Read Welcome to Bluestone 1 - Bluestone homecoming for Free Online Page B

insisted he needed
one, and Leo admitted to feeling a little defensive about
apologizing for taking some time to bond with his kid. If Max was
as much trouble in school as his mother had reported, the teacher
should appreciate his effort, right?
    He crested the hill that looked onto the
lake. The water was like a mirror on the still morning. The birds,
who were returning from their trip south, were making a racket in
the trees around him. The sound cheered him as he crossed the main
street and hit the packed dirt path that curved alongside the
lake.
    He hadn’t run outside since he lived in
Excelsior. Back then, he’d run with an iPod blaring music so he’d
keep a rhythm, blocking out everything else. Now he wanted to hear
what was around him. Not sure if that was because of his time in a
war zone or because he needed to appreciate his surroundings. He
listened to the slow putter of a boat heading out for a day of
fishing, the occasional splash of a fish. He jogged past Prater
Landing, the launch company Lily’s family owned. He saw a couple of
guys bundled up checking out the boats lashed to the dock, and he
waved as he ran by.
    Then he spotted a figure ahead of him on the
path, someone sensible enough to wear sweats over her curvy bottom,
her blonde ponytail swinging rhythmically as she jogged.
    Trinity Madison. What were the odds? He
hesitated, not sure if he should approach, what his welcome would
be—the friendly flirt at the town hall meeting or the stern
teacher. He pulled alongside her and she jumped a foot to the side.
Too late, he saw she was listening to an iPod and hadn’t heard him.
He reached out a hand to steady her on the uneven path.
    “Sorry about that.” He gestured to the
earbuds. “What are you listening to?”
    “Maddox Bradley, since they were talking
about him at the town hall meeting.”
    “Do you remember him? Are you—did you grow up
in Bluestone? He was a summer kid.” He didn’t remember her, but she
was younger than him. So was Maddox, for that matter. He remembered
the guy as a little prick, but the girls had had a different
view.
    “I vaguely remember him. He was a couple of
years older. We moved here about fifteen years ago when my father
was assigned to Bluestone Methodist, then I went away to school for
a couple of years, and came back here to teach.”
    “So you were, what, a freshman?”
    “Eighth grade.”
    He gestured to the bakery, with its neon
“OPEN” sign. “Want some coffee?”
    She glanced at the face of her iPod. “I guess
I have a few minutes, if we get it to go.”
    He guided her across the street with his hand
at the small of her back. It had been so long since he’d touched a
woman in such a way. Lily didn’t count—she was like the sister he
never had, no matter what Quinn thought. And that zing of awareness
didn’t buzz through his body when she was around.
    They walked to the counter and ordered two
coffees to go. While they waited, he turned to her. “So you’re
pretty young for a counselor.”
    She shrugged and placed her palms on the
counter. “I went on and got my masters, since I was already in the
swing of going to school. I put in a few years in the classroom
before I decided I wanted focus on counseling.”
    A smile canted his lips. “Come on, we’re in
Bluestone. Do you really see that many problem kids?”
    She leveled a look at him. “I also deal with
testing and achievement data, as well as kids dealing with divorce,
with the loss of family income, with the loss of a mother.”
    Ow. He shifted back toward the counter, as if
that would make him any less vulnerable to her words. “Does he talk
to you? About her?”
    She shook her head. “Does he talk to
you?”
    He frowned, wishing he hadn’t brought it up.
It had been a surprisingly pleasant morning, and while the pain of
losing Liv was no longer sharp, the pain of what his son was
dealing with was. “I mentioned her yesterday in passing and we both
kind of froze up.”
    “You