about you? Why are you bad company tonight?”
    “Right before the wedding rehearsal, I had the displeasure of engaging in yet another fight with my ex regarding our son.”
    Henry sat up in surprise, unable to recall