The Search The Secrets of Crittenden Cou - By Shelley Shepard Gray Page 0,65

walk me home, but I didn’t want any company. I only wanted to be alone.” Bitterly, she smiled. “And I’ve been alone ever since.”

Her words seemed to echo in the room. They sounded sharp and bitter and sad. And maybe they were. She still had a lot of hurt inside her that she couldn’t seem to come to grips with. And here she was, practically shaking with tension, she was trying so hard to keep a tight grip on herself.

And Luke was looking at her with new insight, as if he was suddenly seeing her for the first time. And maybe he was? Perhaps he was finally now seeing her for what she was. Not just an innkeeper. Not just a woman who’d dated a man for a brief amount of time.

Not just a faceless Amish woman, blending into the other women the tourists saw when they came to visit—making the mistake of imagining that all people of the Amish faith act the same way, or believe in the same exact things.

Or love the same way.

Perhaps now Luke saw her through clear eyes, and saw her for what she was. Just Frannie Eicher. No better and no worse. She was strong, but perhaps not strong enough to accomplish what was most important—to help Perry find his way back.

And because of that, no matter in how many ways she would succeed over the years, she was also a failure.

And now Luke knew it, too.

As he stared and her breathing slowed, and the lump in her throat grew, he stood up.

“Frannie, I need to go.”

She stood up, too, and approached him. Figuring she no longer had anything to lose, she said, “Am I the most naïve woman in the world, Luke? Did I simply imagine Perry and I could ever be happy?” She took a breath and continued. “Did I just imagine that there was something between us as well?”

He hadn’t moved. His expression was frozen, as if it was taking everything he had not to show emotion.

“I don’t know about you and Perry. As for us?” He shook his head. “You didn’t imagine it,” he murmured. Reaching out, he clasped one of her hands. Tugged her a little closer. “There’s something about you that draws me close, Frannie. Something that I can’t seem to stay away from.”

“Then don’t stay away.”

There. She’d said it. She’d put her feelings out in the open, just waiting for him to take them to his heart and hold them close.

Something dark flickered in his eyes. And to her surprise, he bent slightly and brushed his lips against hers.

Happiness coursed through her. Everything was going to work out. Somehow, someway, she was going to have Luke. No, they were going to have each other.

“Frannie, I’m a cop. I’m still investigating this murder. Even though there’s something special between us, I don’t think anything can ever become of it. Before long, I’ll be back in Cincinnati . . . and all of this between us will just be a memory.”

She didn’t bother to say a word as he looked at her one last time with regret, then turned and walked out the door.

When she was alone, she lay down on the couch and cried. As usual, she’d misread the man she was interested in. Yet again, she’d begun to have feelings for a man who didn’t deserve them. She’d thought that a man’s smiles meant more; that his desire to visit with her meant that he liked her. She’d imagined that holding hands and exchanging flirty glances were signs of tender feelings. But she’d been wrong. To Luke, she was only a suspect. Her feelings only mattered if they gave him clues.

And now that he had gotten the whole story?

He, like Perry, was gone.

Pippa’s parents had picked her up early, giving Deborah an unexpected few hours of freedom.

Well, freedom of a sort. True freedom would mean she could relax at home and read or do some needlework. Maybe work in the garden a little bit. But being home meant that she would be in her mother’s company—and, like always, that was anything but relaxing.

Her mother was spiraling downward, deeper into depression. Though she tried her best to make a meal or to spend an hour or two with Deborah, more often than not she had taken to bed. Preferring the dark silence instead of the glaring reality of daylight. When she did engage with her family, her mother could only speak of one thing—darling Perry and how upset