Rekindled by Barbara Delinsky Read Free Book Online Page A

was livid. “Chloe,” he had scrawled in a bold hand, “Had to leave to catch the early plane. Your car is taken care of Someone from the inn will take you there.” It was signed, “Love, Ross.” and was punctuated with a period as a statement of fact.
    He had no business doing that, had no business using the word love so blithely. But that was the least of it. It seemed that he had paid her tab at the inn and the cost of a new battery and its installation.
    She ran on down the beach, struggling to forget about Ross, to push him from mind, to focus on work. But he remained, along with her wounded pride. She had stewed all the way from Rye to Little Compton that morning. On arriving home, she had gotten the address of the Hansen Corporation and sent a check out in the mail that same day, with a note that was much less personal than his.
    “Enclosed is a check to cover the expenses I incurred last night and this morning. Chloe Macdaniel.” She hadn’t asked him to take care of her. She didn’t need him to take care of her. She didn’t want to feel beholden to him in any way, shape, or form, because one thing was clear. She had picked herself up after Crystal’s death and built a new life. She wasn’t letting anything threaten it.
    With firm resolve she made a gentle semicircle and jogged more slowly back toward where she had left her towel on the rocks at the sea side of her home.
    As she approached, though, it wasn’t the house that caught her eye but the tall figure that moved away from it and began to walk to the beach. She stopped short.
    He was dressed in casual navy slacks and a plaid shirt that was unbuttoned at the neck and rolled to the elbows. His dark hair tumbled in disarray across his brow. Even from a distance he looked threatening in a divine kind of way.
    He must have been watching for her, must have stood by the living room window until she had come into sight. If Lee hadn’t been there to answer the door, he might have left. Now she was caught-and annoyed.
    Tipping up a defiant chin, she began walking. Ross made no move to meet her halfway, just watched and waited, but his stance suggested an annoyance of his own, along with a touch of the imperious. Despite his casual clothes, he looked formal.
    She came to a halt before him, nodded, and offered a polite “Ross” in greeting, before shifting beyond him to retrieve her towel.
    “What in the hell did you do it for, Chloe?” He was annoyed, all right.
    “Do what?” She straightened slowly.
    His eyes bore into her. “Send that check. You didn’t lose a minute, did you? You must have had it in the mail that same afternoon.”
    “Shouldn’t I have?”
    “No. There was no need.”
    “I thought there was. You had no cause to pick up the check, either for the inn or the battery. I’m not helpless. I can take care of myself!”
    A muscle worked in his jaw. “Then it was a matter of principle?”
    “Principle? I wasn’t thinking about principle. I simply saw it as my responsibility. It was kind of you to offer to pay, but I feel more comfortable this way. I wanted to take care of it myself”
    “Ah. The independent woman. So that’s how you intend to live the rest of your life?” he challenged, and drawled, “All by yourself.?”
    Chloe was startled by the turn of the conversation. “This is crazy,” she said. “You show up here, out of the blue, without so much as a civil hello, and start criticizing me? I don’t have to defend my lifestyle to you or anyone else!” She turned away, then turned right back, confused. “Why are you here, Ross? Did you come all the way from Park Avenue to call me out for repaying your loan? Little Compton is on the way to nowhere. We’re at the tip of a peninsula. So don’t tell me you were just passing through.”
    “No.” His features had begun to relax, though his eyes remained clear and direct. “I wanted to see you.”
    Chloe could deal with the angry Ross more easily than she could with