The Posse Read Online Free PDF

it.”
    Matt ducked his head in that
way Jude remembered from back when he was in middle school. “It’s
no big. The town is part of my family. Everyone’s been there for
me, supported me. It’s nice to be able to return the favor.”
    Jude squeezed another piece
of garlic onto her bread. This stuff was seriously good.  She
took a bite, chewed and swallowed before asking Matt another
question.
    “Do you ever think back and
wish you’d done anything different, Matt? Maybe loved the Cove a
little less?”
    Matt chuckled and leaned
back in his chair. “You’re talking about Renee, right? Nah.” He
shook his head. “No regrets. Except maybe that we both should have
been clearer from the beginning about what we wanted. I thought she
wanted to stay here, help me with the store, have some kids. She
thought I’d eventually get tired of this life and be willing to
move somewhere else. We were both really, really wrong.”
    Jude reached across the
table and squeezed his hand before snagging another piece of bread.
“Do you ever hear from her?”
    “Not for a long time. 
She lived in New York for a while, and then she moved to southern
California. Got remarried about five years ago, had a baby. Birth
announcement was the last thing I got.”
    “Does it still hurt?” Jude
thought for a moment about how it would have felt if Daniel had
chosen to leave her behind, instead of being taken away against his
will. She imagined pain and betrayal.
    Matt looked over her
shoulder, considering, and his eyes grew distant. “Sometimes I
think about what could have been. Renee and I weren’t cut out for
the long haul, I know that. But I would have liked kids, I think.
Yours are pretty cool.”
    “Yeah, I like them most of
the time. Truthfully, I couldn’t have made it through these last
few years without them.”
    “Well, I hope they’re up for
taking care of Uncle Matt in his old age. My sisters’ kids are
going to have their hands full with their own parents.”
    The waitress finally
returned to take their entrée orders. Jude went with a penne and
cream sauce, and Matt ordered veal piccata.
    Sipping her wine, Jude
studied him across the table. He was still uncomfortable about
something, she could tell.
    “Have you ever thought about
getting married again?” Her words were more abrupt than Jude had
intended, but Matt’s reaction surprised her. His face turned red,
and he choked on his drink.
    “Sorry,” he sputtered,
wiping his face with the white linen napkin. “Went down the wrong
pipe.”
    “The idea of getting married
again is that scary?” Jude laughed and shook her head. “Typical
Matty.”
    “Hey, that’s not fair. I
liked being married. I date enough, and if someone came along who I
could trust, who I could see building a life with...hell, yeah. I’d
dive in without another thought.”
    “You should find a younger
woman. One who still wants to have children. It’s not too late for
you, Matt. You’d make a great daddy.”
    He looked down, and Jude
sensed she’d touched a nerve. She drained her wine glass and gave
him a minute to recoup before she changed the subject.
    They stuck to the
comfortable topics of Crystal Cove gossip and politics all during
the entrée. Matt knew everyone in the Cove, from the elderly lady
who lived in one of the tiny original houses in town—Jude suspected
Matt helped pay her taxes—to the United States congressman who had
just bought a beachfront condo.
    “He loves the Cove, and it
wouldn’t hurt to have someone in our corner with all the
encroaching development.” Matt leaned forward, keeping his voice
low. “So I take him to lunch now and then, give his boy a free surf
lesson. He’s a nice guy. Doesn’t hurt to have friends in high
places, right?”
    Jude took one last bite of
her penne. “You amaze me. I mean, I know all you guys love this
town. Daniel used to tell me sometimes the stuff you did, helping
people get businesses off the ground, making sure no one was