When They Weren't Looking: Wardham Book #3 Read Online Free Page A

lentil-heavy meals when she only had fifty bucks left in the bank. The quiet nights after the boys went to bed, and the days to herself when they were with Dale.
    She’d made peace with where life had dumped her. Started to make something special out of the pieces of her former world. And in a few short months, all of that would be threatened. Unless she asked for a handout. Something she’d avoided so far.
    She wasn’t too proud to accept help. Her mother had given them a place to stay after she and Dale split the less than impressive proceeds of sale on their old house—which had been on the fancier side of town, but mortgaged to the hilt—and Dale gave her child-support every month, which she was grateful for as well.
    But this would be different. This wouldn’t be something reasonable and small. If she didn’t teach classes for six or eight weeks, maybe more if she had a difficult delivery. The math took her breath away, and she couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.
    A lot can happen in nine months . The logical part of her brain fought against the list of concerns she’d been developing all day, but the emotional overload won out. And she didn’t have anyone to share her fear with. Another couple of weeks, and she’d be able to tell her sister. Her mother, too, and how humiliating would that conversation be? But Claire would be supportive. Too supportive.
    Evie curled onto her side, and buried her wet cheeks in the patchwork quilt stretched over her bed. She wouldn’t be able to handle her mother’s eternal optimism or the immediate leap to finding solutions. Not yet. Not before she’d had a chance to wrap her head around how drastically her life had changed.
    No. For now, she was on her own.
    And she still had a big problem in the form of a missing sperm donor. Missing, and probably unwilling. And how would she even explain how this happened? They’d bought a brand-new box of condoms, and to the best of her hazy recollection, none of them malfunctioned.
    She fisted her hands into the bedding as a sob wracked her frame. Pull it together, Calhoun. This wasn’t in your master plan, either . As the wave of emotion ebbed, she hauled herself to a sitting position and reached for the laptop tucked neatly on her bedside table. She did her nightly check-in on her favourite message board, then opened a new tab. The cursor blinked at her, a taunting vertical line. What search words could she use, exactly? Liam+engineering+business+Toronto? As she started typing, the search engine helpfully suggested Liam Hemsworth. Wouldn’t that be nice . Maybe her Liam was a movie star, too.
    Her Liam.
    That was a phrase she needed to strike from her lexicon. Whatever co-parenting relationship she managed to sort out with the student, if he was interested in that, it would have to be one that ignored how their connection started. Ignored their night together, when he willingly and repeatedly made love to all of her body with all of his.
    Evie’s hands flared over her laptop keyboard. Graduating. Maybe there would be photos…but that didn’t lead anywhere, either. She tried a few more things, but soon fatigue pushed the computer away. She had some time still.
    Nine months, to be exact.

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
     
    There were two realty offices in Wardham. Liam’s uncle didn’t recommend one over the other, and he figured the more time he spent on the main drag, the greater likelihood he might run into Evie, so he planned to visit both. After he did some property browsing, he was going to grab a coffee and take a stroll to look for her studio. Maybe catch a glimpse of her in workout wear.
    Evie from Wardham. He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind, but he hadn’t tried hard, either. Ever since that night, he’d wanted to make the drive, come and find her and ask her out on a second date. If she hadn’t disappeared from his condo in the middle of the night, and checked out of the hotel before he made it down to