His-And-Hers Family Read Online Free

already kicked in. And it was focusing on Cassie Hawkins.
     
    EVENING SETTLED over the countryside, the Texas sky reaching endlessly, the stars shining brilliantly. It was Cassie’s favorite time of the day, a time to reflect, to gather her defenses. Cicadas and crickets provided a comforting accompaniment to the creaking of the porch swing. Dew settled on the grass, glistening beneath the moonlight. And the familiar scents of honeysuckle and magnolia sweetened the air.
    Still, she wasn’t feeling any peace. This was the town of her birth, and she knew it as well as she knew herself. Each nuance of gossip, each store that lined Main Street, each house that filled her neighborhood.
    Much like her own home.
    It was the only tangible thing she’d gotten from her ill-fated marriage. The house and its furnishings had been in the Hawkins family for generations. Cassie took the responsibility of preserving that heritage very seriously.
    None of it had mattered to her ex-husband, Chuck. He itched to travel beyond the confines of Twin Corners. They’d married so young, too young. The responsibility of a wife and family had terrified Chuck, made that itch grow out of control, until he left.
    Despite the burden he’d dumped on her, both financial and emotional, Cassie wasn’t bitter. They had simply wanted different things. In his own way, Chuck had loved her. At least, he once had. And he’d cared for the children, as well, but not enough to stay and be a father to them. It had been a long time since they heard from him. Child support and alimony were foreign words to him. Despite his grand dreams, he could scarcely take care of himself, much less anyone else.
    But still Cassie felt strongly about the house. In some ways, it no longer seemed to be Chuck’s heritage, but her own. Gently rocking the porch swing, she breathed in the sweet, humid air, watched as the Carstairs, an elderly couple from the neighborhood, strolled down the street. Still hand in hand, she noted with a bittersweet smile. What must it feel like to share a love so enduring?
    Restlessly she shifted in the swing, lifting her face to the.moonlight. What had brought on such unfamiliar musings? The full moon? Or the handsome stranger now occupying her son’s room? Not that a fancy man like that would ever take a second glance at her. And not that she could return that look. Her life was her children. There was no room for anyone else.
    She reached down to pat Gulliver’s head, and he thumped his tail contentedly against the planked wooden floor. The dog had been her companion these past years, the one to whom she confided worries that she couldn’t burden her children with. “Must be too much full moon, Gulliver. Messes with my good sense.”
    “Not so it shows.”
    Cassie whirled toward the sound, nearly tipping herself out of the swing. “Mr. Matthews. You startled me.”
    “Blake.”
    Cassie hoped she hadn’t conjured him up with her restless thoughts. “Running a boardinghouse isn’t always easy. Hard to think of it as business when it’s all in your home. It helps if I can address my guests like they do in regular hotels. Then it seems like a real job.”
    Blake shrugged in the near darkness before moving closer, allowing the moonlight to chase some of the shadows away. “Whatever suits you, Ms. Hawkins.”
    At the moment, she wasn’t sure what that was, and she took refuge in the familiar. “Is the room all right? I know it’s not what you expected. It’s not one fixed up for guests. It’s Jimmy Ray’s room, through and through. And I know it’s not what you’re used to. I imagine you usually stay in big-city hotels with room service and swimming pools. ’Course, I could take your breakfast up on a tray, if it’d suit you. But my cooking’s pretty plain. No eggs Benedict... but I can whip up some pretty fluffy French toast. As for swimming, the closest thing we’ve got to a pool is the pond down the end of the lane. It’s not