Read Bringing Delaney Home (Cates Brothers #1) for Free Online Page A

princess until the ogre died.”
    “My mommy had to leave too. Then did they live happily ever after?”
    “Henry Lee, does your dad feed you Disney movies for breakfast?” Delaney shook her head, wondering if she’d ever been that innocent.
    Henry Lee laughed. “That’s silly. You can’t eat a movie for breakfast. My daddy makes me oatmeal. Bye!”
    Who eats oatmeal for breakfast when there’s a box of Cap’n Crunch nearby? Delaney shrugged and dug the house key out of her pocket. She couldn’t put off going inside the house any longer.
    It was a shame her post-traumatic amnesia only affected her memories a few weeks on both sides of the explosion in Afghanistan. She sure wouldn’t mind losing all the memories of her dysfunctional parents, too. “Okay, open the door, Delaney. The ogre is long gone.”
    Delaney stepped into the kitchen and stood still in the quiet house. She could do this. Piece of cake. Speaking of cake, sitting in the center of the kitchen table was a cake box from Aunt Marie’s Bakery. This must be Greer’s peace offering after imposing her “you have to eat more” rule.
    She sat down at the table and lifted the lid for a peek, only to look down in confusion at the beautifully decorated cake. It had a multitude of colorful butter cream flowers strewn across the top and cascading down the side. In the center of the cake, piped in gold cursive, were the words Go Away. Maybe not from Greer. Some kind of joke? Huh, well, the joke was on them because she was actually hungry and a slice of cake sounded good right now.
    Of course, that meant she would have to get up out of the chair again to get a knife. Wait a minute. Leaning over, she grabbed the earthenware coffee mug sitting in the middle of the table, pulled the spoon out of the mug, and started slicing the cake as best she could with the teaspoon.
    “Come to mama.” She cut a big slice out of the word “Away” taking the letter Y, scraping an extra yellow icing flower onto the piece too. That was the point when she realized she didn’t have a plate to put it on. Looking around, she finally scooped the piece into the coffee mug and dug in with her spoon.
    “Oh, yeah.” Delaney licked the icing off the spoon and then scooped into the mug for another bite. “Mmmmm.”
    “Can I come in, or is this a private moment?” a deep male voice she sadly recognized by now called from the side door.
    “Go away,” she said, trying to talk around a mouth full of icing. Then it dawned on her what she had said, and she looked with raised eyebrows down into the cake box. “Whoa, a psychic message cake?”
    Quinn opened the screen door off the kitchen porch and let himself in. “There is no way I can walk away from moaning like that without checking it out.”
    “Do you ever work?” She peered up at him. “You are an actual police officer with a real badge and gun, or is that just one of the many rumors in this town?”
    “I’m on night shift this week.”
    “Shouldn’t you be home sleeping? What are you doing here?” Delaney asked, digging back into her mug of cake.
    He cleared his throat. “I’m heading home, but Greer sent me over here. She wanted me to tell you she forgot she has to work the sidelines of the Lady Panther lacrosse game this afternoon.” Quinn looked a little stiff and uncomfortable. “She won’t be home for another half hour.”
    “Why didn’t she call?”
    “She did,” Quinn said. “She was worried since you didn’t pick up the phone.”
    Delaney spooned a bite of cake in her mouth, then waved her empty spoon toward the phone. “It didn’t mrring.”
    “Excuse me?” Quinn pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. His legs stretched out until his big feet were next to hers, well into her personal space. She sat up straighter, carefully pulling her feet in, using her free hand to pull back on her bad leg.
    Delaney swallowed her bite of cake, narrowing her eyes at Quinn when she noticed him staring at