The Secret She Kept Read Online Free PDF Page A

hyperaware of his closeness. She’d always had that problem—knowing exactly where he was in the room, what he was doing, who he was talking to, even if she was in the middle of a conversation herself. Always, ever since they were kids.
    Once outside, she took several steps down the sidewalk, away from the Heartland office, so the kids wouldn’t see them out the window.
    The wind had risen that afternoon and the first hint of fall filled the air. She turned to face Jake and the breeze blew her hair into tangles behind her. She made a mental note to drag the kids’ jackets out of storage, and hoped they’d still fit.
    Jake leaned a shoulder casually against the stone facade of the ancient building. He was close enough that she caught his scent—outdoorsy with a hint of aftershave. It did things to her, jump-started some kind of physical reaction. Their silence grew as she studied the individual fibers of his navy-blue T-shirt. Inching back a step would be wise, but Savannah didn’t like the message backing off would send.
     
    J AKE HADN’T BEEN THIS close to Savannah for almost twelve years, yet the reddish brown waves of her hair were still so familiar, the toffee color of her eyes the shade in the recurring dreams he tried to forget about.
    “What’s up?” he said, annoyed that he could still fall under her spell after how they’d ended things so long ago.
    Savannah’s eyes shot from his shirt to his face. “My kids have been through hell with this divorce.”
    “Losing a parent’s tough. We both know that firsthand—”
    “Right.” She cut him off abruptly. How could he forget how she avoided talking about personal subjects? That it was something they had in common didn’t matter. “They’re still reeling from it. Especially Allie.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.”
    “Stop being so nice to them. Please.” Her chest rose as she took a deep breath. “What I mean is, don’t go out of your way to get them to like you.”
    “Who says I have to go out of my way?”
    The joke was met with a glare.
    He frowned at her. “Let me see if I understand this. Your kids are hurting, so you want me to be mean to them.”
    “Don’t you dare be mean to them. Just…leave them alone.”
    “I’m not attempting to be their best friend, Savannah. I was just talking to them, treating them like people.”
    She closed her eyes for a moment. “I know. What I’m trying to say…Allie’s responded to you more in the two times she’s met you than she has to me in nearly a year. She’s hungry for a grown-up she can love and trust, and you seem to fit the bill because you like to draw horses.”
    “And you’re afraid she’ll get attached, then I’ll leave.”
    “You’re only here for a visit. She will be let down. I don’t want her to lose anyone else.”
    “Don’t worry. I won’t encourage her—”
    The door to the office opened and shut, and he pivoted to find Allie walking toward them. Jake automatically smiled at her as she sidled up next to him and handed him a piece of paper—the horse drawing she’d been working on. At the top, she’d written in fancy block letters, “For Jake.”
    “His name is Frosty,” Allie said.
    “He’s a beauty. You’ve got some serious talent, Allie.” As he gazed down at her, she shyly dropped her gaze to her feet.
    Jake noticed the beaded butterfly clasp holding her shiny blond hair in a ponytail, and then his eyes were drawn lower, to her neck, about two inches behind her ear.
    He did a double take. Veered away and looked back a third time to be sure.
    Holy mother of…
    She had a birthmark there. Faint brown, just larger than a quarter, in the shape of an upside-down crescent moon.
    Jake knew his eyes were bulging, but he tried to hide his astonishment by avoiding eye contact with the little girl next to him. Coherency escaped him.
    He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, they automatically sought out the birthmark again, and he broke out into a