Read Only Hers for Free Online Page A

she’d find Matt, thank him, then drive into town and get a room.
    Not finding anyone downstairs, she set her luggage by the front door and went into the kitchen. A woman sat at the table, her face hidden by an open paperback. Its cover in vivid hues of mauve and gold showed a man and a woman in passionate embrace.
    “Good afternoon.”
    The book jerked. Octavia, her eyes wide, appeared around the side. Scrambling up from the chair, she quicklyput a dish towel on top of the book. “Ah, good afternoon, Miss Johnson.”
    Letting the swinging door close behind her, Shannon smiled and walked farther into the room. “Please call me Shannon. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, but you were so engrossed in your book.”
    The housekeeper tucked her head in obvious embarrassment.
    “From the cover it looked good. One of the things I missed most when working long hours was not being able to curl up with a good romance book.”
    Astonishment lifted Octavia’s head and widened her brown eyes. “You read them, too?”
    “Used to. Every chance I got.”
    A wide grin spread across the older woman’s charcoal face. “I knew there was something about you that I liked the second I saw you.” Still smiling, she opened the refrigerator door and took out a plate of fried chicken and potato salad. “It’s almost one. You must be starved. Sit down and eat.”
    “I really must be going,” Shannon said, but her eyes were on the golden-brown chicken.
    “Can’t,” Octavia announced, and set a glass of iced tea beside the place setting for one. “Matt said for you to wait until he got back. Usually once he eats breakfast I don’t see him until late in the evening, but today he’s been back twice to see if you were awake.”
    “Why didn’t he have you wake me up?” Shannon asked. “I don’t remember the last time I slept this late. I wouldn’t have minded.”
    Octavia chuckled, a deep sound that shook her heavy body. “That may be, but he almost took my head off when he came back the last time around twelve and found me vacuuming. Told me to stop making so much noise because you needed your sleep.”
    Uncomfortable and oddly pleased, Shannon addressed the one safe issue. “I’m sorry I interrupted your cleaning.”
    “Don’t be. As you can see, I made good use of the time. Anyway, having you in the house is good for Matt. Makes him remember his manners. Does my heart good to see that woman didn’t kill all of his protective instinct toward females.” Octavia pointed toward the ladder-back chair. “Now sit down and eat, so we can discuss books.”
    Shannon sat and half listened to the housekeeper discuss her favorite romance novels, but what Shannon really wanted to discuss was who “that woman” was and what had she done to Matt.

Chapter 3
    Two hours later Shannon sat on the bank of a stock pond beneath the shade of a willow tree with a book dangling from her fingertips. A yard from her canvas-covered feet lay the end of her cane fishing pole, the red-and-white plastic cork barely moving in the tranquil water. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as peaceful.
    She would have preferred going in search of Wade’s lawyer rather than dealing with the unsettling task of meeting Matt again. She was, if only temporarily, going to take his land away from him. And he was going to fight her with everything within him.
    Peace was what she had come for and that was exactly what she had yet to obtain. Instead of leaving as she’d wanted, she’d let Octavia bamboozle her into going fishing.
    After lunch and still no Matt, the housekeeper had thwarted all plans of Shannon leaving. Before she knew how it happened, the jovial Octavia had thrown some chocolate-chip cookies, a thermos of lemonade, and a paperback into a canvas tote, then led her outside. Several fishing poles leaned neatly beneath the overhang of the white house.
    “Pick one.”
    When Shannon simply stared at the housekeeper, the older woman snatched the one nearest