Strict Confidence by Skye Warren

Author:Skye Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Book Beautiful
Published: 2021-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Jane Mendoza

I go through the motions of Paige’s bath-time routine with an aching heart.

As if Beau reached in and twisted it as he left.

Every beat of my heart forces me to remember his words on the beach. The man who said those things was the casual, cruel boss I started working for, not the lover in my bed. After everything, it’s still painful. I wanted to sink down to my knees in the sand and sob.

Not with Paige waiting in the house.

Not with everything feeling as tenuous as it did when I first got here.

Now she flips over in the clawfoot tub and kicks her feet. Paige was suspicious of the tub until the first time she tried it. Then she did a complete one eighty. “It’s like a pool!” she’d said, eyes round with astonishment. “Or a hot tub. I’m a mermaid. Look at me, I’m a mermaid.”

There’s more than enough room for her to stretch out her legs. She sweeps one hand through the water and makes waves on the side of the tub.

“Ten more minutes,” she says.

And I get it. There’s a whole toy store in there for her. Everything we had sent from a little shop downtown to try and coax her in. Bubble bath that makes the surface of the water glisten with rainbows. Floating toys in the shape of boats. Bath paints, which seem like they’ll defeat the purpose but remain miraculously out of her hair.

“Five minutes,” I offer as a compromise.

My temples throb with the stress of the argument. Beau said he needed me. It didn’t stop him from turning his back on me. He claimed he didn’t mean it when he said he loved me. A moment that passed, he called it. I don’t have the energy to fight him.

“Seven,” Paige says, and dunks her head under again. She learned how to make deals while playing Monopoly. She’ll make you an offer on St. Charles Place for more than it’s even worth. It seems like a good idea until she captures her monopoly and bankrupts you a few turns later.

“Okay,” I tell her when she resurfaces. “Seven minutes.”

I step out into Paige’s bedroom. Most times, she wants to be alone, so I give her space. I’ve already washed her hair. She’ll be pruny soon, but I don’t want to push her too hard. So I perch on the edge of the bed and listen to her drag the toy boats through the water. From the sounds of her dialogue there’s a pirate ship in battle with a cove of mermaids. Kitten naps peacefully on Paige’s pillow, undisturbed by the battle.

A movement outside the window catches my eye. I sweep back the curtain a few inches, expecting to see moonlight on waves.

There’s someone out there.

A woman, walking slowly down the beach. I get the impression of blonde hair bleached white by the moon. A long, pale nightgown. Unease skips down my spine. The woman doesn’t seem to leave footprints in the sand—or maybe I’m too far away to see them.

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