My Estranged Lover (Middlemarch Shifters Book 5) Read Free

and seemed content to sway to the music and hold her. When the music ended, she expected him to thank her and rejoin his friends.
    He didn’t.
    He pulled back so he could see her face. “Would you like to go for coffee? I’d offer to buy you dinner, but a coffee is as far as I can stretch,” he said.
    “You don’t have to buy me a coffee.”
    “I want to talk to you.”
    She studied his expression, instantly suspicious, but sincerity blazed from his sexy face. “There is a McDonald’s two streets away. I don’t have much cash either, but if we pool our resources, we might manage a hamburger each.”
    “Thank you.” He took her hand again. “I’ll tell my friends I’m leaving. Do you need to tell anyone?”
    She nodded. “I’ll send a text to my friend.”
    Ten minutes later, they entered the fast food restaurant. With a coffee and a burger each, they’d talked for two hours, learning about each other. Her initial wariness seeped away, leaving the seeds of something else. Friendship. Attraction.
    “I have to go,” Marsh said.
    Caroline glanced at her wristwatch and nodded. “I should leave too. I need to finish making a dress to wear to the races so I have an entry for the Best Dressed contest.” She stood, the easy conversation of earlier sticking in her throat. Was this it?
    “I had fun,” Marsh said. “Can I walk you home?”
    Her breath eased out. “Thanks, but it’s not necessary. The student accommodation is three blocks.”
    Marsh reached for her hand and laced their fingers together. “I’ll walk you home.”
    The start of their romance. Marsh had kissed her cheek and left her at her door, appearing at the races the next day, cheering when she’d claimed the runner-up prize in the Best Dressed contest.
    “Mum. Mum!” James tugged on her cardigan sleeve, jerking her from the past, their courtship, the good years.
    “Yes.” She glanced at the clock on the far wall and reached for James’s lunch box. “Is your school bag packed? It’s time for us to walk you to the bus stop.”
    After pulling on jackets, Caroline hustled her two boys out the door. They waited at the bus shelter, the bright red school bus puttering along the road four minutes later. With James aboard, she and Ricky wandered back to the house. Once the kitchen was clean again, Caroline turned her mind to packing and remembered she’d lent Marsh’s parents their suitcases when they’d gone to Fiji for a holiday.
    Great. Just great.
    She steeled herself to visit Dawn Rutherford. The woman had never liked her and made no secret of her attitude. She did, however, dote on Ricky, which was why Caroline decided to take her son with her. Hopefully, Ricky’s presence would halt Dawn’s questions.
    A ten-minute car ride later, Caroline pulled up outside Charles and Dawn Rutherford’s home. A two-story brick-and-tile home, set like a jewel amongst a lush garden. Dawn had a way with plants and often hosted gardening groups to tour her extensive gardens. Each season, she chose a color theme and even with autumn’s arrival the bright beds of red and white roses, petunias and pansies blazed in synchronized perfection.
    Caroline dragged in a deep breath to brace herself and turned to Ricky with a bright smile. “Are you ready to visit Grandma?”
    Even though Dawn and Charles remained distant to her, they spent time with their grandchildren. In the early days of their marriage, she’d mentioned it to Marsh. He’d shrugged and said they’d always been that way, but he admitted their attitudes had shifted for the worse after his older brother Angus had died in a car crash.
    The front door to the house opened and her slim mother-in-law stood waiting. Her gaze flickered over Caroline, from head to shoes, the scrutiny taking mere seconds but leaving Caroline feeling lacking.
    Dawn Rutherford smiled, the light of laughter and humor sloughing away her disapproval. “Who are you?” Her voice bubbled with teasing, love shining in her