Secret Agent Father by Laura Scott Read Free Book Online

returned her look with a bland one of his own.
    Kayla called out to them from the kitchen. “Are you coming?”
    They both hurried into the kitchen. Instead of eating in the formal dining room usually reserved for guests, they crowded around the oak picnic table in the kitchen. There should have been plenty of room, especially when Cody insisted on sitting next to Brianna. Yet Alex seemed to take up more than his share of space. His presence was disturbing and not just because she usually avoided being so close to a man. For some strange reason, his woodsy aftershave teased her senses.
    “Excuse me,” she muttered when their elbows bumped for the third time. She scooched over a few more inches. Any farther, she’d be sitting on the floor.
    “Switch places with me, I’m left-handed.” Alex lifted his plate and stood while she slid into his spot so that he could sit at the end.
    He was still too close. His right hand rested on the table and Shelby could see a few of the reddened scars above the denim cuff of his shirt. What had happened to him? Mesmerized by the dark sprinkling of hair on his forearm, she didn’t realize she’d eaten half her stew until Kayla snickered at her from across the table. Flustered, she stared at her bowl. Had the meat tasted different? She couldn’t say one way or the other.
    “What do you think?” Kayla asked.
    She flashed her a sheepish smile. “You’re absolutely right, Kayla. The venison stew is wonderful.”
    “Thanks. Alex is a hunter and he shot the deer himself, last year.” Her voice rang with pride.
    “Can I learn how to hunt deer?” Cody piped up from the other side of the table.
    “No.”
    “Sure.”
    Both Shelby and Alex answered simultaneously. She threw him a dark look. Alex had the grace to look away guiltily.
    “I don’t think you’ll be old enough to hunt for quite a while yet, Cody,” Shelby amended, noticing the confusion in the boy’s eyes. She mentally cursed Alex for interfering. She’d been making decisions regarding Cody’s upbringing for years, how could he expect to suddenly step in and take over?
    Because he’s Cody’s father. Shelby’s appetite vanished and she stared down at her half-eaten food. The thought of losing Cody to Alex twisted her stomach into a hard knot. She loved Cody. She couldn’t love him more if she’d borne him herself. What if Alex took him someplace far away where she’d never see him again?
    Her fork clattered to her plate from fingers gone numb.
    “Shelby? Are you okay?” Alex sent her a glance so full of concern she nearly blurted out the truth. Only a deep sense of self-preservation made her hold her tongue.
    “Sorry. I’m just clumsy I guess.” Shelby tried to smile, but her face felt as if it might split in two with the effort.
    Drugs coming in on her father’s ships. Cody’s badman. Trina’s death. Suddenly it was all too much. Obviously she needed Alex, in order to keep Cody safe, but a tiny part of her just wanted to grab Cody and run away from it all. But that was the problem, wasn’t it? All alone with Cody would she ever be able to stop running? She couldn’t condemn Cody to that kind of life. He was safer here with Alex. For now.
    How she made it through the rest of dinner, she’d never know. Afterward she excused herself from helping with the dishes and retreated to her room long enough to use Trina’s phone to place a call to their father and then to Debbi, her assistant manager of the day care center. Shelby didn’t intend to break her promise to Alex, but needed to at least find out about Trina. Maybe her sister had miraculously survived.
    Punching the numbers on the phone pad, she dialed her father’s number. A woman’s voice drifted over the line after the third ring.
    “Hello?”
    Shelby swallowed her annoyance when her father’s wife answered the phone. She didn’t particularly care for the woman who’d become their stepmother. “Hi, Marilyn. Is Dad around?”
    “Shelby? Your