A Family Homecoming by Laurie Paige Page A

you. You were the most trustworthy person I’d ever met. The only one I’ve ever trusted completely.”
    She stared up at him, recognizing the despair in his eyes. It only made her more confused. She was unsure of him, of herself, of the old feelings that rose like a geyser inside her.
    â€œDani,” he whispered.
    He bent slightly and his mouth settled on hers, softly at first, like the kiss of a butterfly’s wing, then more firmly when she didn’t push him away. She sensed he held himself in check. Feeling the ripple that passed through his strong body, she knew the effort it was taking.
    â€œAh, Dani,” he groaned and held her closer.
    His arms slid around her, enclosing her in his warmth. She was instantly aware of his masculine strength, the pure male ruggedness of his trained body…and yes, the need.
    An answering hunger clamored through her veins.
    All week she had listened to his quiet footsteps in the house. She’d known when he went to bed, when he paced his room in restless agitation, when he paused outside her door before going to the kitchen.
    He claimed her mouth once more, the kiss going deep and intimate, filling her starved spirit with the beauty of the moment and her body with a longing that couldn’t be satisfied with only a kiss.
    She knew she was on dangerous ground. She didn’t want any regrets in the morning. She’d lived with a lifetime of those during the past two years. But she couldn’t pull away.
    Neither could she respond fully.
    Kyle lifted his head. For a second, in the depths of his eyes, he seemed as emotionally ravaged as she felt. Despair, anger, need, physical hunger and the sadness…yes, the sadness. She knew the sadness on intimate levels.
    â€œI want a place in yours and Sara’s lives,” he said, the storm passing and his expression opaque once more.
    â€œFor how long?” she asked.
    His lips curled in a bitter smile. “It’s always going to be there, isn’t it? A gap of two years that I can’t erase.”
    He walked out, leaving her standing there with a thousand questions that she couldn’t ask, her body hot and bothered, her heart in shreds. All the things she had thought possible when she wrote her matter-of-fact letter detailing why they should get a divorcesuddenly seemed impossible. She had no future with him. She couldn’t imagine one without him.
    She dropped her head forward and pressed her hands over her eyes, feeling as frightened as five-year-old Sara.

Chapter Five
    â€œR afe Rawlings available?” Kyle asked when someone finally answered the phone.
    â€œJust a minute,” the officer on the line said. “Hey, Rawlings, it’s for you.”
    The door opened at that moment and Danielle entered the kitchen. She’d walked Sara to school that morning. As usual when he saw his wife, his heart clenched, then beat like mad for a moment before settling back down.
    It was still pounding when the sheriff picked up and Kyle heard the click as the other man hung up.
    â€œMitchell here,” he said. “I want to ask you a couple of questions that came up over the weekend.”
    â€œShoot,” Rafe said.
    â€œHas anyone investigated a guy named DillonPierce in relation to the attack and kidnapping in the parking lot?”
    â€œWell, that was Angela Sheppard’s…uh, McBride—she’s married to Shane McBride now—”
    â€œI know,” Kyle broke in impatiently.
    â€œPierce was her first husband’s partner,” Rafe continued unperturbed. “Yeah, we did some checking on him but he’d left for parts unknown long before she moved to Whitehorn. There were no traces of the man to be found.”
    Kyle muttered an expletive. Glancing up, he noted the slightly shocked expression on Danielle’s face as she lingered in the kitchen, listening to his end of the call. He had always been very careful about separating his home