Heart of gold by Tami Hoag

Author:Tami Hoag [Tami Hoag]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Roman
ISBN: 9780553593358
Published: 2010-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

ONE SAND CASTLE turned into two and eventually became a minor megalopolis on the little beach. After the construction boom came a well-deserved cookie break, then Lindy curled up on the blanket with her bedraggled doll tucked to her chest and fell into the deep, blissful sleep of a happy child.

Faith gazed down on her daughter, gently rubbing a hand back and forth over Lindy’s back as she slept. Shane watched quietly, his expression pensive as feelings tumbled loose inside him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt such a sense of peace. There was no denying that the source of that peace was the lady sitting across from him, and the little girl with the sun-blushed cheeks and yellow Big Bird sweatshirt.

“She’s pretty special, isn’t she?” he murmured, reaching out hesitantly to touch Lindy’s silky hair. A curl wound around his finger.

Faith shot him a grin. “I hope you’re not expecting an unbiased opinion. Personally I think the sun rises and sets on this little one.”

“I’ve got a slew of nieces and nephews,” Shane announced, almost as startled as Faith was that he had revealed something personal. Suddenly uneasy, he looked out at the ocean where fishing boats bobbed on the horizon. “I haven’t seen them in a long time.”

“Because of your job?”

“The life I lead is not conducive to emotional complications.”

Faith didn’t attempt to hold back her harsh laugh. “How clinically put.”

“It’s the truth.” His answer was almost as sharp as the look he leveled at her. “Would you rather I lie to you, Faith?”

“No,” she whispered. “I’ve been lied to enough.”

Shane bit back an oath. He wasn’t accustomed to explaining himself to anyone—quite the opposite, in fact—but one look at Faith’s expression compelled him to tell her more. “If an agent lets emotions get in his way, he can screw things up. A clear head can mean the difference between life and death.”

“So you just turn it off like a faucet?” she asked. That kind of control was well beyond her. She both envied and pitied him for it.

Shane let the question hang in the air. He didn’t want to think about it today. Today the sun was shining on him. Today he could be with Faith and her daughter. He could pretend to be a normal man for a few hours. The shadows would swallow him up again soon enough.

Faith didn’t press for an answer. She had more questions to ask, but she didn’t voice any of them. Wasn’t it a lonely way of life? She knew it was, she’d sensed the loneliness in him, she’d heard it in his music. Had he ever thought of quitting? That question was too dangerous. “No” would have been too painful an answer to hear.

“When I was a kid,” he said, staring out at the sea again, “my family had this place on the coast of Maine. We used to spend the whole summer there at the ocean.”

Relieved that the sudden tension between them had evaporated, Faith soaked up the information he offered.

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