Still Waters by Misha Crews Read Free Book Online Page A

blinked, not wanting to get distracted.
    “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I meant afterward.”
    “Oh,” she said, calmly measuring purple powder into the pitcher. “You mean two days later, when you flew back to Korea?”
    “I mean the moment that you realized that your baby was my son, and not Bud’s.”
    She closed the powder canister tightly before putting it back on the shelf above her head. “What about that moment?”
    “What were you thinking?” He heard the bewilderment in his own voice.
    Jenna leaned both hands on the edge of the sink. She fired her words downward, as if she were trying to spit them down the drain. “I wasn’t thinking. I was scrambling. I was struggling. My husband had only been dead for a little over a month, and I was pregnant with another man’s child.”
    “But how could you not tell me?”
    Jenna picked up a wooden spoon and started stirring the purple liquid in the pitcher. “I didn’t think you’d care.”
    He wagged his head in disbelief. “Excuse me?”
    “Well, it’s not like you stuck around long enough to find out if there were any fruits to your labors.”
    The vague coarseness of the expression struck him hard. He felt his mouth twist with distaste. “I wrote to you half a dozen times in the month after I left, and you never answered!”
    Now she did turn around. Her eyes stabbed him bitterly. “Your friend was dead, and his parents were suffering. The grief here was spread so thick that we could barely breathe. You couldn’t deal with it, so you left and told yourself that writing letters would be enough. It wasn’t.”
    Adam was taken aback by her acrid hostility. He fumbled for words. “What the hell was I supposed to do? Go ‘Unauthorized Absence’ from the Navy? Betray my country?”
    “You could have requested a transfer.”
    “Oh, just like that?”
    “It’s been done before!”
    “Well, I’m home now, and I’m here to stay. And if it makes any difference, I love you. I always have.”
    Tears quivered in her eyes, but did not fall. “Go to hell,” she said.
    Footsteps sounded on the back porch step, and Kitty’s voice came ringing cheerfully through the screen. She was speaking to someone behind her. “I’m so glad you’re here, Frank. We’re about to cut the cake, so you made it just in time.”
    Jenna turned back to the sink, while Adam rubbed his hands over his face, trying to erase any evidence of their argument.
    Kitty opened the back door and came inside, her face all smiles. A tall man with a small, neat mustache came in behind her.
    “Jenna,” Kitty said, a reproachful edge to her voice. “We’re waiting on the Kool-Aid.”
    “I was just about to bring it out.” Jenna wiped the pitcher with a towel.
    Kitty took it with care. “Oh, Adam, let me introduce you to Frank Malloy,” she said brightly. “Jenna’s fiancé.”
    Adam’s stomach dropped into his shoes. The hand that he had automatically extended for a handshake faltered in mid-air. Fiancé? Was this some sort of joke?
    He looked at Jenna, whose closed expression confirmed Kitty’s words. Adam set his jaw grimly, but good manners forced him to put his hand forward.
    Frank Malloy took it in a solid grip and shook firmly. “Nice to meet you,” he said.
    Frank had dark hair and eyes. He was handsome in a neat, clean-cut kind of way. He was dressed as informally as Adam, in chinos and a short-sleeved chambray shirt, but something about the man belied any use of the word “casual.” His trousers were crisply ironed, and his shoes bore the kind of shine that takes dedication to accomplish. He looked like the type of man who was most at home in a suit coat and tie.
    Adam took it all in at a glance, trying not to betray his feelings. Inside, he was reeling.
    Malloy continued, “Kitty’s been telling me about you. You’re just home from the Navy?” His voice was deep and precise.
    Adam crossed his arms and steeled himself to be sociable. “That’s