Tupelo Gold: Sweeter than Honey (Eclipse Heat Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

close together. She’d died.
    It was in ’78, a year when everyone in Eclipse knew that all hell had broken loose on the Double-Q Ranch. Quincy had almost been hanged and the Quince brothers had almost lost their place. Ranch business had dictated Hamilton leave the kids with their grandmother, a woman who’d recently passed.
    Mrs. Carmichael continued to deliver the dramatic tale to anyone within hearing distance. Partly because of the women’s devised plan, and mostly because no one in Eclipse could imagine Hamilton Quince being anything but faithful to Comfort, the people in town accepted this version of the children’s parentage.
    The kids wouldn’t suffer ugly insults as they grew older and Hamilton had his son. There could be no doubt that he’d fathered Jacob. Under other circumstances Comfort would have rejoiced that the boy so greatly resembled his father.
    She suspected that Hamilton harbored the conviction that she’d consider this a momentary lapse, something to be endured and gotten over. Men were such fools.
    Since he’d returned with his son, Jacob, and the second child, Sally, Comfort’s relationship with Hamilton could only be described as frosty. Thank God work claimed both of their days, and kept them busy, avoiding the issue that lay between them like a dead skunk.
    She curled on her side of the bed each night and listened to his restless tossing on the other half of the mattress. Part of her wanted to turn to him and reclaim the intimacy they’d once enjoyed. Instead, she clung to her side, silently devising plans to go on without him.
    At first, he’d tried to talk to her. “Comfort, I lost my head, got drunk, and was careless.”
    “And Sally?”
    “She’s my son’s sister. I brought her along. That’s the sum total of it.” 
    The sum total of it? Really? His cavalier attitude toward the situation left her speechless. She found ways and reasons to avoid all conversations with him after that.
    Others had plenty to say though. Comfort took the children to the store with her from the first day of their arrival forward. Business had increased as the curious came to stare and the gossips sought stories to tell.
    Comfort pandered to all, offering the version she and Lucy had concocted, wishing she could believe it herself since it was so much more palatable than the real truth. 
    Hamilton tended to his ever-pressing ranch duties. It did not escape her notice that he was bone tired when he came in at night, and his soiled, sweaty clothes indicated hard dirty work. She worried about him in spite of herself.
    Comfort evidently looked too concerned when Hamilton took his place at the supper table on a chilly October evening. He attempted to speak with her after the meal, but she joined Mrs. Carmichael in the kitchen and avoided him that way.
    But unlike previous evasions, he didn’t abandon his pursuit this time. The moment after the housekeeper had gone and the children were already asleep for the night, Hamilton cornered her in the living room, a place not designed for uninterrupted privacy.
    She hugged herself as much for warmth as a shield between her and Hamilton. Since she’d gotten the information from Sam McCallister, she’d been chilled through.
    “We need to talk, sweetheart. I should have told you as soon as I found out I had a son. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
    “Conversation isn’t necessary. I understand.” She tried to brush him aside. After all, she always understood. It was a lifetime habit, learned by enduring and surviving disasters.
    “We need to get this out in the open.” Hamilton blocked her exit and stood before her.
    Comfort sighed. She’d hoped to avoid this confrontation.
    “All right. Since you insist. You had an affair with another woman. The irony of that doesn’t escape me since I’d already committed adultery to be with you.”
    “Dammit, Comfort. It wasn’t an affair. It was a one night fling that meant nothing.”
    “When…?” She swallowed and