True Vision by Joyce Lamb Read Free Book Online

thought. One story, one true story, couldn’t possibly destroy the newspaper. And Logan? Mac thought she and Logan . . . Which didn’t even make sense. Mac had made his choice.
    Frustration and hurt and confusion twisted and turned inside her chest. She had to do something or she was going to explode.
    Shoving up out of the chair, she strode out to Nana’s garden, conscious of the thick blades of grass crunching under her bare feet, the sun hot on the top of her head. The thick and unruly mass of weeds in the twelve-by-twelve square seemed to taunt her: Look at the promise you broke. For shame, for shame.
    Charlie lowered herself to her knees and began pulling at them, unearthing wads of sandy dirt that she tossed aside. As she tore at the weeds, hot tears brimmed in her eyes, but she refused to blink, refused to let them fall. Crying was pointless.
    “Charlie!”
    She glanced over her shoulder to see Alex with her hands on her hips and her dark brown eyes narrowed with concern.
    “Hey,” Charlie said, sitting back on her heels. She hoped her eyes didn’t give away the emotion churning through her. A show of sympathy might undo her.
    “What the hell are you doing?” Alex asked.
    Charlie squinted at the two-foot-square patch of dirt that her furious activity had revealed. “I’m weeding.”
    “Why?”
    “I promised Nana I would keep up her garden, and I haven’t.”
    “So naturally now is the time to start. What’s going on with you?”
    Charlie pushed to her feet. Mac was wrong, she thought. He had to be. He was overreacting. That auto dealer story couldn’t possibly sink the entire newspaper.
    Alex folded her arms under her breasts. “I think it’s time you tell me what the hot detective said that’s got you so bothered.”
    “I’m not bothered.” Which wasn’t true. She was bothered on so many levels, not to mention by what she’d learned from Mac. Noah’s suggestion that her mother had a sister she’d never acknowledged didn’t surprise Charlie. She’d known for quite some time that her mother had a secret, would never forget the day she’d stumbled onto the evidence by accident.
    And there was the fact that Laurette Atkins had called her Charlotte. Only her mother called her that. Until Charlie knew more, though, she didn’t plan to involve Alex. She knew from experience that poking around where their mother was sensitive didn’t lead to hugs and kisses.
    “Okay, not bothered, but what about hot?” Alex pressed. “Because I would be if that guy had been looking at me as intensely as he was looking at you. In fact, you were giving it right back to him. It was an interesting thing to watch.”
    Charlie forced herself to focus on her sister. “How long were you standing there?”
    “Long enough to soak up the vibe.”
    “We were talking about a woman’s death. Of course it was intense.”
    “I don’t know, but there was something about the way you were looking at each other. Something . . . I don’t know. Sweaty.”
    “That sounds . . . ick.”
    “I don’t mean gross sweaty. I mean sexy sweaty. Rip-his-clothes-off sweaty.”
    Charlie had to laugh. She couldn’t argue with that, actually. Her head had definitely taken a side-trip down that road about the time he’d started staring at her mouth like she was a tall glass of lemonade and he was a dehydrated man. Her heart stumbled a bit at the memory.
    “Ah, so you thought about it.”
    Charlie glanced at her sister, having lost the thread of their conversation amid images of Noah slipping big, warm hands under her shirt and sliding them up. “What?”
    “Sex and Noah Lassiter. You thought about it. You’re thinking about it right now.”
    Yep, she was, but she also had bigger things to think about. Much bigger things. She tried to smile to reassure Alex. She’d spent a lifetime working on that smile, but it didn’t come as easily this time. “I have to go talk to Dad.”
    Surprise arched Alex’s brows. “Now? But the