Lethal Affair Read Online Free

heart.”
    Kim grunted. “Who's got time to fool
around when you've got this job to hold down and three squalling
kids to deal with at home?”
    “ Doesn't it make you want to
escape?”
    “ Escape? Hell yes! But I'd
take my Carrie with me or it wouldn't be much fun. Or
fair.”
    Lyle looked at Kim and saw truth.
“Well then. That is love.”
    “ Damn straight.”
    As Kim went about his prep duties Lyle
paused only long enough to sneak one more look out onto the floor.
There she was watering the ferns by the front door, sunbeams in her
copper curls, angelic face tilted up to catch the sun's warmth. And
then she turned toward him and across the expanse their eyes
met.
    This time he didn't look away but
smiled slowly and nodded a sort of hello. No matter what his
reservations were regarding women and marriage, she didn't deserve
to be treated like a leper.
    Instinctively Jolene turned around to
see who Lyle was smiling at. There was no one. Incredulous, she
turned back and there he was, still smiling sheepishly. There was
nothing else to do but smile back.
    It hit him like a punch to the solar
plexus, the smile tentative at first and then filled with surprise
and excitement, and then, heaven help him, hope, reaching all the
way up into her huge hazel eyes.
    He knew he was a doomed
man.
     
    *
     
    Kylie luxuriated in a tub of foamy hot
water, bath salts permeating the air. Her morning run had been
invigorating but as the day had worn on the work in the greenhouses
had all but drained her. When she closed her eyes, imprinted on her
eyelids were row upon row of basil, thyme and rosemary plants in
small clay pots. She and her team had readied them for transfer to
the supermarkets and she could still smell their mingled
fragrances, normally a balm for her soul, today a cloying and
overwhelming cacophony of too many at once.
    The slamming door downstairs indicated
that Jolene had returned from her afternoon shift at the diner. She
knew she couldn't avoid her much longer and was toying with the
idea of actually getting out of the tub when suddenly Jolene
thumped up the stairs and banged on the bathroom door once with her
fist.
    “ You in there? Can I come
in?”
    Mentally Kylie cursed the fact they
only had one bathroom. “Come ahead. I'll close the
curtain.”
    But there was no need as instead of
using the toilet, Jolene slammed the seat down and sat on it. Her
eyes glittered with barely contained excitement.
    “ He actually smiled. At me!
Can you believe it?”
    Gathering the suds around her, Kylie
knew instantly of whom she spoke. But she wouldn't revert to being
sixteen again. “Wow. A smile. What next, an actual handshake? Be
still my heart!”
    The light in Jolene's eyes dimmed. “No
need to be flippant. You know as well as I do this is a major
breakthrough.”
    “ It's been six long,
insufferable months of waiting for a bread crumb from Mr. High and
Mighty. You call this a breakthrough?”
    Dreamily, “His whole face
lit up. A transformation. It was like, he liked me. I can't wait to go back to
work tomorrow. Maybe I'll take a bone for Dino. That'll impress
him.”
    “ Who, Lyle or
Dino?”
    “ Ha ha. Funny. This is a big
joke for you, isn't it? I just want what most woman want. Love,
marriage, kids. Just two, to replace me and my man when we're
gone.”
    “ What makes you think this
guy Lyle wants the same things?”
    “ I don't. But I'm asking the
universe to give him to me. The book I'm reading
says...”
    The water sloshed. “Hold on a minute.
All that new age mumbo-jumbo isn't going to work if the two of you
aren't on the same page. I think you need to find out how he feels
before you jump off the deep end.”
    Jolene rose and paced to the sink.
“Too late. I'm all in. Now it's up to him to at least get his feet
wet.”
    Kylie smirked. “Careful. Tsunami
Jolene might sweep him away to a distant shore.”
    Jolene's brow furrowed. “I thought
you'd be happy for me. Come to think of it, you've been