Rocky Point Inn: A sweet inspirational romance by Barbara McMahon

Author:Barbara McMahon [McMahon, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Rocky Point Series, Book Five
Publisher: Barbara McMahon
Published: 2018-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“I thought you looked familiar,” Shane said. “I must have seen you a hundred times on ESPN.”

Shannon opened her eyes and turned to glare at him. He was leaning casually against the closed door, arms crossed over his chest.

“Get out,” she said.

“Make me,” he taunted.

“I don’t want you here,” she almost screamed.

“I don’t especially want to be here, but we still have unfinished business.”

“No, we don’t.”

He nodded to the things piled on the desk.

“They're just children. They were happy to find out some terrific news about someone they all look up to. You were too hard on them.”

She swallowed. She didn’t need Shane to tell her that. But seeing it all again had been unexpected and unsettling and on top of everything else going on--she’d reacted without thinking.

“Well, if nothing else, that should point out to you how unsuited I’d be as a stepmother,” she said, unwilling to admit to Shane how wrong she’d been.

She’d have to apologize to Kayla and Cilla and Andy, however. As soon as she got her emotions under control.

He shrugged, still staying by the door as if to give her space. “You’re only human. Obviously it upset you a lot.”

“Obviously,” she repeated dryly. Her heart rate was back under control, her breathing almost normal. The anger and grief already fading.

“So what’s the story? You were destined for greatness, why get upset because Kayla just found out?”

“It was a bad time.”

“Being famous?”

“Being on the eve of the Olympics and then—”

She turned away. She didn’t want talk about it. Limping to her chair, she sat down gratefully, rubbing her hip, wishing her pain medicine was close at hand. She rarely took any, fighting the pain in other ways, but today she could use it.

“And then? Is that when you had your accident?” he asked.

She hesitated, then nodded. It wasn't as if it were a secret. A quick trip to the library to read old newspapers would give most of the story.

Or he could talk to anyone in town. They’d be sure to tell him how she’d let them all down—her father, Karl, the entire town of Rocky Point, Maine, by her foolishness, her selfishness.

“Tough break.”

“Literally,” she said with a mirthless laugh.

“And that’s tied to your reason for not marrying me to take care of Kayla, isn’t it?” he said astutely.

She gazed out the window a moment, seeing things as they’d been at that time.

“I let them all down. I can’t be depended upon. What if Kayla needed me and I let her down?” she said slowly, regretfully.

She’d change it if she could, she would have all those years ago, if only she’d been given the chance.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“My father—he trained me toward the Olympics all my life. Then through an act of defiance, I ruined everything. I let him down. It had all been for nought. The years of sacrifice. The endless hours of practice. He…he died while I was still in the hospital.”

Shane hadn’t moved. Didn’t offer flowery words of sentiment. He just watched her.

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