Read 204 Rosewood Lane for Free Online

this afternoon, but he wasn’t ready to disclose it.
    â€œI’m worried about Justine,” Olivia said after a moment.
    â€œHow so?” As far as Jack knew, Olivia’s daughter was deeply in love with her fisherman husband.
    â€œShe was seen having lunch with Warren Saget last Friday.”
    â€œWarren?” Jack had never understood what Olivia’s daughter saw in the land developer. Now that Justine had married Seth, he’d hoped Warren would move on to greener pastures—which in his case probably meant an even younger woman.
    â€œYou heard it or Justine mentioned it?”
    â€œI heard it,” Olivia said and gnawed on her lower lip.“Justine doesn’t share much with me.” She gazed at him with wide anxious eyes. “I think…she regrets marrying Seth.”
    Jack removed his feet from the ottoman and leaned forward. This was serious. He frowned, trying to think of something reassuring he could say. But he was hardly an expert on the parent-child connection. His relationship with his own son was on rocky ground and with good reason. As a child, Eric had suffered from leukemia. Jack had turned to the bottle for solace, and for years he’d emotionally abandoned his wife and son. Following the divorce, Eric hadn’t wanted anything to do with his father. Jack couldn’t blame the boy; nevertheless, it stung. Now after several years of sobriety and with Olivia’s encouragement, he’d made a determined effort to reestablish contact.
    Olivia and her daughter struggled with their relationship, too, but on an entirely different level.
    â€œJust ask her,” Jack advised. “She’d probably be willing to tell you.”
    A quick shake of her head dismissed that idea. “I can’t…Justine will resent the intrusion. I don’t dare say a word unless she brings it up. Besides, I don’t want her to know I heard about her lunch with Warren. She’ll accuse me of listening to gossip.” Olivia dropped her feet and bent forward. “How is it,” she asked, “that I can make judgments in a courtroom that affect the future of our community and yet I can’t speak openly with my own daughter?”
    It was the same question he’d asked himself with regard to his son. Each week Jack editorialized in the Cedar Cove Chronicle. He was never at a loss when it came to expressing his opinion. But talking to his only child—well, there his confidence disappeared. He was afraid of saying too much or not enough, of sounding either judgmental or indifferent.
    â€œEric phoned this afternoon,” Jack said bleakly. “He wasupset and I didn’t know what to tell him. I’m his father, he came to me with a problem and I should’ve been able to help him.”
    â€œWhat’s the problem?” Like Jack, Olivia knew it was a breakthrough in this difficult relationship for Eric to contact him at all. When he didn’t immediately answer, Olivia ran her hand down the length of his back. “Jack?”
    â€œThe girl Eric’s living with is pregnant.”
    â€œThey weren’t using birth control?”
    â€œNo. He didn’t think it would happen.”
    Olivia laughed softly. “I don’t understand why any couple would take chances with birth control.”
    Jack turned to face Olivia. “Since Eric had cancer as a youngster, the drugs and the different procedures left him sterile. The doctors told us that years ago.”
    Olivia frowned. “You mean the baby isn’t his?”
    Jack rubbed his hand over his eyes. “It can’t be, and Eric knows that.”
    â€œOh, dear.”
    Jack had wanted to say something helpful to Eric, but he had no words of comfort or advice. He’d hung up feeling that once again he’d failed his son.
    Â 
    The Harbor Street Gallery was quiet for the moment. Taking advantage of the respite, Maryellen slipped into the back room to get