Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘oysters’?” came a voice from the doorway. It was Skylar, and she was holding up a bag of something. “Hope you don’t mind but the door was unlocked. I let myself in.”
    â€œLike the cat,” Cassie said under her breath. She lifted the last pancake off the griddle and put it on a plate, then untied her apron and draped it over the big handle on the stove. Skylar was already at the table and pulling out some greasy croissants and coffee in paper cups. It was as though Cassie was seeing the future. When Jeff married Skylar, this is the way it would be. Only Cassie wouldn’t be there to witness it.
    Quietly, she left the kitchen and went up the back stairs to go to her room.
    Jeff caught her on the second-floor landing. “Cassie,” he said. “I’m sorry about this. I didn’t know she was coming. Maybe we can go together another time.”
    Cassie’s pride wouldn’t let her disappointment show. For a few moments it had been exciting to think of being alone with Jeff. “Are you kidding?” she said. “You’re right. I should take the day off. Sounds wonderful! I can’t imagine what I’ll do with all that time to myself.”
    â€œOh,” Jeff said and stepped back from her. “You’re welcome to go with us. Skylar’s been invited to go on Roger Craig’s boat, and we’re going with them. It’ll be fun.”
    â€œI’m sure it’ll be lovely,” she said, “but I really do have my own things to do. Thanks for the invitation, though.” Turning away, she went into her bedroom and shut the door.
    Once inside, she wanted to kick herself. She should have gone with them. She should have accepted his invitation and gone and…And what? she thought. Stand up against beautiful Skylar? Cassie had had her chance with Jeff. She’d spent a year in his house, taking care of his child, looking after his father, cooking for him, making sure his clothes were clean and put away where they belonged. When Jeff couldn’t find something, he asked Cassie. When he wanted an opinion about a structure he was designing, he asked Cassie.
    He was always courteous. There were many times when Cassie had stared at him, willing him to look at her with lust. She daydreamed about his putting his arms around her and kissing her neck. But he never came close.
    Cassie wasn’t the sort of person to push herself onto a man, so she kept her distance and was as respectful toward him as he was to her. But on a few occasions in the last year she made what she thought of as subtle advances toward him. Each time had been the same. She’d heard him downstairs in the kitchen late at night and she’d gone down. The first two times she’d pretended that it was an accidental meeting; by the third time, she didn’t bother. They’d spread out his latest drawings on the big dining table and he’d explained them to her. She didn’t understand a lot of it, but she liked his enthusiasm and his love of his work. She’d made a pot of tea and they’d drunk it all. It wasn’t until the wee hours that they’d parted and gone to bed—without so much as even a tiny impropriety.
    However, in that year there’d been a few embarrassing encounters. One morning she’d walked into his bathroom with a load of clean linens and been shocked to see him standing outside the shower with just a towel wrapped around him. Last summer he’d brushed up against some poison ivy and Cassie had twice coated his sore back with calamine lotion.
    But in all that time, Jeff had never come close to making a pass at her. He’d never so much as brushed her hand with his. He’d never looked at her in any way except as a…If she had to label it, it would be as a kid sister. He was eleven years older than she was, and while it didn’t bother her, it seemed to mean a lot to Jeff—or else he just