Read Online Lakeside Reunion by Lisa Jordan - Free Book Online Page A

Mommy.”
    â€œI know you did, buddy, but if I say no, it’s because I know what is best for you. It’s my job to keep you safe. It’s your job to follow directions. I was so scared something had happened to you.” Stephen adjusted the water temperature and rinsedTy’s hair and beard. He held out a towel as Ty stepped out of the tub. “Dry off and put on your pajamas while I throw a bag of popcorn in the microwave. We’ll play a game, if you want.”
    Stephen tried to be everything for Ty, but the kid needed a woman’s touch. He needed those magical boo-boo kisses. Someone to tape his pictures to the refrigerator when Stephen forgot. He deserved homemade chocolate-chip cookies and something more nutritious than macaroni and cheese. He needed—they both needed—someone like Lindsey.
    Fat chance of that happening.
    Stephen headed to the kitchen, but a sudden thought slammed his feet to a stop. If Lindsey saw Tyler at the cemetery, that meant…
    Oh, man, he was a first-class fool.

Chapter Five
    L indsey sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Oh, so tempting to head out of Shelby Lake. As far from Stephen Chase as she could possibly get. Where did he come off saying she was the one who left? Seriously? Had he expected her to stick around and watch him play happy family?
    She pulled into her mother’s driveway and shut off the engine. The faded blue Victorian house with buttercream trim that she’d called home for the first twenty-two years of her life sat quietly at the end of the cul-de-sac on Morning Glory Lane. She was home.
    She grabbed her purse and ran down the cobblestone path to the wide front porch. Leaves stuck to the chipped painted steps like postage stamps.
    Lindsey unlocked the front door and stepped into the foyer. Dropping her purse on a small blue-and-cream pinstriped chair, she toed off her wet heels and kicked them onto the rubber mat near the brass umbrella stand. She padded barefoot across the gleaming hardwood floor that smelled of lemon oil and trailed her fingers along the mahogany Queen Anne table against the wall. Autumn flowers arranged in a crystal vase and a picture of Granddad, Grandma, AuntClaire and Mom taken at their fiftieth anniversary sat on a crocheted table runner.
    Welcoming. Cozy. Two words that always described her mother’s house.
    Lindsey grabbed the wooden banister and stared up the broad staircase. When she was little, she’d dressed up in her mother’s old prom dresses and pretended to be Scarlett O’Hara making an entrance. Now the thought of climbing the staircase pushed out a sigh. If she could, she’d curl up on the bottom step and sleep until morning.
    But she couldn’t sleep in wet clothes. The idea of a bubble bath in Mom’s claw-foot tub propelled her feet forward.
    Within minutes, she was chin-deep in hot water and peach-scented bubbles. As the warmth seeped to her bones, her muscles relaxed for the first time since Granddad’s early morning phone call.
    The phone rang, but Lindsey closed her eyes and ignored it, letting Calgon take her away.
    A door slammed.
    Lindsey jumped and sloshed water over the side of the tub.
    Someone was in the house.
    Shadows crawled across the floor. The room was dark except for the glow of the night-light near the bathroom sink and the flickering candle Lindsey had lit prior to escaping into the tub. Her bathwater had cooled. She must’ve fallen asleep in the tub.
    Grabbing a lavender bath sheet, she stepped out of the tub and dried off. She threw on pajamas borrowed from Mom and pressed her ear to the bathroom door. Not hearing anything besides her rapid heartbeat, she turned the doorknob and winced as the door creaked open. Could she dash across the hall to her old bedroom to call 911 without the intruder hearing her?
    Singing drifted up through the heating vent in the floor.Burglars