See Megan Run Read Online Free PDF

grudge against her
mother?
    "What’s on your agenda today?" Apparently,
not very long.
    Nicole’s downtrodden expression transformed
into surprise. "Um, well, I need to get another set of fittings
done on the wedding dress. I’m supposed to be there in two hours.
Do you want to come with me? We can find you a dress."
    By "dress" her mother meant one for Megan as
the maiden of honor. Everything in her said, No, No, No, but that
stupid little pinch sank its claws in at the hope-filled tone.
    The traitorous words left her mouth before
she could stop them. "I’ll be delighted."
    Her mother’s smile at the three words Megan
spoke almost made up for her bitchiness. She’d forgotten how much
of a knockout Nicole was when she turned on the 100-watts. The dark
depths of Nicole’s eyes lightened. Megan understood how good old
Shep would fall hard into them and offer her mother marriage. Most
men didn’t have the balls to fight that look.
    "Are you sure? Because you don’t have to. I
won’t hold it against you."
    "The whole community would," Megan muttered
into her cup. By now many upstanding citizens of Riverbed would
know of her presence, would be speculating on the bloodshed, and no
doubt expecting to see fireworks between Aiden and herself again.
They’d been one name growing up, much like Bennifer, because you
didn’t see one without the other. Was getting her father’s house
worth it?
    Megan glanced at the walls, the same
peach-like color, the same fairy wallpaper trim. It was the home
she had loved more than anything, growing up. What was that saying?
If these walls could talk, they’d speak of the short-lived
happiness her father had brought into her life. They’d talk about
the soft, buttery pancakes he used to make for them in this room.
Yes, it would have to be, or why else would she subject herself to
her mother, to Aiden, and to the silent questions he refused to ask
her? Yes. Yes, it was.
    "It’s the least I can do while I’m here,"
Megan said louder.
    "Doesn’t sound very delighted." Nicole’s
smile didn’t falter. "But I’ll take what I can get. We have so much
to catch up on. I was thinking a pastels theme."
    Pastels? Dear baby Jesus, what had she signed
herself up for?
    "No need to panic." Nicole kept chattering.
"I have good taste."
    Megan forced a smile. "Absolutely delighted."
Pastels?
    *****
    Aiden rested his feet on his desk. He was
already in a piss-poor mood. Sleep hadn’t come easy the night
before, and when he did get some sleep all he saw was Megan’s face.
In his dreams she touched him like she used to. Aiden closed his
eyes as the exhaustion pulled at his eyelids, and he saw her again
as if he were dreaming. The sigh settled in his chest. It was going
to be a very long month.
    He tensed when he heard the door close.
"Morning, Shep."
    Shep’s steps were measured. Something had
happened. "We have to go break up a brawl at Tessa’s."
    "The Mackin brothers?" Aiden said, grabbing
his badge.
    Shep snorted. "The Baker boys."
    Aiden’s hand paused around the cool metal.
"Baker—as, in their seventies—boys?"
    Shep hung the extra pair of cuffs to his
belt. "Correct."
    It was going to be one of those mornings,
Aiden decided. He followed Shep out to the cruiser, mentally
preparing himself for trying not to break any of the older men’s
fragile bones.
    Less than two minutes later, the car skidded
to a halt. Tessa’s Bar and Gab sat on the outskirts of Riverbed.
The building looked more like it should be condemned than like the
hottest spot in town.
    The roof sagged forward, casting a shadow
over the fine-grained dirt surrounding the shack-like structure.
Aiden couldn’t see past the front glass window, blackened from
years of cigarette smoke. The swinging door squeaked when Shep
opened it. Aiden heard the raised voices of the brothers before he
saw Tessa standing between them. Gray hairs peppered the once-ebony
shade of the taut ponytail that made her look more Native American
than African