Can't Hurry Love by Molly O'Keefe Read Free Book Online Page B

get a woman started on her neck.
    The facials and acid peels, the Botox injections and oxygen treatments just weren’t cutting it.
    She was getting old.
    This week’s facials had taken care of the dry skin, the sunburn across the edge of her nose, and the giant gaping caverns of her pores. But it hadn’t, as promised, turned back time.
    She would not panic. Honestly, panic was for younger women. And gerbils. But neither was she going to be resigned.
    A floorboard squeaked and the dining room door thumped just as Jacob’s laughter burbled through the house. For a second she nearly closed her eyes to better hear it. Longing was a tender ache in the back of her throat.
    But then the door opened with a bang and Jacob was screaming through the room, howling with laughter as he made a lap around the dining room table.
    “Jacob.” She turned away from the black lacquered mirror over the sideboard. “I don’t think your mother—”
    “Where’d you go, varmint?”
    Victoria came in through the door, pretending to be some kind of Wild West sheriff. Celeste had been gone for only a week, seeking the fountain of youth in deluxe spas and resorts across northern Texas, but the woman in the doorway, with the messy hair and pink cheeks—that woman was a stranger.
    Certainly not her husband’s daughter.
    At least not a version she’d ever seen.
    “Oh, hey, Celeste.” Victoria pulled herself up short and all that lovely spark in her eyes—the liveliness of her entire body—dimmed. It didn’t go out, not the way it used to. The few times she’d seen Victoria as a girl, all Celeste had to do was step into a room and the kid would shut down as if her plug had been pulled.
    And it was terrible—an awful truth that sat in her stomach like a walnut shell—but for a few years there, Celeste had relished that power. She couldn’t hurt her ex-husband, who had wounded her over and over again, but she could take all of her spite out on that little girl who flinched whenever Celeste looked at her.
    So much to feel guilty for. So much.
    “When did you get back?” Victoria asked.
    “A few minutes ago.”
    “Well, you certainly look well rested. I guess it was a good trip to the spa?”
    “No, to be honest. It was the worst one yet. Every meal was terrible. Ruby is a better cook than the chef they’re paying a fortune. As if mushrooms were the only facet of spa cuisine he cared about.”
    “Ewww,” Jacob cried and she turned to him, her heart aflame with love for the little guy. At some point in her distant past, she’d wanted more kids. A dozen of them.
    “I know,” Celeste agreed. “Mushrooms are gross.”
    “Well, my heart bleeds for you and your subpar spa week.” Victoria’s sarcasm was new and different, and Celeste laughed.
    “Even the mud was bad.”
    Victoria pulled a face.
    “You look well,” Celeste said. “You’ve gained some weight.”
    The moment she said it, she knew it was the wrong thing to say. Victoria put a hand to her still flat tummy and her eyes slid over to Jacob, who had stopped paying attention and was climbing under the table.
    “It’s a good thing,” Celeste said, trying to dig herself out of the hole her mouth had put her in. Funny how she didn’t have this problem with anyone else in the world. Just her ex-husband’s bastard daughter. “You were way too skinny before.”
    Oh God , she thought. That was worse .
    It was as if she wanted to undo the weeks she’d spent trying to get Victoria to eat.
    “Yes,” Victoria finally said with a laugh. “You’re right. I was.”
    Celeste attempted a smile, and her sand-blasted skin pulled at the effort.
    “How is the ranching business going?”
    “Well, I’m in the land-leasing business now.”
    Celeste tried to lift an eyebrow, but the Botox made it impossible.
    “You all right?” Victoria asked, and Celeste waved off her concern.
    “Yeah, you look funny,” Jacob said, his head poking out from between two ladderback dining