Necessary Evil by Killarney Traynor Read Free Book Online

knew
better than to offer comfort.
    “Has it helped?” I asked. It was all I
could think to say.
    “It did,” he said. “She filed for divorce
on Monday.”
    “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
    He turned and his weak grin was
heartbreaking. “All I could think when she told me was, ‘I’m so glad I’m here,
near my friends.’ You don’t know how much you rely on them… Until something
like this happens.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “Thanks, Maddie.”
    I squeezed it back, feeling like a small
child who’d just unwrapped the very present she’d asked for.
    Aunt Susanna was sympathetic for his
plight; but after Christmas, when we started meeting on a semi-regular basis,
she was not happy.
    “You need to be careful,” she scolded.
“The man is barely out of one relationship. He shouldn’t be moving on this
fast.”
    “Nothing like that is going on,” I said,
even while I blushed. “He’s in need of a friend, that’s all. He doesn’t really
know anyone at the college.”
    “He hardly knows you, either,” she said.
“If he’s looking for a rebound relationship, let it be with one of his
colleagues, not my niece.”
    I turned on her with a fury that surprised
both of us. “We are not in a relationship!” I snapped. “We are friends and that’s it! And I’m not going to stop – if it weren’t for Joe, I
wouldn’t even have a social life right now.”
    As soon as I said it, I wished I could
take it back. Aunt Susanna didn’t need to be reminded that I was working two
full time jobs essentially, just trying to keep the place running. I didn’t
need her slipping into guilt-induced depression. 
    Aunt Susanna never brought her concerns up
again, even after I apologized. I was glad, because she was not exactly wrong
about the situation – she just had it backwards. Joe never acted like anything
more than a friend to me, but the more time I spent with him, the harder I
fell. I hadn’t realized how lonely I was, how much I’d longed for some
attention, until I started spending time with him.
    Joe knew how to treat a woman. He was the
type who could hold the door open for you without looking like he was trying
too hard, who knew just the right way to tease, when to compliment you on your
hair, and when to ask, “How are you doing today?” And he worried about
me, which made me feel special.
    He was worried about me the day I
mentioned the wedding plans.
    “All those people running around,
trampling on the grass,” he said. His tone was doubtful.
    “They can’t be worse on it than we already
are,” I said, more cheerfully than I was feeling. I didn’t really like the idea
of turning our place into a wedding venue, but it was better than selling the
farm, as my co-workers suggested. “It’s not that big a deal. It’ll be over in a
week.”
    “If you’re lucky,” he said, and I had to
laugh at his dire tone.
    The days were stretching out longer,
bringing with them the usual increased workload. Lindsay and I spent hours
preparing lessons for the riding camps, organizing schedules, and planning the
usual vet appointments and summer maintenance.
    Lindsay loved the summer. Besides her
passion for horses and the outdoors, she really connected with the children we
work for. Which was a good thing, because between my aunt’s slow recovery and
my work schedule, the bulk of the training was going to fall on her slim
shoulders.
    “You feeling up to being Headmaster?” I
had asked, as we ended a meeting.
    “Oh, yeah.” She grinned. “This is going to
be a blast. I’ll put them through their paces – they’ll be equestrians par excellence by the end of August, you’ll see.”
    Lindsay’s enthusiasm was infectious, and I
couldn’t help but think how lucky I was to have her. I still didn’t know what I
was going to do when she went to college.
    Even with Lindsay taking over most of the
lessons, there was plenty for me to do: the advertising, the paperwork, the
task of providing lunches