What's in a Name? Read Online Free PDF

face
flashed in front of her. Lucas. He’d have been in third grade now,
like the first group of kids coming here. Memories burst through
her defenses. The smell of talcum and baby breath when she lifted
him from his crib in the mornings. The warmth of his hands resting
against her bare shoulders when she carried him. The weight of him
as his body relaxed into sleep. She blinked back tears.
    I’m sorry. It was all my fault. What
kind of a mother runs out of milk for her baby?
    That was another lifetime, when her
universe was normal. And happy. Charles and Lucas were gone.
Nothing could bring them back. And then too-good-to-be-true Robert
Kilian had stolen the life she’d tried to put together after she’d
lost them, leaving a life of looking over her shoulder as his
legacy.
    She’d tried to lock the memories away
someplace deep inside her, but they refused to stay buried.
    “ I should get to the
windows tomorrow or the next day.” Blake’s voice from the doorway
made her jump. “Once the roof is fixed and the windows are in, she
should be weather-tight.”
    She kept her head down. “Sounds like
you’ve got everything under control.”
    His footsteps told her he was coming
inside. She tensed. He walked past her, to a small cooler in the
corner and removed a bottle of water.
    “ It gets hot up
there.” He peeled off his work gloves, took a swig and wiped his
mouth.
    She nodded. In the dim light, his eyes
didn’t grab hers. “You need to watch it. You can get a real burn at
this altitude, even if it doesn’t feel hot.”
    “ Thanks for the
advice. I’m afraid it might be a little late though.” He turned so
his back faced her. “What do you think?”
    Think? She thought of rubbing sunscreen
on those broad, well-muscled shoulders. That fluttering below her
belly started up again. Ridiculous. She pivoted and strode toward
the door. The nature trail could wait until morning. Right now she
needed to burn off these impossible feelings with hard, physical
labor. She glanced at him over her shoulder. “What I think is that
you should put your shirt on, Mr. Windsor.”
    She marched to the storage shed, loaded
a wheelbarrow with a pick and shovel and headed toward a level spot
near the lake. Plans called for a fifteen-foot fire circle and she
attacked the brush and rocks with a vengeance. A place for roasting
hot dogs and making S’Mores.
    Hot dogs. Lucas loved hot dogs. From
the vendor in the park or cut up in macaroni and cheese. The kid
would eat them cold if she’d let him. Charles always let him.
    Oh, God, how could it still hurt so
badly? She abandoned the wheelbarrow and walked down to the water’s
edge. The sun hung over the mountains waiting to drop the curtain
on another day.
    You’re watching over him, Charles,
aren’t you? Our Lucas? And Luke, I know you’re taking good care of
Daddy. I love you two. I should be with you.
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    From inside the cabin the next morning,
Blake watched Kelli drive away. Yesterday afternoon she’d stuck
close to the property, clearing brush and moving rocks, avoiding
him as if he had some contagious disease. Now, he figured he had at
least an hour. Being a million miles from nowhere had its
advantages. Even so, he waited a good ten minutes before he went to
the house in case she’d forgotten something and decided to come
back for it.
    The deadbolts to her rooms were
fastened although he expected no less. He went outside to check the
windows and spotted Kelli’s bedroom curtain fluttering. A stroke of
luck. She’d locked her doors but had left her window ajar.
    The screen came off with a touch, the
sash lifted easily and Blake hoisted himself through the opening,
trying to ignore the uneasy feeling of stepping into a universe
beyond his normal boundaries. At a glance, her bedroom told him no
more about Kelli Carpenter than she did in the flesh. The dresser
displayed an assortment of dried plants in a clay pot, but no
photographs. Nobody