No Longer Mine Read Online Free Page B

Nikki’s heart, started to twist.

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    19

    Shiloh Walker
    For a moment his face was blank, and then his eyes narrowed. She was unable to move as he slowly reached up and tugged her sunglasses off.
    “Nikki,” he breathed, his eyes lighting as though from within.
    He took a step closer and brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.
    That gentle touch shattered her like glass. Flinching, she grabbed her purse and took off running down the aisle. She had her keys before she was even out the door. Swallowing a sob, she dodged an elderly couple glaring at her with censure in their eyes.
    As she dove into the dubious safety of her SUV, Wade came striding out the main doors of the grocery store. “Nikki!” he shouted, his little girl perched on his hip.
    She spared him only one glance as she started the engine and threw it into drive. The little girl was staring up at her father in confusion, her dark hair streaming around her face.
    The sight of it sent tiny daggers plunging into Nikki’s heart.
    Dear God , she thought.
    And unable to go home where she’d just sit and brood and cry, she ended up making the forty-minute drive to Somerset, tears streaming down her face the entire time.

    What in the hell…
    Wade stood there, dumbstruck, as Nikki peeled out of the parking lot in a Ford Explorer, leaving a bit of rubber on the pavement as she went.
    His mind was a total blank. He didn’t know what to think.
    Nikki was here .
    And she’d just run away from him…
    “Daddy, who was that?”
    Blankly he turned his head to look at his daughter. Abby was staring up at him, her small, sweet face puckered with confusion. His silence wasn’t helping.
    “Daddy, was she a friend of yours? Do you know her?”
    “Yeah, sweetie. I know her,” he finally said, talking not exactly easy considering how his vocal cords seemed to have frozen.
    “Why did she run away?”
    “I guess maybe she had somewhere to go,” was all he said, casting one last glance out at the highway, eyes following the path the black SUV had taken.
    What in the hell…
    20
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    Chapter Four
    Later that night Nikki stared dully into the freezer, eyes unseeing as she put away half-melted ice cream and nearly warm chicken breasts. She continued to stand there, staring woodenly, until the cold air on her already chilled flesh snapped her out of her daze.
    Finally she realized she had been putting canned goods and dishwasher detergent in the freezer as well.
    After removing what didn’t belong, she shut the freezer and dropped to the floor, exhausted.
    “What’s he doing here anyway? Whatever happened to Texas?” she asked the empty kitchen. “He was supposed to move to Texas.”
    Folding her arms at her middle to ward off a very real pain brought on by her misery, she leaned forward as a sob built in her throat.
    Why now? I’m just starting to stand on my own two feet again.
    Liar.
    She wasn’t standing on her own two feet—she was just sort of wobbling. She was barely existing.
    But, hell, she was existing. She didn’t need to have somebody holding her hand to get her through the day and she got through the days, damn it.
    The little girl… The sight of her had been like a dagger into her already bashed, bleeding heart. A healthy, beautiful, alive little girl. The pain was more than she could bear.

    Then
    “Nikki?”
    She looked up from her keyboard, eyes bloodshot and weary. Typing on the slow, old word processor she’d bought at a yard sale a few years ago didn’t do jack for her headaches, but it was a damn sight better than trying to use a typewriter.
    What she wouldn’t give for a computer…
    Shawn was slumped against the doorframe, hands shoved deep in his pockets. “Your boyfriend’s at the door. Want me to tell him you ain’t here?”
    Wryly she thought, I must look worse than I thought.

    Shiloh Walker
    Shawn was almost acting protective. The sixteen-year-old barely had two words to say to