Stillwater 01 - Dead Silence by Novak Brenda

Author:Novak, Brenda [Novak, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780778328858
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2006-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

The sun beat down on Grace’s tent. She rolled over, still sleepy but unable to tolerate the sweltering heat. It was fairly early in the morning—about eight-thirty, she guessed—but the boys and Kennedy were already up. She could hear them talking, smell the bacon frying.

“She knows you’re a nice guy now, right, Dad?” Teddy asked.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Kennedy replied, his voice low.

“She likes you. I can tell.”

Kennedy cleared his throat. “Teddy, that’s enough.”

“Okay. But you like her, too, don’t you? She’s pretty, huh, Dad?”

“She’s pretty,” he admitted.

Grace muffled a groan as she recalled the events of the previous night in brutal detail. She’d kissed Kennedy, offered to have sex with him. She should be embarrassed about that, except she knew she’d do it again if it would put what they were feeling behind them. She could sense trouble coming, trouble that seemed particularly ominous when she thought about the recognition on Kennedy’s face as she lied so poorly at her tent door a few hours earlier.

Why hadn’t she been stronger?

Rolling onto her side, she spotted the cell phone. It wasn’t until that moment that she thought of George. She’d lost the man she was going to marry. Almost every facet of her life had changed last night.

“She’s really pretty,” Heath concurred.

“Grab those eggs and bring them to me,” Kennedy said.

Throwing off the cover of her sleeping bag, she told herself she might as well face Kennedy and get it over with. Maybe they could simply forget their encounter at the lake. Pretend it had never happened and go their separate ways.

But she didn’t really want to forget what she’d felt.

“I can never get it right,” she muttered.

“I think she’s waking up,” Teddy said with an eagerness that made Grace smile despite everything.

“Stay here, Teddy,” Kennedy admonished. “Give her a chance to get dressed.”

“I was just going to say hello,” he muttered.

After pulling on a tank top and a pair of shorts, Grace gathered her toiletries, and stepped out of the tent wearing flip-flops on her feet. She knew her hair probably looked a fright since she’d gone to bed with it wet, but Kennedy didn’t seem to notice. He turned at the sound of her approach and something invisible passed between them. It wasn’t the self-consciousness she’d expected to feel. It was more indefinable than that. She’d never experienced it before.

Fleetingly, she remembered clinging to him, rubbing against him in the lake. Thank goodness they’d been dressed or things might’ve ended much differently.

“Morning,” he said, handing her a piece of bacon.

She mumbled a response, focusing on the salty taste of the meat so she wouldn’t have to consider that he now knew more about her than almost anyone else in the world.

“Pancakes will be ready in a few minutes,” he said.

“Smells great.” She wished she could read the expression in his eyes. “Do I have time to grab a quick shower?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll walk you over,” Heath said.

Grace took the boy’s hand.

“I’ll come, too,” Teddy said and insisted on carrying her bag.

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