Hush by Karen Robards Read Free Book Online

possible to see that outside, twilight was falling. Soon it would be full night.
    Riley asked, “Do you want me to start hinting that it’s time for everybody to go?”
    Margaret shook her head. Her blue eyes were red-rimmed and blurry-looking, but the tears had stopped after the funeral and she looked composed. “It’s been good to see people again. And they’ll probably start to leave soon anyway.”
    The thought that it would probably be a long time if ever before Margaret saw most of these particular people—these fair-weather friends, in Riley’s humble opinion—again popped into Riley’s mind, but she didn’t say it.
    â€œYou’d think,” Riley replied, then hesitated. She hated to leave Margaret to deal with a houseful of guests on her own, but on the other hand she hated the thought of leaving Margaret and Emma alone after everyone had gone even more. “I’m going to run home and grab some clean clothes, and then I’ll be back.”
    She’d been staying with them since Sunday night. With every fiber of her being she wanted to get back to her own apartment, to her routine, her life, but Jeff’s death had shattered any possibility of that: the hard truth was that normal had flown out the window, and whatever eventually took its place would necessarily be different from what had been before.
    In any case, she couldn’t walk away from Margaret andEmma now: they needed her. Without Jeff in it, with the newness and horror of his death still so raw that it was like an open wound, the house was a sad and lonely place. She couldn’t just abandon Margaret and Emma to it.
    â€œYou don’t have to keep sleeping over here with us.” Margaret patted Riley’s arm affectionately. Her fingers felt as cold as ice. Riley knew Jeff’s mother hadn’t been sleeping, and was running on pure adrenaline. She knew, because she was in the same situation. “Aren’t you supposed go back to work tomorrow?”
    Riley nodded. Her new day job was as a loan officer for a car dealership. She’d taken it, and her night job, as well, in the wake of George’s arrest. She’d needed a steady paycheck to help support the family, who’d been rendered penniless practically overnight as accounts were frozen and assets seized. There was no possible way she could stand by and not help. Margaret and Emma had become as dear to her as if they were her own mother and sister, and they, and Jeff, were useless as moneymakers. Family took care of family was how she’d always lived. They were hers now, and she was theirs. Before that she’d been in the process of building her own investment advisory business, using her finance degree from Drexel and the connections she’d made as a member of the Cowan family to establish a small but growing client base. Of course, after George’s arrest, her connection to the Cowan family had turned from an asset into an instant poison pill. Her clients had quit her en masse, and her income—she’d been working strictly on commission—had dried up to nearly nothing.
    So now she took car loan applications for Simpson Motorsby day (Patti Simpson was one of the few friends she’d retained after the Cowan name became mud) and oversaw what was basically a high-end bar by night.
    At some later date, she would probably have her maiden name restored, the better to distance herself from what George had done. But even then she would have to move far, far away from Houston, because in the wake of the scandal everybody for a couple of hundred miles in all directions pretty much recognized her on sight.
    â€œI don’t want to be on my own yet,” Riley lied again. “Are you working next week?”
    â€œTina told me to take as long as I need.” Margaret grimaced. She had taken the only job she’d been offered—as a salesclerk in the high-end resale shop where