If We Never Met (Whisper Lake #5) - Barbara Freethy Page 0,11

her, then waved her onto the wide front porch that held a half-dozen Adirondack chairs. But neither one of them sat down.

"Why don't you trust him?" he asked curiously.

"He showed up at our front door yesterday, completely out of the blue. He had a high school yearbook with him and told me that he and my mom had gone through high school together in Denver. Before I could ask him more questions, my mother appeared. She didn't recognize him at first, but when he showed her the photo of the two of them together at a dance, it started coming back to her."

"I'm not hearing the problem."

"He's being super-aggressive. He stayed for a half hour last night. He only left because my mom had a friend coming over. And then tonight he apparently went to our house, picked her up and brought her to the inn for drinks."

"That's horrible," he said dryly.

She made a face at him. "You don't understand. My mom had a traumatic head injury six years ago. She's had to relearn how to walk and talk and she still has problems with her memory. She's vulnerable. I don't like that this guy has shown up out of nowhere and is so eager to get to know her again when it's been forty-five years since they were in high school."

He was beginning to understand the problem. Keira was clearly protective of her mother, and who could blame her after the health issues her mom had been through?

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you all this," Keira said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "It's not your problem."

"Maybe it's not a problem at all," he suggested. "Mark Langley could be a decent guy. He has a good job. I'm sure he was vetted for that.

"That's true. My gut just tells me there's something off about him, and I need to protect my mother. She might look like she's normal now, but she is still fragile." Keira blinked back tears of emotion. "Sorry again." She dabbed at her eyes. "It's just been a long road with her, and I'm tired. I'm going to go before I talk your ears off."

She was down the steps before he could say he wanted to hear more, because he did. But he shouldn't want to hear more. He didn't need to get involved in Keira's life. He needed to focus on his own, so he let her go.

He walked into the inn and jogged up the stairs to his room. When he was inside with the door closed, he sat down on the bed and let out a breath. He wanted to feel the peace of the room, but instead he felt wired and restless. And that was because of a woman who'd sat down at the wrong table and flashed him a smile that he couldn't seem to forget.

He got up from the bed and walked over to the desk, turning on his computer. He opened one of the dozen or so pitching videos he had on his computer, avoiding the one from the last game he'd pitched.

He could remember the exact moment when he'd realized something had torn in his shoulder. The pain had been intense. It had shot down his arm to his fingers and the ball that had left his grip missed the plate by three feet. He'd somehow ended up on his knees. He'd been pitching a no-hitter. He'd been having the game of his life.

Now, he was terrified that it might have been the last game of his life.

To distract himself, he watched an older video of his younger self. That cocky and determined kid would have never believed he'd end up here. But he wasn't here forever. This was just the next stop on his road to recovery.

And that's what he was going to do in Whisper Lake—recover. He would get past this obstacle the way he'd gotten past everything else he'd faced: with grit and a stubborn refusal to accept anything less than a complete recovery. There was no time in his healing process for a beautiful brunette with a brilliant smile.

Chapter Four

Keira woke up Saturday morning with a pounding headache. She took a quick shower, threw on skinny white jeans and a tank top, and then headed downstairs. She'd tossed and turned all night, thinking about the two very different men who had suddenly come into her life this week—Mark Langley and Dante DeAngelis.

She was still suspicious of Mark, and she needed to