Read Montana Creeds: Tyler for Free Online Page A

adventure at the library with Kristy.
    Lily bit back a comment about the fat and cholesterol content of Janice’s casserole and smiled. “Something smells good,” she said.
    â€œMrs. Baylor brought us sketty for supper,” Tess said cheerfully.
    Hal watched Lily, probably expecting a discourse on the wonders of tofu. “You look a little better,” he said. “Not so frazzled.”
    Lily nodded. She needed a shower and more sleep—would she ever catch up?—but she needed a hot meal more, and her father and daughter’s company more still.
    â€œHow about you?” she asked Hal. “Did you rest this afternoon?”
    Hal grinned. Here at home, he didn’t look so wan and gaunt as he had in the hospital. The expression of frenzied dismay in his eyes had subsided, too. He’d decided, Lily thought, to live.
    â€œAs much as I could, with half the town stopping by with food,” he answered. “The doorbell rang at least a dozen times.”
    Lily was horrified. She hadn’t heard a thing. Hadn’t stirred on the hard twin bed in the sewing room. What kind of caretaker was she, anyway?
    Her thoughts must have shown in her face; Hal winked and said quietly, “Sit down, Lily. You’re home now.”
    You’re home now .
    Kristy had said something similar, earlier that day.
    It was a nice fantasy, Lily supposed, but once her father was well enough to carry on alone, she and Tess would be returning to their old lives in Chicago, to the condo, and Tess’s private school, and Lily’s job as a buyer for an online retailer of women’s clothes.
    Burke’s mother, Eloise, who doted on Tess, would be lost without their weekly tea parties—just the two of them, if you didn’t count Eloise’s maid, Dolores. They used the best bone china, Eloise and Tess, and wore flowered hats and white gloves with pearl buttons. Eloise took Tess to museums, and bought her beautiful, hand-made dresses, and invited her for long weekends at the Kenyon “cottage” on Nantucket.
    The place had three stories, fourteen rooms, each onegraced with exquisitely shabby antique furniture. Priceless seascapes graced the walls, and even the rugs were either heirlooms or elegant finds from the finest auction houses in the world.
    Tess, Eloise never hesitated to point out, was all she had left, with her husband gone and her only son killed in the prime of his life. The accusation went unspoken: if Lily had just been a little more tolerant of Burke’s “high spirits,” a little more patient—
    Lily’s own mother seemed to have no time for her, or even for Tess, she was so busy gracing her powerful husband’s arm at swanky parties up and down the eastern seaboard.
    Resolutely, she shook off the reverie, went to the kitchen sink and washed her hands. Then she sat down to a “sketty” supper with her family.
    â€œI like that man with the dog,” Tess announced, midway through the meal.
    Lily felt a little jolt at the mere reminder of Tyler.
    â€œWhere does he live?” Tess persisted, when neither Lily nor Hal offered a response.
    Lily had no idea. Didn’t want to know. Everything would be easier if she could just pretend Tyler Creed didn’t exist, the way she had since the night he broke her heart, but that was bound to be a tall order in a town as small as Stillwater Springs.
    â€œHis family owns a ranch,” Hal explained, with a readiness that surprised Lily, given her father’s formerly low opinion of the Creeds in general and Tyler in particular. She flashed back to the friendly way he’d greeted Tyler when they found him walking along that lonelyroad. “It’s a big spread. Tyler’s cabin is on the lake—best fishing in the county.”
    â€œI doubt if he’s around much,” Lily said moderately.
    â€œHe’s a busy man, all right,” Hal agreed, with quiet admiration.