by Lisa Childs
And he was letting her go.
He had to let her go now.
It would only hurt more later. But as his heart contracted, he had to admit it hurt damned bad now.
“Sasha!” Her name tore free of his throat, unbidden.
She turned toward him, her gaze meeting his. But she didn’t say anything.
He moved toward the gangplank. “I have something for you,” he said, taking Nadine’s letter from his pocket. “I don’t need it anymore.”
Jorgen’s admission was enough evidence. He didn’t need anything else.
No, that was a lie. He needed Sasha. And Annie.
The little girl reached toward him. “Wed…”
Her little face was pinched with anxiety. She had never ridden the ferry before. For trips to the mainland, Reed had taken her in the sheriff’s boat.
“She doesn’t want to go,” he said. And he didn’t want to let either of them go.
Sasha nodded. “Neither do I.”
His heart beat faster, as hope rose. “Then why are you leaving?”
“Because it’s what you want.” Tears dampened her eyes…like a sucker punch to Reed’s gut.
God, it was the last thing he wanted. “Sasha…that’s not true.”
“What’s true then, Reed?”
He released a ragged sigh, but his lungs still burned with breath held too long. “That you’ll leave eventually. You won’t stay here. There’s no high school here. Really no entertainment. You’d be bored.”
Her eyes glowed as she stared at him. He refused to accept that it was love, because that made him an even bigger fool for letting her leave.
“I’d never be bored,” she said, her eyes shining even brighter as her gaze locked with his. “But you’re right. I’d leave.”
He sucked in a quick, painful breath. Having his fear confirmed didn’t make it hurt any less.
“I’d leave every day,” she continued. “Like you ordinarily do.”
But these hadn’t been ordinary times for him…not since Nadine’s murder and Sasha’s arrival.
“I’d go to the mainland,” she said. “To one of the high schools there. Or maybe I wouldn’t go every day. With the size of the schools, maybe they would only need me a couple days a week. And every night I’d come back here. To you. And Annie.”
He sucked in another breath, this one full of excitement and hope. Could he believe her? Could he let himself trust another woman’s promises?
When that woman was Sasha, he could. “Come down here. I have something to give you.”
“The letter. I know,” she said, uttering a soft sigh. “I don’t need it. I thought I needed the house, the letter, something to connect me to Nadine. But here—” She jiggled the child in her arms, getting a laugh out of her. “I have everything I need.”
“Everything you need?”
Despite her words, she walked back down the gangplank, back to the dock, back to him. “No, not everything,” she admitted.
“What else do you need, Sasha?”
“You, Reed. I need you.”
“Why?” he asked as his heart leaped, lighter than it had been since he’d met her and he’d thought he’d have to let her go.
“Because I love you. I know it hasn’t been very long or the best of circumstances, but I love you.”
“I don’t have much to offer you, Sasha,” he felt inclined to point out. Material things had always mattered so much to his ex-wife. “The cottage is pretty primitive.”
“I don’t care where I live. True, I didn’t want to leave the mansion, but it wasn’t because of its size.”
“It was because of Nadine, your connection to her there.” He understood that, and it had killed him to tell her she had to leave it.
She nodded, tears gleaming again in her eyes. “But I’d rather have you whisper my name in the night.”
“What?”
“I’m a little nuts,” she said with a short laugh. “Can you deal with that?”
“The only thing I can’t deal with is losing you. But is this fair to you, Sasha? This isn’t the life you left behind in Grand Rapids.”
“No, it’s not. That life was empty,” she said. “This life will be full…with you, with Annie.”
“I can’t give you much, not on the salary of a small-town sheriff.”
“I’ve never had much. I won’t miss it.”
And he believed that. He trusted her. And so he laid it all out, his heart.
“I can give you a home, as simple as it is—”
“I always liked your cottage more than the mansion.” Her soft voice rang with sincerity.
“And I can give you a father for Annie.” Neither of them would mention again the man who had been her father.
“And I can give you a man who will love you and only you for the rest of your life.”
He thought of her comments about Nadine, about what she’d heard, what she’d believed. “And beyond,” he added.
She smiled as he folded both her and Annie into his arms. “I love you, oh, how I love you, Reed Blakeslee. And I’ll love you…forever.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3261-7
THE SUBSTITUTE SISTER
Copyright © 2005 by Lisa Childs-Theeuwes
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Table of Contents
Letter to Reader
Dedication
About the Author
Books by Lisa Childs
Cast of Characters
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Copyright
