Touching Stars by Emilie Richards Read Free Book Online Page B

close to the river.”
    “I’ll make sure he’s swimming even better by the time camp starts. Noah, you’ll work with your brother, won’t you?”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    “Please?”
    Noah looked trapped. “I guess.”
    “Dillon’s lived his entire life on the water,” Gayle said. “He’ll do fine.”
    “Good. Leon and Jared both expressed interest in being counselors, and they were prime campers when I had them.”
    “Jared won’t say yes unless Brandy’s part of the deal,” Gayle warned.
    “She already said she’d do it.”
    Noah added his opinion. “Brandy’s good with kids. I used to help out with the fifth-grade Sunday-school class, and so did she. All the little girls loved her.”
    Travis listened carefully, as he always did. “That’s a good reference.”
    “I’ve got stuff to do,” Noah said. “I’ll move the furniture later, Mom. When Jared gets back.”
    He said goodbye to Travis, then took off like a shot.
    Travis looked down at Gayle, and his eyes were troubled. “He’s okay?”
    She knew exactly what he meant. “I’m hoping he will be.”
    “ You’re okay?”
    “Well, Eric’s settled in the Lone Star room, and I’m fine. I hope the boys will be, as well. It’s not going to be an easy summer.”
    “I’m glad you don’t have guests coming this week. It’ll give you time to adjust.”
    “It’s worth losing the income.” She paused a beat. “Until I pay the next batch of bills.”
    “I brought something for Jared. I left it by the front desk.”
    “What’s that?”
    “A graduation present. He told me last month he was hoping he’d get a laptop computer from his grandparents. I got him a gift certificate for any extra software he’ll need.”
    “You’re such a good friend to all of us.”
    “I don’t have to work hard at it.”
    “You might get tired of this situation before summer’s end. With the boys at the camp, you’re going to see a lot of this family.”
    “Worse things have happened.”
    “You’ll be at the party tomorrow night?”
    “I’m guessing you might need another adult to chaperone.”
    The presence of their favorite history teacher would encourage better behavior from the graduates. She was relieved and grateful.
    She squeezed his arm lightly, then dropped her hand. “I made chocolate-chip muffins for breakfast, and I’m about to make chicken-salad sandwiches for lunch.”
    “I promise I never had a thought about food on my way over here.”
    “Yeah, yeah. I’m sure. Come with me and you can chop the celery and hard-boiled eggs.”
    “My timing was off. Another ten minutes and I’d have had lunch handed to me on a silver platter.”
    She didn’t tell him, but there wasn’t much she wouldn’t hand Travis on her best heirloom sterling. Having an uncomplicated relationship with a good man who simply valued her friendship and that of her sons was one of the things she was counting on to get her through the summer.
    “Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll let you use my best cutting board.”
    “Do I get to use one of your new Santoku knives, too?”
    “Don’t push your luck.”
    “Me? I just wait and watch until the time is right to get what I want.”
    “So that’s your secret?”
    He smiled one of his rare smiles. “Wait and watch and see.”

Chapter 4
    G ayle overslept on Eric’s first morning at the inn. One moment she was sitting up at her usual time, peering sleepily out her window at a lightening sky. The next the sun was fully up, and the converted carriage house, where she and the boys made their home, was rumbling with the snuffling and murmuring of awakening adolescent males.
    This time she leaped to her feet and peered at her alarm clock, wincing when she realized it was almost eight. She threw on a robe and padded across the Aubusson carpet she had found in an antique shop in Staunton. China, not France, was probably the country of origin, and the nap was too worn to grace the guest area. Normally