Cassidy Harte and the Comeback Kid by RaeAnne Thayne Read Free Book Online Page A

is the police chief in Salt River. He and his fiancé are planning a late July wedding. Matt remarried a few months ago, and he and his new wife are deliriously happy together. She’s a vet in town and she’s absolutely perfect for him.”
    He wondered about the defiant lift to her chin as she said this, as if daring him to say something about it.“So he and—what was her name? Melanie, wasn’t it?—aren’t together anymore?”
    She didn’t say anything for several moments. At her continued silence, he looked up from the cutting board and saw with some shock that she was livid. Not just angry, but quaking with fury.
    The woman he’d known a decade ago rarely lost her temper, but when she did, it was a fierce and terrible thing. He only had a second to wonder what had sparked this sudden firestorm when she turned on him.
    â€œNo, they’re not together anymore.” Her voice sounded as if it was coated with ground glass. “They haven’t been together since you ran off with her.”
    He blinked at the cold fury in her eyes. “Since I what? ”
    She turned away from him. “I’m really not in the mood for this, Slater. I have too much to do this morning if I’m going to feed your guests.”
    His own temper began to spiral. “The hell with the guests. I want to know what you’re talking about. Why would you say I ran off with Melanie?”
    â€œHmm. Let me think. Maybe because you did?”
    â€œThe hell I did!”
    â€œDrop the innocent act, Zack. People saw you. Jesse saw you. The two of you were making out in the parking lot of the Renegade. There are variations on the story but from what numerous people told me, she was climbing all over you like the bitch in heat that she was, and you weren’t doing much to fight her off. Before Jess could beat the living daylights out of you, you and my darling ex-sister-in-law climbed into your truck and drove off into the sunset, never to be seen in Star Valley again.”
    His mind reeling, he scrambled to come up with something to say to that stunning accusation.
    Before he could think past the shock, the side door swung open and the teenager who had greeted him the day before with such dumbstruck inadequacy whirled in, tucking a T-shirt into her jeans as she came.
    â€œSorry I’m late, Cassie. I slept through my alarm again.”
    The kitchen simmered with tension, with the fading echoes of her ridiculous claims. The idea that he would take up with that she-devil Melanie Harte was so ludicrous he didn’t know where to start defending himself.
    â€œNo problem, Greta. You can take over for Mr. Slater. He was just leaving. Isn’t that right?” she challenged him, her lush mouth set into hard lines.
    He wanted to stay and have this out, to assure her he would rather have been hog-tied and dragged behind a pickup truck for a couple hundred miles than go anywhere with Melanie. He didn’t want to do it in front of an audience, though. And since he couldn’t figure out a polite way to order the poor girl out of the kitchen, he decided their shoot-out could wait.
    â€œThis isn’t over,” he growled.
    Her eyes were still hot and angry. “Yes, it is, Zack. It was over ten years ago. You made sure of that.”
    He studied her for a few moments, then set the knife down carefully on the cutting board and walked out of the room before he said something he knew he would regret.
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    As Cassie watched him leave, a vague unease settled on her shoulders like a sudden summer downpour.
    Why did he seem so astonished when she told himshe knew he left with Melanie? Was he honestly dense enough to think they could both disappear on the same night and nobody would be smart enough to put two and two together and come up with four?
    He had definitely been shocked, though. That much was obvious. He couldn’t have been faking that dazed, dismayed