The One She Left Behind (Harlequin Super Romance) Read Online Free Page A

leaning shoulder from the moment she’d arrived in Placid.
    And that had all ended a long time ago…?.
    “Done any fishin’ lately, Mac?”
    Only one person ever called him Mac. Sam turned to find Chase Reed standing behind him, dressed in a civilian suit instead of the Army-issue uniform he’d been wearing the last time he’d seen his best friend over a half-dozen years ago.
    Sam grinned and offered his hand. “I’ll be damned, Reed. I heard they’d finally let you out, but I didn’t believe it.”
    Chase shook Sam’s hand and smiled, but it didn’t form all the way. “I’d had about all the active duty I could take.”
    Sam imagined he had. Three tours in a war zone would be more than most men could take, and the stress showed in Chase’s features. He had a definite edge about him now, unlike the kid who’d been the happy-go-lucky golden boy.
    Sam felt damn guilty that he hadn’t stayed in touch nearly enough during Chase’s absence, but he’d never been great at correspondence. “How long have you been back?” he asked.
    “For a couple of weeks.”
    Looked like his friend was punishing him for that lack of communication. “And you didn’t call and let me know you were in town?”
    “I had to help Dad clean out the old sharecropper cabin behind the house so I’d have a place to stay.”Chase shook his head. “Pretty sad, living at home at the age of thirty-one.”
    Sam could relate. “I’ve been living at home since I left college and even after I married.” Just one more thing that hadn’t set too well with his ex-wife.
    “Sorry to hear it didn’t work out between you and Darlene,” Chase said.
    “It was just one of those things.” One of those things that Sam sometimes regretted because of the impact on his daughter. “When you get a chance, you need to stop by and see my kid. She’s going to be with me all week.”
    Chase barked out a laugh. “I’m still trying to picture you with a kid. Is she here now?”
    A funeral was no place for a six-year-old, as far as Sam was concerned. “She’s back at the farm with Hank Anderson’s girl.”
    Chase frowned. “Hank’s got a kid that’s old enough to babysit?”
    Sam shrugged out of his sports coat and draped it over his arm, finding little relief from the midmorning heat. “Yeah. Hank’s two years older than us and his daughter was born right after he graduated.”
    “Man, that makes me feel old.” Chase shook his head and studied the ground. “Time passes way too fast.”
    Sam dealt with that issue every time he looked at his child. “I know what you mean. One minute, Jamie’s in diapers and the next, she’s a hell-on-wheels kindergartner and a natural-born flirt. No telling what I’ll be facing when she’s sixteen and she discovers boys.”
    “That serves you right, Mac,” Chase said. “Nowyou’ll know firsthand why Savannah’s parents used to give you hell when you dated her.”
    Sam suddenly remembered where he was and why. “It’s going to be tough, not having Floyd around. He was one of the good guys.”
    “Yeah, he was.” Chase remained silent for a time before he added, “I heard Wainwright’s bank has been calling in loans on some of the farms. The greedy bastard.”
    That was a subject that made Sam as angry as Chase sounded. Edwin Wainwright was the biggest SOB in three counties, and a rich one at that. “You heard right. That’s why I took my banking business elsewhere when I started upgrading the farm.”
    Chase’s expression turned to stone as he focused on some point behind Sam. “Speaking of bastards,” he muttered.
    After facing the mourners again, Sam immediately caught sight of the reason for his friend’s caustic tone. Dalton Wainwright, the son of the man who’d dubbed himself the king of Placid, had stopped to visit with Savannah. And Dalton’s wife, the former Jessica Keller, stood by his side.
    Not everything had changed, Sam decided. During their high school years, Chase had always