The Secret Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

he know about the child she’d given up for adoption? Could he? Surely there’d been talk when Annie had abruptly left town before her senior year of high school. Had somebody figured out that the real reason she’d moved in with her ailing grandparents was because she was pregnant?
    “I’m Michael Donahue.” He jumped in with an introduction before Annie could untie her tongue. “And you are?”
    “Lindsey Thompson,” she supplied. “I came to visit my uncle Frank, but he’s in Poland.”
    “I heard something about that,” Michael said. “You took over your dad’s business, right, Annie?”
    His question stopped Annie from denying her father’s relationship to Lindsey. “Actually, I didn’t. I’m just filling in while he’s gone.”
    “My bad. Some people in this town like to talk even when they don’t know what they’re talking about.” He spoke from experience, Annie thought. At one point town gossip about him had been rampant. He winked at Lindsey. “Pretty soon they’ll be spreading stories about you.”
    Annie willed her heartbeat to slow down. It had been an innocent remark.
    She and Lindsey didn’t share a strong resemblance, and Annie was barely old enough to be the mother of a teenager.
    “There’s nothing to talk about.” She forced her voice to sound normal. “Lindsey’s a family friend.”
    Michael pulled open the glass door of the refrigerated unit beside the counter, then paused. “I thought she was your Dad’s niece.”
    “We’re not really related,” Lindsey interjected before Annie could panic. “I just call him uncle.”
    Michael nodded, accepting the answer. Some of the pressure inside Annie’s chest eased as he removed four bottles of water from the refrigerator.
    “We’re finishing up a remodel job down the street and the crew is getting thirsty,” he explained. “Good seeing you, Annie. And a pleasure meeting you, Miss Lindsey.”
    “He was nice,” Lindsey said as he walked away.
    “Most people in Indigo Springs are,” Annie said.
    Lindsey looked unhappy. “Then why can’t I stay here?”
    So far three people who’d known Annie as a sixteen-year-old had seen her with Lindsey and none of them had put the pieces together. In all probability, nobody would, ensuring that Lindsey wouldn’t have her world inadvertently turned upside down.
    “I’ve been thinking about that,” Annie said slowly. “Maybe you don’t have to go back just yet.”
    “You mean I can stay?” Lindsey asked excitedly.
    The thought of letting the girl go without spending at least a little time with her was like a dagger through Annie’s heart. Staying in Indigo Springs was clearly what Lindsey wanted, too. Annie simply wasn’t strong enough to fight fate and what she so desperately wanted anyway.
    “Only if your parents say yes,” Annie said.
    “They’ll say yes.” Lindsey smiled and took a big bite of her sandwich, unaware she’d agreed to a visit with her birth mother.
    That was exactly the way Annie intended to keep it.
     

    M AYBE SHE’D messed up in coming to Indigo Springs, Lindsey thought.
    Uncle Frank had made it sound really cool, but the downtown was nothing but a bunch of old buildings. Once she and Annie had gotten back in her truck and headed out of town, all she’d seen was trees.
    The parking lot they’d pulled into wasn’t even paved, and the building they were approaching looked like agrungy warehouse. A couple of dozen sturdy-looking bikes were parked in neat rows off to one side. On the other were nine or ten faded picnic tables.
    Lindsey read the sign over the door: Indigo River Rafters.
    “ This is your father’s business?” she asked Annie.
    “This is it,” Annie said.
    Lindsey slowed down but didn’t dare stop. If she did, the gnats that were flying around her hair might attack her eyes. She supposed the setting was okay, although there weren’t a lot of trees close to this part of the river and the grass around the shop was trampled down