Forever Wife by Carolyn Faulkner Read Free Book Online

did more research.  “Just catching up on old times,” she answered vaguely.
    Vidar opened the door of his rental car for her, and waited until she buckled her seat belt before he closed it.  He walked around to the driver side, unable to keep from grinning.  Here he was with his precious Beth in his car, and she agreed to go out with him!  It was a dream come true… and drat that girl!  If not for those hurtful words she’d uttered all those years ago, they might have been together all this time!  Maybe he would have even convinced  her to marry him!  If he could summon up the courage to ask.  His hand froze on the door latch.  What was he doing!
    All in good time.  He was going to take her out for breakfast.  He was going to court her, woo her, and perhaps, when she knew him better, she would be ready to hear the truth about him.  Determined, he got into the car and fastened the belt, adjusting the seat until he felt he had his emotions under control. 
    “Vidar?  Is everything all right?”
    “Sure, brat.  Just fine,” he said with a crooked smile.
    She punched his shoulder.  “Stop calling me that!”
    He laughed.  How quickly they fell back into the old routines.
    He drove right through the little village of Scrimshaw and on to White Hall, a larger city nearly forty minutes away, surreptitiously studying his young passenger.  She had lost weight – something she could ill afford to do.  Dark circles marred the delicate skin beneath her eyes.  She wasn’t sleeping well, either.  He had wondered how she was doing in the wake of her parents’ untimely passing, but he had honored her wishes to stay away.  Perhaps that had been a mistake?  She might not even realize it yet, but she needed him and he vowed he would do everything in his power to convince her of that.  Now that he had accidentally bumped in to her, he didn’t think he would be able to step out of the way again. 
    He pulled into the parking lot of The Hilton, the nicest restaurant the area had to offer.  Offering Liz his elbow, he escorted her inside.  Even that small touch had him nearly crazy with need.  It was going to be a long day, he decided, as he struggled to conceal just how much she meant to him.  If she had an inkling of how strong his emotions ran, she might run screaming in the opposite direction.
    Liz gazed at the man across the table from her.  He still made her heart beat a little too fast, still made her hands feel sweaty and her panties damp.  It was barely morning, and all she could think about was taking him to bed! 
    He was much too old for her… wasn’t he?  He had worked for her father before she’d even been born.  Even if he’d gotten the job fresh out of high school, he had to be nearly twenty years her senior.  Odd how he didn’t look it!  He didn't look any different from the last time they’d met, eight years ago when she’d thought she would drop out of college.  How did he do that?  If she didn’t know better, she’d guess him to be no more than mid-thirties.  Maybe he’d had a facelift or something, although he really didn’t seem the type.  He had not one ounce of vanity.  Surely he was clueless of just how gorgeous he was, or he would have known how much she had idolized him.
    “So what brings you back here,” Vidar asked, pushing his omelet around his plate with a fork. 
    Liz gulped.  If he didn’t already know about her accident, it wasn’t something she wanted to bring up.  He’d warned her before that riding horses was dangerous and she’d ignored him.  She absolutely did not want to hear any I-told-you-so’s right now.  Probably never.  At the least, she had to figure out what she was going to do next before she had that conversation with him.  “Just felt like taking a vacation,” she fibbed. 
    “Odd time of year for that.  Not quite spring, too late for winter.”
    She shrugged, trying to work him away to a different topic.  “What about