Trading Places by Ruth Jean Dale

Author:Ruth Jean Dale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Accidents will happen;

or, how I became a victim of love

Every pregnancy I ever had was an accident, except that first one, which was insanity. I knew better, even at the tender age of sixteen. But I was swept away and for a little while I forgot everything, even that damned blender….

That Book About This Body,

Sharlayne Kenyon

ALICE STORMED INTO Tabitha’s small office in a fury. She found Tabitha sitting at the French-provincial desk, pen in hand. Her expression was almost haunted.

Alice would not be deterred. She marched forward, pressed her palms flat on the desktop and said in a low, angry voice, “I’ve got to speak to Sharlayne—now.”

“Yes, I suppose you do. Unfortunately, she’s not available at the moment.”

“Damn it, Tabitha!” Alice began to pace. “I’ve just been through hell and—”

“I know, I know, and you handled it beautifully.”

Alice stared at the woman. She didn’t sound like herself and she didn’t look at all like herself, either.

Tabitha tapped the pen point nervously on a pad of paper. “You did an excellent job with Bill Rogers, Alice, just excellent. You couldn’t have handled him better.”

“You think so?” Somewhat mollified, Alice sat in the chair beside the desk. “I had no idea what I was doing, you know.”

“I’m sure you didn’t.”

“I suppose you also knew that I had—I mean, Sharlayne had a child.”

Tabitha shook her head slowly. “That revelation stunned me. I’m just beginning to realize how many things she’s chosen not to share with me.”

“She’s probably ashamed,” Alice suggested.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. More likely she simply wanted to protect the child.”

“Anything’s possible.” Alice made the admission flippantly, since deserting a child was so awful on the face of it.

“The important thing,” Tabitha said, “was that you completely fooled Mr. Rogers. He has no idea he wasn’t talking to his ex-wife.”

“Which doesn’t make any sense. Are people blind?”

“People see what they expect to see.”

“Sharlayne said the same thing.”

Tabitha nodded. “It helped that he hadn’t been in the same room with her for a good twenty-plus years. She was only sixteen when she married him. That marriage was very short-lived.”

“Sixteen.” Alice shook her head in wonder. “She was just a baby herself.”

“She told me once that he was the only husband she married strictly for love. I already knew that, of course, since he was a mere garage mechanic at the time.”

“What is he now?”

“Now he owns the garage—bought for him by her. I’m not sure he’s even aware of her part in that. In fact, now that I think about it, I’m sure he doesn’t.”

Alice’s ire was waning. “But to abandon a baby…”

“Let’s not go there again,” Tabitha said, suddenly brisk. “We have other things to worry about.”

Alice groaned. “I’m not up to any more problems—or any more ex-husbands.”

“Perhaps you won’t be faced with more. What you said to him—”

“Which time? I was so confused and talking so fast I don’t even remember the half of what I said.”

“About going away somewhere. That’s not such a bad idea.”

Alice felt a leap of hope.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.