Stonebrook Cottage by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online

experienced, thirty-four-year-old professional."
    Not so experienced when it came to sex, Kara thought, stifling a surge of awkwardness. At least Sam didn't know how inexperienced. "Jack can mind his own damn business. I haven't seen or heard from Sam since we—since the opening." She paused, the heat settling over her, making her feel claustrophobic, unable to breathe. "It's over."
    Susanna eyed her sister-in-law knowingly, skeptically. "Nothing's over. I saw you two tonight, Kara. Don't kid yourself." She pulled open Kara's car door, touched her shoulder gently. "Go on. See about those kids. I hope they're back in their beds at the ranch by now. Jack's getting ready to saddle up and go over there—"
    "He doesn't have to."
    "I wouldn't try to tell him what he has to and doesn't have to do right now. He's on a tear."
    "What about Sam?"
    "Ditto, I would think."
    Kara nodded, holding back sudden tears. Nausea burned up into her throat, cloying, bringing a tremble to her knees. Maybe it wasn't nausea—maybe it was fear. But she rallied, easing behind the wheel of her car. "They're scrappers, those two." She hesitated. "Su-sanna—I don't have to ask you to keep this conversation between us, do I?"
    "Absolutely not. Jack's mad enough as it is about the kids and this bluebird theory."
    It was a ninety-mile drive back to Austin, an hour and a half for Kara to obsess on where Henry and Lillian could be, the dangers they could encounter, whatever the hell had possessed them to run off. The clear, deep water of the ranch's lake, the possibilities of rabid animals, hundreds of acres of trails and hills, reckless drivers, pedophiles—the list of dangers was endless. It didn't matter that they were smart, clever or rich, that they'd run off deliberately. They were kids.
    And Sam and Jack were on the case. Her fault.
    God, what was she to do about Sam Temple?
    "Nothing," she told herself as she pulled into her short driveway. There was nothing for her to do because he was running as fast from their weekend together as she was.
    She locked her car door and headed up the short walk to the front porch of the little Craftsman-style bungalow she'd bought in Hyde Park not long after she'd moved to Austin last September. It was just a few blocks from the historic house Susanna's parents were renovating, another few blocks from their art gallery. Kara liked the tree-lined streets and diversity of the neighborhood, so different from the 1830s house she'd rented in a Hartford suburb on the west side of the Connecticut River. She'd never bought property in Connecticut. That should have been a sign to her, but it wasn't—it took Big Mike to get her finally to admit it was time to go back home.
    She'd met him in law school, on a weekend visit with Allyson and Lawrence to the Stockwell Farm. Her friends were deeply in love, the twenty-year age difference never seeming to matter to either of them.
    Big Mike was already a force in Connecticut politics, wealthy, blueblood Lawrence Stockwell an unlikely friend and ally. Lawrence had guessed Kara and Mike Parisi would hit it off, and they had. When Big Mike said something factually incorrect about the law, Kara corrected him, arguing her point with all the hubris of a first-year law student—Mike insisted it was because she was a stubborn Texan, too. They became instant friends. He was her mentor on so many things, but not politics—she wasn't interested. She wouldn't even tell him whether she'd voted for him.
    When June, Big Mike's wife, was charged with driving while intoxicated, he asked Kara to take the case, and agreed when she insisted she do it her way and he stay out of it. June admitted to her alcoholism and entered treatment. Mike stepped back and let his wife, whom he loved so much, take responsibility for her recovery. The incident could have undermined his friendship with Kara, but instead it deepened it.
    June died six years ago, and not until he came out and told her did it occur to