Tattered Innocence Read Online Free PDF

backward pajama shirt reminded her
of Hall at seven.
    “Move over, you heffalumps.”
    The kids scooted down the bunk, and Jake sat
beside them.
    Rachel slid between Jake and the bulkhead.
Invited or not, she wasn’t missing this. Her bare arm pressed
against his. Her eyes darted to his face, but he launched into a
story without glancing her way.
    “One day Gramps was hunting in the
woods…”
    Rachel leaned forward, breaking contact with
Jake, to peer at the kids. Cole’s eyes sparkled, and he looked like
he was holding his breath. Katie curled up inside her pink,
polka-dotted nightie, wide-eyed, chewing on her fingers.
    The four of them stuffed into the tiny cabin
felt like a family. But they weren’t. Rachel blinked back tears,
feeling silly, while Jake’s voice filled the cabin with the frantic
howls of a man running from a grizzly.
    Jake glanced at her. “What do you think my
Gramps did, Rachel?” He shot her a what’s-wrong-with-you look.
    Rachel couldn’t push any words past the
tightness in her throat.
    Jake shook his head as if she were a nutcase
and went on with the story.
    She wouldn’t be so eager for the next stage
of life if she didn’t miss mothering Hall. Even if she hadn’t been
MIA from Hall’s life for the last several months, at eighteen, he
was long over mothering—even if she wasn’t.
    Jake paused dramatically and finished the
story. “He held the bear’s paws around the tree―until the bear
starved to death.”
    Katie clapped her hands. “Yay!”
    “Tell us another one,” Cole said.
    “Not tonight, champ.” Jake rumpled Cole’s
hair. “Wrestle you for the top bunk?”
    “Cool.” Cole threw himself on Jake while
Katie and Rachel cleared out.
    Rachel hoisted Katie to her hip in the
doorway and watched Jake and Cole roll around on the bunk. Before
Cole could protest, Jake had him snugly tucked into the top bunk,
still smiling.
    “And you, squirt.” Jake turned to Katie.
“Are you going to let your big brother be the only one tucked in by
the Captain”
    Katie’s eyes popped open wide. She slipped
out of Rachel’s arms, clambered onto the bunk, and flopped onto her
pillow.
    Jake pulled the sheet up to her chin and
whispered something in her ear. Cole’s hair got rumpled one last
time.
    Rachel felt Jake’s breath on her cheek as he
brushed past her in the narrow passageway. A smile played on his
lips as he moved into the main salon.
    “Jacob Murray, you would make a good daddy,”
Rachel murmured, surprised she’d said it aloud.
    His eyes darkened, and his thick,
wheat-colored brows flinched together. “I used to think so.”
    She sat down on the salon bench with a thud
and watched him climb up the ladder and out of the cabin. Yeah,
I used to think I’d make a good mom, too.
     
     
    Rachel took the suitcase George handed up
through the hatch. She didn’t want to say goodbye to George or any
of their guests. She hadn’t expected to get so attached in five
days.
    Cole flew into Rachel’s arms where she stood
in the cockpit, displacing the lump of sadness from her breastbone.
Rachel peered over his shoulder at Katie and pried herself loose.
“You’re hugging the stuffing out of me.”
    Cole clambered onto the cabin. “I had to
give you a grizzly bear hug so you’d remember me.”
    “I promise I’ll never forget you, even if I
live to be as old as your grandpa.” She winked at Lyle.
    Cole leaped down onto the deck. “Wow!”
    Katie tried to smile, but her lower lip
quivered. “Will you remember me, too?” Her blond ponytail bobbed
behind her.
    Rachel scooped Katie up and spun her around.
“I’ll remember you every time I look in the mirror because we both
have the same freckles on our noses.” She set Katie down in front
of her, nose-to-nose.
    “I love you,” Katie said.
    “I love you, too.”
    Rachel blinked away tears as she watched the
children ricochet down the dock after their grandparents. No matter
how many books she struggled through, reading