Sierra's Homecoming Read Online Free PDF Page B

She’d done both those things, though, and now she would have to explain. “I took a teapot out of the china cabinet,” she said, “and set it on the counter. I went up to Liam’s room, to help him settle in for a nap, and when I came downstairs—”
    A startling grin broke over Travis’s features like a flash of summer sunlight over a crystal-clear pond. “What?” he prompted. He moved to Sierra’s other side, shielding her from the bitter wind, increasing his pace, and therefore hers, as they approached the house.
    â€œIt was in the cabinet again. I would swear I put it on the counter.”
    â€œWeird,” Travis said, kicking the snow off his boots at the base of the back steps.
    Sierra stepped inside, shivering, took off her coat and hung it up.
    Travis followed, closed the door, pulled off his gloves and stuffed them into the pockets of his coat before hanging it beside Sierra’s, along with his hat. “Must have been Liam,” he said.
    â€œHe’s asleep,” Sierra replied. The coffee she’d made earlier was still hot, so she filled two mugs, casting an uneasy glance toward the china cabinet as she did so. Liam couldn’t have gotten downstairs without her seeing him, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to reach the high shelf in the china closet without dragging a chair over. She would have heard the scraping sound and, anyway, Liam being Liam, he wouldn’t have put the chair back where he found it. There would have been evidence.
    Travis accepted the cup Sierra offered with a nod of thanks, took a sip. “You must have put it away yourself, then,” he said reasonably. “And then forgotten.”
    Sierra sat down in the chair closest to the wood-burning cookstove, suddenly yearning for a fire, while Travis made himself comfortable nearby, on the bench facing the wall.
    â€œI know I didn’t,” she said, biting her lower lip.
    Travis concentrated on his coffee for some moments before turning his gaze back to her face. “It’s a strange house,” he said.
    Sierra blinked.
    Cool place, Liam had said, right after they arrived, but it’s haunted.
    â€œWhat do you mean, ‘It’s a strange house’?” she asked. She made no attempt to keep the skepticism out of her voice.
    â€œMeg’s going to kill me for this,” Travis said.
    â€œI beg your pardon?”
    â€œShe doesn’t want you scared off.”
    Sierra frowned, waiting.
    â€œIt’s a good place,” Travis said, taking the homey kitchen in with a fond glance. Clearly, he’d spent a lot of time there. “Odd things happen sometimes, though.”
    Sierra heard Liam’s voice again. I saw a kid, upstairs in my room.
    She shook off the memory. “Impossible,” she muttered.
    â€œIf you say so,” Travis replied affably.
    â€œWhat kind of ‘odd things’ happen in this house?”
    Travis smiled, and Sierra had the sense that she was being handled, skillfully managed, in the same way as the horse. “Once in a while, you’ll hear the piano playing by itself. Or you walk into a room, and you get the feeling you passed somebody on the threshold, even though you’re alone.”
    Sierra shivered again, but this time it had nothing to do with the icy January weather. The kitchen was snug and warm, even without the cookstove lit. “I would appreciate it,” she said, “if you wouldn’t talk that kind of nonsense in front of Liam. He’s…impressionable.”
    Travis raised an eyebrow.
    Suddenly, strangely, Sierra wanted to tell him what Liam had said about seeing another little boy in his room, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. She wouldn’t have Travis Reid—or anybody else, for that matter—thinking Liam was…different. He got enough of that from other kids, being so smart, and his asthma set him apart,