The Coldwater Warm Hearts Club by Lexi Eddings Read Free Book Online Page B

his phone and cocked his head at her. “Now it’s your turn. What really happened in Boston?”
    â€œLong story short, I screwed up.”
    â€œYour dad said your business partner got you crossways of some pretty serious people.” His expression amended that to “seriously bad people.”
    Lacy’s brows shot up. “Dad talked to you about me?” Clearly, her father didn’t think she was as out of the woods after the Boston debacle as she wanted him to believe. “I’m so going to have a discussion with him. About boundaries.”
    â€œDon’t be too hard on him. He said you narrowly avoided prosecution over an embezzlement you had no part in. He’s just worried about you.” Daniel met her gaze in a way that made her insides shiver afresh. “So am I. Is anyone likely to follow you here to try and make trouble?”
    â€œI hope not.” Not as long as she made her payments. Requiring her to make full restitution to her clients was the DA’s way of making sure she wasn’t in on the scheme with Bradford. Bad as taking out that loan was, it was still a lot better than prosecution and jail time. “Coldwater is a long way from Boston. I didn’t exactly leave a trail of breadcrumbs.”
    â€œYeah, but if anyone’s looking for you, they’ll check your hometown first.”
    â€œI don’t know how they’d discover where it is.” She’d done everything she could to distance herself from Coldwater Cove while she was back east. She used her college address when she set up her business. If her accent made people ask where she was originally from, she’d claim the Midwest. That was ambiguous enough to suggest Chicago. Other than the Windy City, no one from Boston seemed to believe there was any place of note between the Berkshires and the Pacific coast anyway.
    â€œIf you’re worried about it, turn off the GPS on your phone and stay off the Internet. Oh, and you might need to drop by the Gazette to make sure Wanda isn’t running a piece about your coming home,” Daniel said. “We may be in the boonies, but the newspaper’s online now, too, you know. Anyone can Google you.”
    â€œYikes.” He was right. Dealing with the O’Leary brothers had scared her. She’d been thinking of Coldwater Cove as a sort of do-it-yourself witness protection program. “I’ll pop by the Gazette office first thing in the morning before Wanda plasters a piece about my prodigal return all over page one.”
    He chuckled again. Lacy got the sense that he hadn’t done that much lately.
    â€œI’ll try to keep an eye out for out-of-state plates, but we can’t monitor everything.” Dan fished in his pocket and came up with a business card. He wrote something on the back of it and handed it to her. “If someone bothers you, if you even get a feeling that someone’s watching you, call me.”
    â€œThanks.” She slipped the card into her pocket. He’d written down his personal number but she didn’t know what weight to give that information.
    â€œI’ll always come if you call,” he said. Then he reached across the countertop and covered her hand with his. Sparks flew up her arm like a welder’s arc. “I’m glad you’re back in Coldwater, Lacy.”
    She’d come home because of a mistake. She’d never intended to be here again for more than the occasional fly-by on holidays. Hiding out in this small town was so not how she saw her life unfolding. But when she looked at Daniel, she realized that maybe this was her chance to have a do-over, to take that road she’d passed by before.
    She evidently had a wicked little who-cares-if-he-is-married part of her heart. She probably needed to stomp that bit of her into submission lest she end up on the Methodist prayer chain again.
    But what surprised her most was that part of her—maybe