Tempted Again Read Online Free PDF Page A

life.
    If there were, then maybe he could have saved Hosea Williams, one of the troubled kids he’d tried to mentor back in Chicago, instead of the eleven-year-old getting killed in a drive-by shooting. Hosea’s death had spurred Connor on to do even more to save kids, some as young as seven and eight who got into trouble with gangs and drugs. Over time, he became burned out by all the failures, including his own.
    The anniversary of Hosea’s death was coming up but that was no excuse to wallow.
    He certainly wasn’t the only cop to be haunted by something gone deadly wrong. Back in Chicago, his own older brother Logan had been consumed by nightmares resulting from the death of his cop partner.
    Cops don’t dwell. They move on. Emotions were a weakness not a strength. They prevented you from doingyour job. They’d driven Connor from the big city here to Hopeful, where he had a better chance of making a difference.
    And now Rissa was back in Hopeful. She represented another black mark against his soul.
    “You attended Midwest College briefly, didn’t you?” the mayor asked.
    “Freshman year.”
    “Did you know Professor Bennett?”
    “I’d heard about him but I didn’t have any of his classes.”
    Connor had had his daughter instead.
    Not that he’d initially made the connection between Rissa and the history professor.
    Hell, that had been ten long years ago. You’d think Rissa would have gotten over her anger by now.
Marissa
, he corrected himself. She’d gotten married. And divorced. Maybe she just hated all men at the moment.
    No, she hated him.
    “Good thing you didn’t give her a ticket then,” the mayor said.
    “What?”
    “She’s a local. Her mom is on at least three civic committees, including the Women’s Club.”
    “I met her mom today. She wasn’t pleased that I’d pulled her daughter over.”
    “I’m surprised you haven’t met her before.”
    “I don’t have a lot of interaction with the Women’s Club. I’ve seen her around town from time to time but…Anyway, that’s not important.”
    “Yes it is. Trust me, if you piss off Linda Bennett, you’re up to your armpits in alligators.”
    “She’ll get over it.”
    “Normally she might. But she’s not herself lately.” The mayor lowered his voice. “She’s at that age. You know.”
    Connor stared at him blankly.
    “You know.” The mayor ran a finger around his collar. “You’ve got a mother.”
    “Yeah, so?”
    “Isn’t your mother going through that?”
    “Through what?”
    “The change,” the mayor whispered.
    Connor couldn’t believe he was actually having a discussion about menopause with the mayor. To make matters worse, he’d brought Connor’s mother into the conversation. Connor eyed the other man over the rims of his sunglasses. “You’re kidding, right?”
    “I’d never kid about the change. I remember when my wife was going through that.” Mayor Bedford shook his head and nervously fingered his red vest. “I wasn’t sure I’d live through it. I wasn’t sure she would, either. Nothing I said was right. Nothing I did was right. She even complained that I was breathing too loudly. Give me a break. How can you breathe too loudly?”
    “Must have been rough for you,” Connor said.
    “You have no idea.”
    Connor preferred keeping it that way.
    “And the crying. It never stopped. I take that back. Crying then yelling then crying again then yelling again. A vicious cycle.” The mayor shuddered before sighing in relief. “Thankfully she came out the other side and we both survived. We’ve been married forty years.”
    “That’s quite an accomplishment.” Connor couldn’timagine being married at all and for sure couldn’t imagine being with the same person for forty years. He knew people did it. A few people.
Very
few.
    His own parents had gotten divorced when he was a kid. His mom still harbored anger against his dad and had for nearly twenty years. He supposed the fact that Marissa was