Because of Audrey by Mary Sullivan

Author:Mary Sullivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

AUDREY PRESSED HER finger against the Turner doorbell. When Harrison opened the door, she barely suppressed a gasp. He’d aged ten years in a day.

He stepped aside to allow her to enter.

Abigail sat on the sofa, her eyes red-rimmed, her demeanor defeated.

Oh, Gray, look what you’ve done to two of the best people on earth.

Dear God, she was angry. Furious.

She should go back to the B and B and kick his ass. Instead, she stayed where she was, because Harrison and Abigail needed a friend.

It also looked as though they needed comprehension of this disaster, but that she couldn’t give. Even after seeing Gray only a few minutes ago, she had no better understanding of his motives than before she’d confronted him.

He’d been recalcitrant and unhappy. He might have committed a horrible disservice to his parents, but he hadn’t looked the least bit pleased about betraying them. In fact, he’d seemed almost as ravaged by his actions as his parents were.

So why had he elected to try for guardianship over his father? What was in it for him?

Audrey sat beside Abigail and took her hands in her own. They were icicles. Audrey chafed them.

“I’ll make tea,” Harrison said.

“I can do it,” Audrey offered, but Harrison stopped her with a sad smile.

“I need to keep busy. Stay with Abigail.”

After he left the room, Abigail said, “This is killing him.” Her voice hitched. “I don’t know what to do for him or how to help him. We gave Gray everything, and now this.”

Her bewildered gaze delved into Audrey’s, as though she could find answers there. “I don’t understand.”

“Me, either,” she said, her need to fix this undermined by helplessness and ignorance. “There has to be a reason. Did Gray need money?”

Abigail shrugged, the gesture more eloquent than words at indicating how at sea she was.

“Perhaps it had something to do with his life away from Accord. Tell me what happened to him back in Boston.” Maybe between the two of them, she and Abigail could find hints. “I heard rumors of a car accident.”

“Yes. His fiancée died in the crash.”

Oh, God. She hadn’t heard. She’d had no idea. “That’s horrible.”

“Yes, it was very sad. Devastating for Gray. They’d been engaged for five years.”

There were no words. Even something like devastating couldn’t possibly say enough.

“He loved her?”

“He adored her,” Abigail said. “So much so that he stayed in Boston when he really wanted to move back here.”

Oh. She’d thought he hadn’t cared enough—about the town, his parents or Turner Lumber, to come home. She thought he’d become an urban snob.

Things weren’t adding up. “Could he be so, I don’t know, deranged by sorrow that he isn’t thinking clearly?”

“I don’t think Marnie’s death caused this, Audrey. When he’d returned home, he’d seemed...diminished, but not bitter. I know he loved Marnie, but how could it relate to what he’s done here?”

“I don’t know.” She held Abigail’s hand and said, “I have to find out. I can’t leave this. One way or another, I’ll figure it out and get back to you.

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