Read Missing with Bonus Material: The Secrets of Crittenden County, Book One for Free Online

as she liked to tease her mother about talking to the plants, Lydia knew she felt the same way about nature. Nothing made Lydia happier than to sit outside and smell the fresh, clean air and feel the warm sun caress her skin.
    Cookies and drink forgotten, she rested her neck against the back of the bench and closed her eyes.
    But instead of finding relief, memories of Perry filtered through.
    Perry walking by her side. Sipping lemonade with her in the kitchen.
    Then later, Perry laughing at her.
    Just weeks before they’d broken up, he’d teased her about all sorts of things. Including her somewhat restrained and quiet ways. Though it used to be something he’d liked about her, all of a sudden it was yet another part of her that he’d found fault with.
    “Lydia, why do you have to be so serious all the time? I tell you what, sometimes being with you is like being with my maiden aunt,” he’d said one evening at the end of a singing. “You need to learn to cut loose and have a good time.”
    “Like you?” she’d snapped. His cynical looks, and the way he’d find the one thing she wasn’t good at and point it out—it made her feel on edge and exposed.
    “Of course like me,” he’d answered, his whole posture becoming more argumentative. Aggressive. “Come on, Lydia,” he’d goaded as they’d walked farther and farther into the cornstalks and away from everyone else’s curious stares. “You need to loosen up or you’re going lose me to somebody else.”
    She’d opened her mouth and drew in a breath. She’d fully intended to tell him exactly what she’d thought about his attitude toward her. But before she could get a word out, he’d leaned close and kissed her. Hard.
    She’d lifted her hands to his shoulders to steady herself before pushing him away. But instead of feeling her push, he’d taken it as an invitation to pull her closer.
    And though she’d never intended to kiss him. Or to embrace him. Though she’d intended to chide him for being so forward . . . she’d kissed him back.
    And then had felt so ashamed of her behavior that she couldn’t break things off. She tried to convince herself that she still loved him. After all, only a wanton woman would behave in that manner with a man she had begun to distrust.
    And surely that couldn’t be her. That was not how her mother had raised her to be.
    Perry, being Perry, had recognized her weakness and had laughed. “I told you you were gonna have to change. And now you are! You learn quickly,” he said with a grin. “Why, the Lydia I used to know would have never done something like that.”
    Because his words were true, she’d kept silent. But was she really changing, or was Perry bringing out a dark side of her that had always been hidden inside . . . waiting and lurking for the right time to come to surface?
    Had she become the type of woman to kiss men out in the open? Had she become the type of person who took more risks than she should?
    “Lydia? Hey, Lydia, are you asleep?”
    With a jerk, she popped her head up and opened her eyes. Stared at the English boy standing in front of her. “Walker?”
    It was hard to see his eyes under the brim of his baseball cap, but the lift of his lips relayed that she’d made the correct guess. “Yeah. It’s kind of a surprise I’m here, huh?”
    Lydia blinked hard, trying to come to terms that Walker was standing in her rose garden, looking for all the world like he was nervous to be speaking with her. “I’m surprised. I mean, it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other,” she finally said. “Not since I saw you at Schrock’s in December . . .” Her voice drifted off before she allowed herself to finish the thought. No way did she want to think about that evening again.
    Filling the silence, he said, “I’m back at work there.”
    “I heard. Why?” she blurted. She would have thought Walker would get a job someplace else. Someplace without all the memories.
    Looking