The Next Right Thing (Harlequin Superromance) Read Online Free Page A

you?”
    “A few years.”
    “How many?”
    “Five.”
    “That’s more than a few.” She looked at him for a moment. “You and Cammie...were you ever, you know...”
    “What? Involved romantically?”
    She nodded.
    Pairing him with Cammie made about as much sense as pairing Hamlet with Stephanie Plum. Although Plum was a bounty hunter, if he recalled, and a bit silly. Silly was the last word to ever describe Cammie.
    “No,” he said, “we were strictly business associates.”
    His cell phone vibrated, clattering lightly against the Formica table top. He glanced at the caller ID.
    “Maybe Cammie’s finally calling back.” Emily craned her neck to read the screen.
    “Don’t recognize it,” he muttered.
    “Maybe she’s calling from another number.”
    “Maybe you’re right.” He snapped up the phone. “Marc Hamilton,” he answered.
    “Hi, Marc? It’s Kathy Blegen. We met last year at the Historical Denver fund-raiser. Gwen and I were volunteers.”
    He’d met a squadron of people at that fund-raiser. “Wish I could remember everyone I met that night.”
    “Everybody calls me Half Pint. That’s my nickname.”
    “Sure, I remember.” Short, bobbed red hair, irritating laugh.
    “I’ve been meaning to call you. Heard about what happened...you know, Gwen and all that the loot ...thousands, right?”
    He didn’t respond.
    “Shocked me and the other volunteers, I’ll tell you. But on the other hand...well, she had a way with people.”
    “Did you want to discuss something?” He didn’t have time for calls like this. People who had nothing better to do than dig for dirt and gossip.
    “Yes. It’s important. To you, although maybe you don’t really care anymore about other news Gwen is hiding...”
    “Hold on a minute,” he said, getting up from the table. He pulled out a twenty, set it in front of Emily. “Pay the bill when you’re done,” he said quietly. “I’ll be outside.”
    “Okay.”
    He stepped outside Free Cream. He caught the scent of lavender as he walked down the sidewalk, his phone to his ear.
    “What else was Gwen hiding?” He tried to sound casual, although his body felt tense, wary. After everything else he’d learned, what more could there be?
    “Well, um, you know Gwen and I had a few lunches after that fund-raiser...girl talk, drinks...”
    He halted, turned his face up to the sun, but the fat golden ball in the sky was a fake. In late April, Colorado held on to its cold spells, even dumped the occasional snowstorm, as though winter refused to leave without having the last word.
    “...a week or so before she disappeared...she told me...she was pregnant.”
    It took a moment for the words to sink in. If he’d felt chilly before, he felt downright frigid now. “Gwen was pregnant?”
    “That’s what she said.”
    An empty ache coursed through him. She’d disappeared in December, so she had to be... “Five, six months along?”
    “Um, don’t know. Seemed like she’d just found out.”
    “Was she...happy about it?” Damn it. Did he really want to know this much?
    “I guess...she seemed more...surprised, you know?”
    “Do you have any idea where she might have gone? Who would hide her whereabouts?”
    “I didn’t know her that well. I was, um, surprised she even shared that with me, you know?”
    Emily stepped outside the ice cream shop, looked around for him.
    “I have to go,” he said and ended the call. Couldn’t say more, had to wrap his head about this new piece of news.
    He waved, got Emily’s attention. As she walked toward him, the sunlight caught streaks of gold in her long, straight hair. Maybe she was a fledging socialist intent on changing the world, but in her jeans, peasant blouse and sandals, she looked like any other teenager. She was a good kid.
    He sucked in a deep breath, blew it out.
    Gwen’s carrying my child.
    The urgency to locate her ratcheted up several notches. This was about more than making her accountable for her theft,