Caught Between a Lie and True Love (Caught Between series Book 1) by Sheila Seabrook Page A

Mayor.”
    “Mayor?” Matilda squeaked, otherwise speechless. Harry was conniving behind her back.
    “And before you say anything, I’m just over there because I’m spying on them for you.” The younger woman glanced at her watch. “I have to get going. I have things to do.”
    While Delores headed down the sidewalk, Matilda stared across the street at the man she’d let into her bed every Tuesday and Thursday night.
    He’d betrayed her, gone over to the enemy’s side as though he didn’t care about what she wanted.
    If Brody ran for Mayor—and won—it would prove to the courts without a shadow of a doubt that he was responsible enough to raise Hope.
    Damn Harry .
    There had to be some way to stop him, some way to force him to see that she was right, some way to bring him around, back under control.
    A tall, shapely woman with legs that went on forever stepped out of Olivia’s front door, and looked up and down the street. She wore dark sunglasses and shorts so short, they were totally indecent. She waved at Harry, then she skipped down the steps, out the front gate, and jogged down the sidewalk, body parts jiggling in all of the right places .
    And while that sap, Harry Malone, gazed after her with a lustful expression on his face, Matilda felt a part of her shrivel up and die.
    How had they gotten to this point? Why had the man had to be so stubborn?
    Once the brunette was out of sight, he set the stake in his hand against the ground and gave it a push. Matilda strained to see what was written on the sign.
    Vote For Brody Jackson .
    Sheer fury took over. She clenched her hands at her sides, ready to cross the street and give him what for, when her gaze drifted across the hedge to the Calhoun residence and past. There she saw Jeb working his way down the street, knocking on doors, introducing himself.
    And that’s when it hit her.
    She turned her back on the man who she could have loved if he hadn’t been such an idiot, and faced her salvation.
    Jeb Calhoun for Mayor.
    Matilda started after him.
    Eat your heart out, Harry Malone .

CHAPTER ELEVEN

    By the time Paige ventured from her room, the house was quiet. Gram had dragged Starr out to the garden. Jeb hadn’t yet returned from his foray to “meet the neighbors”. And Lisa…
    As far as she was concerned, Lisa could keep jogging right off the edge of the island.
    Down in the kitchen, she set a pot of coffee to brew, then filled the sink with water so she could wash the breakfast dishes. It wasn’t like Gram to leave things in a mess, except during gardening season.
    The jar full of money in the cupboard caught her attention. She shoved it behind the cereal boxes with hopes that Jeb wouldn’t discover it. If he was so broke that he didn’t even have five dollars for a cup of coffee, then he’d be desperate enough to steal from his own mother.
    Behind her, the kitchen door swung open, and the woman who had tossed her away like an unwanted burger at a fast food restaurant staggered into the kitchen. The dark sunglasses remained on her face.
    “Water,” she croaked as she shouldered Paige aside, thrust her head under the kitchen faucet, and turned on the cold water tap. The sigh of satisfaction she gave was almost as orgasmic as the tone she used. “God, that feels sooooo good.”
    Paige barely managed a single step back before Lisa grabbed her by the shirt.
    “Hand me a towel, will you, sugar?”
    Pulling a tea towel out of the drawer, she set it in the woman’s outstretched hand. Gram wouldn’t like it, but then Gram didn’t like Lisa anyway.
    As the other woman wrapped her hair in the towel and straightened, Paige noticed purple and yellow marks surrounding her eyes before the sunglasses shifted back to cover the bruises.
    “That coffee smells good. Mind if I help myself?”
    She refocused on the dishes and shrugged. “It’s a free country.”
    For a few minutes, the only sound in the kitchen was the squeak of cupboard doors opening and