Blackbird Lake by Jill Gregory Read Free Book Online Page B

Critters, in the shadows of a dimly lit bar—that was different. She
loved
it. It was music, for one thing, and music was in her blood. For another thing, no one was paying attention to her. She wore her jeans and a T-shirt every night, and no makeup, and was tucked comfortably away from the lights, with Delia and Eddie front and center, belting out the music, while Steve showed off his riffs on the drums.
    The charity auction was a totally different thing. An
ugh
thing.
    But since she volunteered every other weekend at the Lonesome Way animal shelter, she knew as well as everyone in town how badly the new facility was needed.
    That didn’t make her any more eager to climb onto thatstage, but it did put things in perspective. And, she reminded herself, it was a minuscule problem when she compared it to what Brady was going through, losing both his parents, and then his brother and his job.
    He needs help, she thought. He needs to know someone cares.
    But that someone shouldn’t be her. Just because they’d been friends when they were kids didn’t mean he wanted her butting into his life. Or
nonlife, as the case may be.
    I’m so done.
Madison drew a determined breath as she passed a raccoon scuttling along the side of the road.
Brady will just have to figure this out for himself.
    For years now, he hadn’t given her more than a passing nod when they’d seen each other. And not even
that
when she bumped right into him as she was coming out of Benson’s Drugstore. He’d just kept on going like she was a ghost or something.
    So what makes you think he wants you getting into his business now?
    Nothing.
And starting now,
she told herself, setting her jaw as the Chevy rattled back toward town over the darkening country road,
that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Chapter Four

    Carly changed Emma into her pink bunny pajamas, laughing as her pint-sized dynamo squirmed with buoyant energy in her arms.
    “Coookiiiie!” her daughter exclaimed.
    “You already had a cookie.” Carly did up the last of the buttons and lifted the pink-cheeked toddler into her arms. “How about some yummy grapes?”
    “Gwapes.” Emma’s round little face lit up. She was a child easily pleased. Her wispy reddish blond hair flew across dark-lashed deep blue eyes as she tried to squirm out of Carly’s arms, hoping to make a run from the nursery to the kitchen.
    “Gwapes!” she shouted gleefully to no one in particular.
    Carly swept her daughter close and inhaled the scent of her. A calming scent. Baby shampoo and Dreft. Emma’s head immediately plopped onto her shoulder and the little girl wrapped her arms tight around Carly’s neck.
    That was Emma for you. A rock-’n’-rolling toddler one minute and a cuddle ball the next. Carly’s heart swelled with an overpowering love that made her breath catch in her throat.
    “I love you, pumpkin, you know that, don’t you?” Carly whispered, stroking her fingers through that fine, soft hair. “How much do you think I love you?”
    “Dis mush!”
    Emma’s head shot up and she held her arms out wide and Carly had to laugh as she murmured, “You’ve got that right, baby.”
    Emotions swamped her as she set Emma down. Emma took off like a shot, racing with a wobbly gait toward the stairs and the kitchen, Carly right on her heels.
    She washed four red grapes and cut them in fourths, then set them on Emma’s little Playskool table in the corner and watched as her daughter plopped on the floor and ate the grape sections one by one.
    Somehow, Carly had managed to get through her first moments home this afternoon without falling apart in front of her daughter and Madison. She’d done well enough that Madison hadn’t seemed to notice anything amiss when she’d filled Carly in on Emma’s day, what stories she’d read to her, what games they’d played, what Emma had eaten for lunch. Carly had taken it all in, her mind racing all the while, and she’d needed to suppress a sigh of relief when