A Mother's Wish by Debbie Macomber Read Free Book Online

I’d rub them for you.”
    “You’d do that?”
    “Yes.” It didn’t seem so odd to him. The fact was, he hated to see her in pain. “Besides, we need to talk over how we’re going to handle this situation. I have a feeling that we’ll have to be in top mental form to deal with these kids.”
    “You’re right.” She closed her eyes and purred like a well-fed kitten when he removed her tennis shoes and kneaded her aching feet.
    “Feel better?” he asked after a couple of minutes.
    She nodded, her eyes still closed. “I think you should stop,” she said, sounding completely unconvincing.
    “Why?” He asked the question, but he stopped and bent down to pick up her shoes, which he’d placed on the floor.
    “Thank you,” Meg said. She looked around a little self-consciously as she slipped her shoes back on and tied the laces.
    Feeling somewhat embarrassed by his uncharacteristic response to her, Steve cleared his throat and picked up his beer. “Do you have any ideas?” he asked.
    She stared at him as if she didn’t know what he was talking about, then straightened abruptly. “Oh, you mean for dealing with the kids. No, not really. What about you? Any suggestions?”
    “Well, we’re agreed that we’ve got to stop letting them run our lives.”
    “Exactly. We can’t allow them to force us into a relationship.”
    He nodded. But if that was the case, he wondered, why did he experience the almost overwhelming desire to kiss her? All of a sudden, it bothered him that they were discussing strategies that would ensure the end of any contact between them.
    He imagined leaning toward her, touching his lips to hers ….
    There’s something wrong with this picture, Conlan,
he said to himself, but he couldn’t keep from studying her—and picturing their kiss.
    He’d been wrong about her face, he decided. She wasbeautiful, with classic features, large eyes, a full mouth. He’d trailed his finger down the curve of her cheek the first time they’d met, and now he did so a second time, mentally.
    She knew what he was thinking. Steve swore she did. The pulse in her throat hammered wildly and she looked away.
    Steve did, too. He didn’t know what was happening, didn’t want to know. He reached for his beer and gulped down two deep swallows.
    What on earth was he doing? Rubbing her feet, thinking about kissing her. He didn’t need a woman messing up his life!
    Especially a woman like Meg Remington.
    “So you met Steve again,” Laura said. They sat on a bench in Lincoln Park enjoying huge ice-cream cones. A ferry eased toward the dock at Fauntleroy.
    “Who told you that?” Meg answered, deciding to play dumb.
    “Lindsey, who else? You really didn’t think you fooled her, did you?”
    “No.” Clearly she had no talent for subterfuge.
    “So tell me how your meeting went.”
    Meg didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She wasn’t sure what, if anything, she and Steve had accomplished during their meeting at the bar. They’d come up with a plan todissuade his sister and her daughter, but the more hours that passed, the more ridiculous it seemed. And Meg’s willingness, indeed her eagerness, to see Steve again was disturbing.
    In retrospect she saw that it’d been a mistake for them to get together. All she could think about was how he’d lifted her legs onto his lap and rubbed the tired achiness away. There’d been a sudden explosion of awareness between them. A living, breathing, throbbing awareness.
    Rarely had Meg wanted a man to kiss her more. Right in the middle of a sports bar, for heaven’s sake! It was the craziest thing to happen to her in years. That of itself was distressing, but what happened afterward baffled her even more.
    Melting ice cream dripped onto her hand and Meg hurriedly licked it away.
    “Meg?” Laura said, studying her. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing,” she said, laughing off her friend’s concern. “What could possibly be wrong?”
    “You haven’t been yourself the last