Circle on Home (Lost in a Boom Town Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

didn't think her sister and Jason had a public relationship, not the way they were acting right now, anyway.
    Her mother was frowning at Miranda. "How long are you planning to stay?"
    She glanced toward Jason but he wasn't paying attention. She really didn't want to talk about this here. “A while," she said, aware her mother wouldn't be satisfied with the vagueness of her response.
    And then all the air was sucked out of the room when Noah walked through the front door. He didn't see her, looking for Selena, who greeted him with a loud cry of delight and hurried over to hug him. 
    The look on Noah's face, the adoration and protectiveness as he bent his dark head to his sister's made everything in her melt. She had always loved the way he loved his sister, would have done anything for her. She was little when Miranda left town, eight or nine, but Noah had always looked out for her. Most teenaged boys would be annoyed or embarrassed to have a little sister with disabilities, but he had always been her champion. He'd had to be, she'd come to understand.
    What she found amusing was that Selena greeted him as if she hadn’t seen him in days instead of what was probably just hours. She released him and was already chattering away when he looked across the room and saw Miranda.
    He must have felt the warmth of her gaze on him, but the reaction on his face was anything but warm. He merely inclined his head in her direction, but his demeanor held no friendliness when he turned to his sister to usher her from the restaurant. 
    If she thought her mother and sister had missed that, she sorely underestimated them both. 
    Her mother shook her head sadly. "Don't, Miranda. His life is a mess right now and the last thing he needs is you to pin your hopes on him."
    "His life is a mess?" she echoed. When she'd seen him in July, he'd been doing so well.
    "His father just got out of prison last week, I think, or the week before. He's living back at the house with them, and Ben's lost his job, so the whole family is in that house that's about to fall down around their ears." Her mother shook her head. "I can't imagine what he was thinking, letting his father come back into that house after he killed their mother.”
    Miranda couldn't understand that, either. She and Noah had been together that horrible night, had raced to the hospital, and then to his house to young Ben and Selena. She’d watched Noah tell his brother and sister their mother was dead, had stayed with him while he crumbled after he put his heartbroken siblings to bed.  
    And she’d wanted nothing but to run away, to distance herself from the pain the family was going through.
    Now she hated herself for protecting herself and leaving him to deal with all of it on his own.
    She wondered how her mother knew so much about Noah. She knew her mother liked gossip, and of course she would know about Rey coming home, but to know about Ben and the house falling down….did her mother keep track of Noah because he’d been important to Miranda?
    “He’s the last thing you need, Miranda,” Allison said. “You’ll be so much happier with Damian.”
    Away from here, Miranda heard. But she wasn't going back.  
    *****
    Noah gripped the wheel of his truck tighter than normal and focused his gaze on the road. Damn, he had to get his act together. The last thing he’d thought he’d see when he walked into the Coyote was Miranda, having a drink with her mother and her sister.  
    Why was his past jumping out at him every chance it got?
    And she’d looked amazing, her ash blonde curls tumbling around her shoulders, looking as if she’d just stepped out of the office in a crisp white blouse, a short skirt, heels.
    Yes, he’d looked long enough to take in every detail. But damn, worrying about bumping into her around town was just another stress he didn't need. Of course, if he was working, running into her was unlikely. Her family didn't have animals. Yeah, avoiding her would be