Frame-Up by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Author:Jill Elizabeth Nelson
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780373445790
Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense
Published: 2014-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

NINE

“Thank you for your help today,” Laurel said as she walked David to the front door after a delivery-pizza lunch.

“Glad to do it. Sorry I have to run off like this. There are a few things I need to handle this afternoon.”

He smiled, and her feet seemed to take leave of the floor. What was up with the teeny-bopper reaction? And why did his gaze dart away from hers so quickly? Was he nervous? That niggling sense that he knew something he wasn’t telling her anchored her shoes to the tile.

“’Bye, Mr. Green.” Caroline came up beside Laurel as David stepped outside.

“See you, squirt.” David turned and winked, but it wasn’t a playful wink. A searching stare accompanied it.

Caroline suddenly found fascination in the toes of her tennis shoes. More secrets? Laurel frowned as she watched David retreat up their sidewalk. What had her child and David talked about while they straightened the living room and dining room?

Laurel closed the door and turned, mouth open to ask, but Caroline had disappeared like a puff of smoke. Small sounds from the girl’s bedroom betrayed her location, but Laurel restrained herself from pursuit. She’d give the teenager a little space and see if she came clean. If not, Laurel might have to kick up some dust with her daughter and with David.

She was alone in the downstairs now. Janice had left for her home office to deal with some work. Heaviness weighed Laurel like a lead mantle. Shoulders bowed, she retreated to the kitchen and began a third scrubbing of the kitchen floor. She might not have to replace the tile if she could get the last traces of egg to fade a bit more.

“Mo-o-om?”

Caroline’s tentative, almost frightened tone brought Laurel’s head up. Her daughter was standing in the doorway twisting her fingers together.

Laurel rested on her haunches. Wary didn’t begin to describe her body and mind. “Did you find something missing or damaged upstairs?”

The teenager lowered her gaze and shook her head. Laurel dropped her scrub brush into the bucket and rose. She mopped at her forehead with a gloved hand and left a wet streak behind to mingle with the sweat she had meant to brush away. No matter. She stripped off her gloves and dropped them to the floor. Whatever this was with her daughter looked serious.

“Come sit down. I’m all ears.”

She pulled out a pair of chairs from the kitchen table. Caroline sat, fingers twined on her lap, gaze averted. Laurel held her tongue and waited, harder to do than one would think when everything within her strained to know what was gnawing at her precious child.

“What would you do,” the teenager began as if treading on verbal egg shells, “if someone who thinks they’re all that was trying to get you to do something you didn’t want to do?”

Laurel laid a hand over her daughter’s. “Sweetheart, you know I believe in standing up to a bully, but I also believe that sometimes we need help to do it.

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