The Secret She Kept Read Online Free Page B

bring the kids to the office after school each day.
    The aroma of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the bakery’s oven wafted from the paper bag in her other hand, making her wish she’d grabbed a cookie for herself, too.
    Normally, she packed after-school snacks to save money, but this morning she’d had one crisis after another. Allie had experienced one of her preadolescent hormone imbalances, triggered by finding that the one and only shirt she wanted to wear was still in the dirty laundry. Logan’s volcano model for school had somehow suffered nearly irreparable damage overnight, which he blamed on Allie, which started the second shouting match before 8:00 a.m. And that was just the beginning of the morning love in the Salinger-Moser family.
    Savannah opened the door to Heartland with three fingers of her left hand. Logan was crouched beneath the spare chair along the wall by the copy machine, aiming his gun, made of LEGO blocks, at his sister. The conference room door was now open.
    When she glanced at Allie, Savannah stopped dead. Her daughter, sweet, innocent and unsuspecting—okay, sweet was an exaggeration lately—was sprawled on her stomach on the floor between Zach’s and Savannah’s desks. Talking to Jake , who’d pulled out Savannah’s chair and was lounging in it, a smile on his face.
    Savannah bit back the exclamation of alarm on the tip of her tongue. She wasn’t usually one to panic, and showing fear now would only cause suspicion.
    Opening the paper bag, she walked toward her son and held out a soft, luscious-looking cookie.
    “Come on out, Logan. You can’t eat this under the chair.”
    “Aw, Mom. You blew my cover.”
    Savannah cracked a smile in spite of her preoccupation and held out the snack, waiting for him to disentangle himself and emerge.
    “Thanks,” he said as he grabbed it, breaking it into pieces in his haste.
    Savannah braced herself and turned toward Allie and Jake. “What are you doing here?” she inquired, hoping to sound casual and unconcerned.
    “I brought my grandmother in to meet with your boss.”
    “Where is Zach?”
    “In the back with her. She wanted to see the custom cabinets the guys are finishing up for someone’s house. Next thing you know she’ll have some in her kitchen. Logan had me at gunpoint and here I am.”
    Here he was. She nodded in spite of being entirely unhappy about the situation, and set her coffee, now only half-full, on her desk. Could she dare hope that this second meeting meant Odessa was going to sell to Zach? Savannah couldn’t bring herself to ask; she’d find out from Zach later. Instead, she gave Jake a scowl that anyone with a clue would know meant get out of my chair.
    “Allie here tells me she just had a birthday. Eleven years old. Getting close to being a teenager.”
    Allie smiled at him, that bright, easy, pre-divorce smile. Savannah barely noticed, though, freaking out anew that her daughter was getting so comfortable with Jake. She wasn’t typically a chatterbox.
    “Could I have my desk back, please?” Savannah wiped every trace of fear off her face and moved in on him, her tone almost amiable.
    Jake remained where he was, his long, muscular legs stretched in front of him. He looked Savannah up and down slowly, and apparently finally grasped that she wasn’t in the mood to joke around, because he stood and moved out of the way.
    She put her purse in her bottom desk drawer and handed the cookie bag to Allie, who set it aside, then intently resumed her latest horse drawing. Jake was heading toward Logan, and Savannah couldn’t wait for him to leave, before he lured both her children into liking him.
    “Can we talk outside for a second?” she asked him.
    He studied her for another moment before nodding. “If my grandma comes in, please tell her I’ll be right back,” he said to the kids.
    Jake followed Savannah out the door. She tried not to feel the heat of him directly behind her, but she couldn’t help being