Bluestone Song by MJ Fredrick Read Free Book Online

placed Jonas in the bouncing chair on the
counter, buckled him in and tested the formula’s temperature on the
inside of her wrist. “Quinn didn’t figure out until a couple of
weeks ago that there was no point having the bar open while
everyone was at the movies, and I’ve been busy since.” She pressed
the nipple to Jonas’s lips just as his cries began to intensify. He
began to suck greedily.
    “I imagine Linda’s been.”
    His tone made her stiffen defensively. “She’s
just a kid. She deserves to have some fun.”
    “She’s a mother who wanted to keep her baby.
She’s letting you do all the work.”
    “I told her I’d help her if she decided to
keep the baby.”
    “Why did you do that? From what I heard,
she’d already selected adoptive parents and changed her mind at the
last minute.”
    She stiffened further. “I didn’t think you
were one to listen to gossip.”
    “I was just curious about why you’re raising
a baby that’s not yours.”
    “Because Linda is my sister and I raised
her.”
    “So her mistakes are yours.”
    The accuracy of his statement took her breath
away. She turned away, busying herself with unfastening the buckle
of the bouncing chair and lifting her nephew to hold him as she fed
him. “Yes,” she said simply.
    “Beth. You’ve given up too much of your life
to her. You have to make her accept responsibility.”
    If only she had any idea how to make that
happen.
    “I’m going to go,” he said. “Go to the movie
tonight, Beth. One way or another.” He touched Jonas’s cheek, then
with one last glance at her bare legs, turned and walked out the
front door.
     
    Linda came home an hour later, and after a
surreptitious sniff of her sister’s breath, Beth handed over Jonas
without a word and walked out the door. Okay, maybe not the best
way to handle her problems with her sister, but a fight would only
increase her tension and she was already nervous enough about going
down to the dock for the Friday movie. She didn’t know why. She had
no intention of hooking up with Maddox Bradley again. But him
sleeping on her couch with her nephew on his chest—that had been
the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.
    Which meant going to the docks with that in
her head was a bad idea. And yet here she went. She’d even put on a
bit of make-up and left her hair loose about her shoulders.
    The first person she saw when she reached the
commons was Dale Simmons. His expression brightened when he saw
her, dimples denting his cheeks, and he crossed to her.
    “I hoped you’d come out,” he said, and for a
moment she thought he’d take her hand. “You hungry? Let’s see what
they’re selling. Burgers, I think. I have a spot staked out by the
water, but if you’d rather be closer--” He stopped himself. “Unless
you’re meeting someone else.”
    She wouldn’t allow herself to look past him
to see if Maddox was around. No, last week, before Maddox arrived,
she would have been perfectly happy to sit with Dale and watch the
movie, maybe even share a kiss. Dale was good for her, older, maybe
by about eight years, but solid and steady, and here. He shared
custody of his daughter Alexis with his ex-wife, who lived on the
other side of the lake, and Beth and Alexis got along all right. Of
course, Alexis was eight.
    “Is Alexis here?” Beth asked, hoping for some
kind of barrier. Since Maddox’s visit, she didn’t have the proper
shields up. It made her sad—she’d never needed shields with Dale
before. That was part of the reason she liked spending time with
him.
    “Next weekend,” he said. “Come on.”
    She walked with him to the booths some of the
local organizations had set up as fundraisers. She chose a sausage
on a stick and a pop and followed him back to a stretch of grass
along the shore, which he’d claimed with a Dora the Explorer fleece
blanket. She stopped mid-laugh when she saw Maddox watching them,
something unreadable in his expression. A tug of longing