Forgotten (Shattered Sisters Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

Joey's hands in hers and stared into her sister's eyes. "Are you happy, honey? Because if you are, then that's all that matters."
    Joey kept a remarkably straight face. The tears were a nice touch. "Yes, I'm very, very happy, Caro."
    Caroline swallowed. Without releasing Joey's hands or even turning her head she called, "Girls, come in here. I want you to meet your new uncle."
    The incessant stream of high-pitched chatter died abruptly. Two angelic blond faces peered into the room, quieter than they'd been since they'd arrived.
    "Ashville, these are my daughters. Bethany is seven, and Brittany is six. Girls, this is your Uncle Ashville...Aunt Joey's new husband."
    Two pairs of blue eyes rounded. "Husband?"
    "Uncle?"
    The older one came forward, and Ash, feeling more guilty by the minute, dropped down to one knee. He felt a new anger at his make-believe wife. Playing head games with him was bad enough, but to start in with a couple of helpless kids, and, in effect, to force him to play along, that was too much. Then again, he was the one who’d forced the issue. He just hadn’t expected her to take it this far.
    One pair of eyes probed his. "Are you going to turn Aunt Joey into a boring-baby-machine?"
    That question, coming from such a pint-size spokesperson, almost made him laugh out loud. "A what?"
    The second one, Brittany, joined her sister. "That's what happens when you get married," she explained seriously. "You never get to have any fun anymore. You have to stay home and do laundry and have babies."
    "And husbands boss you around and tell you what to do."
    "We're never getting married."
    "Never."
    Both girls stood before him, pudgy arms crossed, jewel blue eyes hostile, pale golden brows furrowed. They could have passed for twins.
    "Just who told you all that?" he asked, amused.
    "Aunt Joey," they chorused.
    All eyes turned to her, and she shrugged helplessly.
    "Well, you see, when your Aunt Joey met me she decided it wouldn't be so bad to do laundry and have babies, after all."
    "The hell I did." She clapped a hand over her mouth, but her eyes shot daggers at him.
    The little girls studied him, tilting their golden heads to one side.
    "Look, we'd better go." Caroline took the girls’ hands. "I want to have you over for dinner. Soon. I'll call you, Joey.
We'll talk
." She paused at the stairway, glanced at her sister and frowned hard. "Is everything all right?"
    "Yeah. Stop worrying."
    Caroline nodded, hugged her sister once more and opened the back door.
    "He's very handsome, Mommy." He thought that was Brittany. It was hard to be sure. They were dressed alike in denim bib overalls with little pink bows down the seams. The only difference in them that he could detect was that Brittany was about an inch shorter. And they wore different colored hair ribbons.
    "Will he make Aunt Joey stop riding the motorcycle?" That was the yellow ribbon. Bethany, he thought.
    "Will she still get to take us sp'lunkin' when we're big enough?" And that was the red—wait a minute.
Sp'lunkin
'?
    That was all he heard, because the door was closed and the girls hustled outside. He cocked a brow at Joey.
"Sp'lunkin'?"
    "Caving." If looks could kill, Ash figured he'd better start on his last will and testament.
    "Caving?"
    Her glare was ferocious. "How could you do that? Just stand there and blurt out that we were married? I could kill you!"
    Interesting choice of words, considering that someone had so recently tried. "Well, what was I supposed to do? You
are
my wife. Aren't you?''
    She shook her head fast. "I wanted to tell her in my own way. She's going to think I've lost my mind!"
    "No doubt, seeing your views on marriage. Boring baby machine?"
    Her eyes narrowed. "It's accurate. Look at Caroline. She used to be crazy, fun, confident. Lately Ted's turning her into a—" She bit her lip, stopping herself.
    "Go on, into a what?"
    She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. It's a whole different situation. You're nothing like Ted."
    "Are you sure?"