Loving You Always Read Online Free Page B

cobblestones, a new street sign, and even a sandwich that bore her name.
    “Isn’t he the one who was kidnapped a while back?” Mama Jess asked.
    Kerris only nodded. She didn’t want to think about Walsh, and certainly didn’t want to watch some stupid interview that screamed he had moved on and was doing just fine without her.
    It was perverse. She knew that. She knew they should have no contact, and in spite of the miracle growing inside of her, in spite of her marriage being semi-intact, in spite of her thriving business and her growing passion for her river stone jewelry—she missed Walsh. So much. It was a private ache she rarely even acknowledged to herself.
    “Yeah, that’s Walsh.” Meredith gave Kerris a sharp glance. “He and Cam grew up together.”
    Kerris couldn’t be in this conversation a moment longer.
    “Do you ladies mind if I knock off a little early?” She reached around to the small of her back, massaging a fake ache. “My back hurts and my ankles are swollen.”
    Mama Jess glanced at Kerris’s slim ankles in her strappy sandals.
    “Your ankles look fine to me.”
    “No, they’re definitely puffy.” Kerris grabbed her purse. “I think I just need to lie down.”
    “Of course, Lil’ Bit.” Mama Jess pushed Kerris’s hair back from her face. “Go on home. Put your feet up. Have some of that lemonade I fixed when I came over last night. And there was some corn pudding and baked chicken left over. You go on home and rest.”
    Kerris ignored the twinge of guilt Mama Jess’s consideration pricked inside her.
    “Thanks, Mama Jess.”
    “Maybe you can even watch that interview tonight, too,” Mama Jess said to Kerris’s back as she headed to the door.
    Kerris stiffened and glanced over her shoulder at Mama Jess with narrowed eyes. Mama Jess offered an innocent smile that reminded Kerris just who she was dealing with.
    Fifteen minutes later, Kerris entered the cottage, drawing in an air-conditioned breath. She started a bath, padding to the kitchen to check Mama Jess’s leftovers. Cam had been working late a lot, and Mama Jess was often her dinner companion.
    She sank into the vanilla-scented bubbles, letting them creep around her bare neck and shoulders. She allowed herself thoughts of Walsh. He was a glass of wine in her bath; heady, intoxicating. A forbidden pleasure as she lay swollen with Cam’s child; a guilty indulgence that could endanger the things she wanted most.
    She looked at her belly poking through the suds, smiling even while she blinked back tears. She shouldn’t feel lonely. She was surrounded by friends who loved her. Living with a husband who had once said he’d never let her go. With the baby she’d always dreamed about steadily blooming inside of her. Was she so hard to satisfy? Even now, her body responded to the thought of Walsh touching her.
    She closed her eyes, her skin heating in the cooling bath. She fled the tub as if she were being chased. And maybe she was. Chased by the memory of his touch, of his concern, his understanding.
    She dried off, slipping on her ancient red kimono, tying it loosely over her baby bump and leaving her feet bare. And then exhaustion caught up with her. Her swollen ankles might have been fictional, but the bone deep fatigue that seemed to characterize this last trimester was real.
    She napped for two hours, not stirring once, and got up feeling more refreshed, running her fingers through the drying curls skimming her shoulders. She grabbed her plate of leftovers and headed toward the television. She didn’t watch much TV, but she did know that Pinnacle came on in ten minutes. She pretended to watch the local news in the meantime, her heart beating like she was about to see Walsh in person. Like an eclipse of moths had been let loose in her belly, and their madly flapping wings feathered her insides. She sat through the Pinnacle title package and the lead up. There were actually five others being featured tonight, and they