Between a Book and a Hard Place by Denise Swanson Read Free Book Online Page A

conflict, and except in his role as a physician, when he was willing to fight for his patients, he prided himself on being an easygoing kind of guy. That was changing.
    Nadine’s reaction to his dating Dev had seen to that. There was no way he would allow his mother to get in his way. He loved Dev, and he would do everything in his power to convince her to marry him.
    Up until six months ago, he’d been drifting, doing what was expected of him. He hadn’t really been depressed, but neither had he been happy. He’d been numb. He’d settled into an engagement with a woman he didn’t love, but when her murder brought Dev back into his life, it was as if his heart had been jump-started.
    Dev was what he’d needed all along. And Noah wasn’t about to allow his mother, St. Onge, or Del Vecchio to snatch her away from him.
    Thinking about mothers made him wonder why Jett Benedict had made Dev’s presence at the city council meeting a condition for his funding the library. He could understand a man wanting to make his wife happy by reuniting her with her daughter. But from what Noah knew about her, Yvette Sinclair Benedict wasn’t the maternal type. So why did she want to see Dev so badly?

CHAPTER 6
    A couple of weeks had gone by since the big reveal at the city council. Boone and Noah were both still on my shit list for setting me up, and because of that I hadn’t spent more than a few minutes with either one of them. I was still debating Noah’s claim that he thought Boone had told me Yvette would be at the meeting. And Boone’s explanation that my presence had been Jett’s only additional stipulation to funding the library’s reopening, other than access to the archives, hadn’t mitigated my anger toward him or the feeling of betrayal.
    Adding to my discontent, Jake had been preoccupied with Meg’s recent setbacks, so I hadn’t seen much of him, either. Then, to top it all off, Mom had taken to popping into my store several times a day. I was having difficulty adjusting to her presence, and it was even more bizarre to see her and Dad together.
    When I confronted my father about his relationship with Yvette, he said he believed that if you harbored resentment, happiness had no place to dock.It had been all I could do not to roll my eyes at his hippie-dippie philosophy, but I’d kept my mouth shut and nodded without comment.
    Now I twisted the ends of my ponytail as I watched my mother and father cooing to each other near the Fall into Autumn display. The scarecrows guarding the pumpkins seemed to be smirking as Dad stared soulfully into Mom’s baby blues, all the while pretending to reposition the colorful paper leaves and bushel baskets.
    It would serve him right if he stepped on one of the rakes in the arrangement and it smacked him square in the face. Maybe that would wake him up to Mom’s manipulations and maneuverings.
    I was aware that when Dad had gotten out of prison a few months ago, my mother had written to him. But I was taken aback when he’d revealed that since then, she’d been calling and texting him regularly.
    I understood why he’d kept it a secret from Gran, but I was hurt that he hadn’t confided in me. Then again, who’s to say I would have been any more accepting of their renewed connection than Birdie?
    Yvette and Kern almost seemed to have picked up right where they’d been when they’d parted thirteen years ago. Which was disconcerting, considering that she was now married to a different man. Not that I wanted to see it, but I half expected to find her doing the walk of shame out of my father’s apartment one morning.
    Before my grandfather died, back when the Sinclairs were prosperous landowners and farmers, the hired hand had lived in the studio above the garage. Although it had been empty for years, as soon as Gran had known Dad was getting out of prison,she’d cleaned it up and had it