Meant To Be by Donna Marie Rogers

Author:Donna Marie Rogers [Rogers, Donna Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Someone was banging on her front door. Jessica let out a long-suffering groan and rolled out of bed, landing on her knees. She worked her eyes open and glanced at the alarm clock; five-to-six. Damn, she hadn't even had four hours of sleep. She climbed to her feet and grabbed her robe from its hook as she staggered out of her bedroom. Wade was muttering curses from the guest bedroom, and she flipped him off on her way by. Of course he couldn't see her with the door shut, but it felt good all the same.

She caught her reflection in the hall mirror and barely managed to stifle a scream. Her hair stood on end, her eyes were red and swollen from crying herself to sleep, and she had an indentation on her cheek that looked suspiciously like a pair of tweezers. Tweezers? Oh, yeah, she'd dug out that splinter while crying herself into exhaustion.

The banging started again. With a scowl, she stalked to the front door and swung it open—and had to cling for dear life to the knob when her knees threatened to buckle. Standing there, raking her from head to toe with those beady little eyes, was her ex-brother-in-law, Lyle Hastings. The air whooshed from her lungs as if expelled from a fireplace bellow.

"W-What the hell are you doing here?” she stammered, her voice an octave higher than usual.

Lyle shoved past her into the living room. “What do you think I'm doing here? Wade called. He asked me to come take care of him while you're at work. Didn't he tell you?"

"No, he didn't.” Jessica's heart raced and she tried to get a hold of her emotions. Lyle scared the hell out of her—had since the night he'd cornered her in his mother's house after Wade had run out for some fast food. Thank God their mother had pulled in the driveway before he'd had a chance to do anything more than feel her up.

Lyle turned to face her and smiled that loathsome smile of his. “Hell, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you weren't happy to see me."

Jessica held his gaze for a second before walking past him into the kitchen. She heard him go in search of Wade and the two of them whispering as she put on a pot of coffee. She couldn't believe this was happening. Having Wade here was hard enough. But Lyle staying under her roof, even for a short time, was more than she could handle. She'd die, though, before letting him see how rattled his presence made her.

She'd just poured herself a cup when Lyle helped Wade into the kitchen and settled him on the chair to her right. Lyle strode over to the counter and filled two cups he dug out of the cabinet.

"Morning, baby,” Wade said, rubbing his eyes with his good hand. “What's for breakfast?"

With a look of disgust, she pushed the box of donuts across the table.

Wade and Lyle exchanged smirks. Lyle set both cups on the table and sat down across from her.

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