Three Little Words by Susan Mallery Read Free Book Online Page B

him and her son and he’d been a fool to marry her in the first place. Determined to get on with his life, he wanted to start dating. To find someone special and fall in love.
    Just his luck the first woman to capture his attention wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.
    * * *
     
    F ORD STOOD IN the emergency room’s waiting area of the Fool’s Gold Hospital wondering why this kind of thing always happened to him. He’d only meant to do what Leonard asked. A friendly tap to the jaw. He’d figured the other man would drop to the ground, what with never having been in a fight in his life. He would guess Leonard’s idea of physical toughness was to wash the car without putting on gloves.
    As expected, Leonard’s legs had collapsed immediately. Unfortunately, as he’d gone down, he’d hit his head on the side of the Jeep and been knocked out cold. Which meant the 9-1-1 call had been a good idea. Only Ford had meant it to be preventive, not necessary.
    “There you are!”
    He turned and saw a medium-height woman with blue eyes and shoulder-length blond hair walking purposefully toward him. She was curvier than he remembered, and obviously pregnant, but otherwise pretty much the same. Except the last time he’d seen Maeve, she’d been in tears, and this time she looked as if she could spit fire.
    “What is wrong with you?” she demanded. “What kind of moron goes around hitting other people?”
    “I—”
    “Tell me he’s okay. Damn it, Ford, I can’t believe you did this.”
    “He—”
    “Oh, sure. Blame it on Leonard. Do you think I don’t know why he went to see you?” She poked him in the chest. “Since you’ve been back in town, you’re all he could talk about. How he wanted to apologize and make things right. It’s been fourteen years. How on earth could anyone still be holding a grudge?”
    “I—”
    She glared at him. “You are over what happened, aren’t you?”
    “Yes.” He paused to assess the truth of the statement. “Very.”
    She raised her eyebrows.
    He cleared his throat. “Not that you’re not lovely.”
    She shoved him back a couple of steps. For a woman of her size and pregnancy trimester, she packed a punch. “You hit him!”
    “He asked me to. He insisted. I didn’t hit him that hard. He hit his head on the way down. It wasn’t my fault.” He moved back voluntarily, thinking the more room between him and Maeve, the better.
    “He’s a responsible person, unlike you,” she snapped. “The father of four and a half children. Did you think of that when you tried to kill him?”
    “I didn’t try to kill him. Look, Leonard came to me.”
    “Yes, and I expected you to be the adult in the situation. I see that was wrong. You’re exactly who you were when you left.”
    “Hey, that’s not fair.”
    She narrowed her gaze. “I’ll tell you what’s not fair. That my husband and the father of my children is in the hospital with a concussion because of what you did.”
    “He hit his head,” Ford repeated helplessly.
    The door to the waiting room opened and two uniformed officers walked in. The taller of the two women moved toward him. “Ford Hendrix?” she asked.
    He nodded.
    “We’re going to have to take a statement.”
    “Serves you right,” Maeve told him. “I hope they lock you away forever.”
    She stalked off. Ford followed the police officers to a quiet corner of the waiting area and knew his life couldn’t get any worse.
    Only he was wrong because, just when he was explaining what had happened, his mother arrived. She hurried over to him.
    “See?” she said, her voice oddly triumphant. “None of this would have happened if you’d just gotten married like I told you.”
    * * *
     
    F ORD PACED THE LENGTH of Isabel’s kitchen. She watched him move, feeling a little like watching one of the powerful cats at the zoo. She was standing close enough to sense his frustration and energy, but she didn’t have to worry about him turning on her and