The Stranger's Sin (Return to Indigo Springs 02) by Darlene Gardner

Author:Darlene Gardner [Gardner, Darlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Women, Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Fiction, Short Stories, Inspirational
Amazon: B009124XL0
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Published: 2012-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHASE USUALLY ENJOYED the music at the Fourth of July festival.

The high-school band, the color-guard ensemble, the local rock group with dreams of hitting it big. They all sounded infinitely better when listened to outdoors in the company of friends, especially when the weather cooperated.

Tonight, with the temperature hovering around seventy degrees and with four of his friends and Toby spread out beside him on a giant blanket, Chase could have been tone-deaf.

“Who is Kelly talking to?” Sara Brenneman craned her neck to get a better view through the sea of people in the downtown park. On the amphitheater stage, the musicians scheduled to perform next set up for their show. Restless children chased one another around an adjacent field.

Toby was more tired than restless. Chase had put the baby in his combination carrier-car seat when his eyes reached half-mast. They were well below that now, the whites barely visible.

In addition to Toby and Sara, Chase’s group included Michael Donahue and Johnny and Penelope Pollock. Johnny’s arm was slung around his bride of a little more than a month.

“That’s Timmy Waverly’s dad.” Chase didn’t need to turn around to provide the answer to the question of who was monopolizing Kelly. Neither did he particularly want to talk about the man. “First in the sack race, but runner-up in the egg toss and three-legged race. The kid’s a natural.”

“Only in the solo events,” Michael said, building on Chase’s misdirection. “Timmy thinks the only letters in team are M and E.”

Michael had returned to Indigo Springs earlier in the summer for Johnny’s wedding and stayed, recently becoming partners in his old friend’s construction business. The more Chase got to know Michael, the better he liked him. That didn’t mean Chase wouldn’t give his new friend a hard time.

“Have you been hanging around my dad?” Chase said with an exaggerated groan. “Because that is the caliber of bad jokes he tells.”

Michael winced and covered his heart. “You wound me.”

Johnny and Penelope laughed, but Sara wasn’t listening to their exchange. “Is he married?”

“Of course Timmy’s not married,” Michael said. “He’s eleven years old.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Not Timmy, his dad. Is Timmy’s dad married?”

Chase had made it a point to find out Waverly’s marital status about an hour ago. In doing so, he’d inadvertently learned that Waverly was quickly developing a reputation as a player.

“Divorced.” Chase hoped that would end the line of conversation.

“I’m missing something,” Penelope interjected. “Who is Kelly?”

Chase resigned himself to discussing Kelly. There was no way around it with this group. “She’s in town looking for Mandy. And, as it turns out, she’s helping me out with Toby. My dad was out of town last night so she babysat.”

“Really?” Sara’s eyebrows shot up. “Kelly Delaney babysat for you?”

Penelope lowered her voice. “If this Kelly Delaney is looking for Mandy, does that mean people know Mandy is gone?”

“More of them all the time,” Chase acknowledged, a fact that made him uneasy. He’d allowed his father to convince him to delay going

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