Winter (Four Seasons #1) Read Free Page A

haven’t had to hear it in
months. Even my mom calls me Avery now. It’s as though, if she can
pretend I’m someone else and not Maxwell Breslin’s daughter, she,
in turn, can pretend she was married to some other guy named
Patterson and not a murderer.
    I look down
and see that my hands have clenched tight and I’m ruining the
waffle house’s laminated menu. Morgan sees, then screws her face up
into a fairly good impersonation of remorse. “Oh, uh…sorry, Ave.
I’m not too smart sometimes.”
    “ It’s okay. I
just…I’m not her anymore.”
    “ I know. I
won’t do that again, I promise.”
    I shoot her a
guilty smile. “Thanks.”
    The waitress
comes and takes our order; we both get the same thing—Belgian
waffles with chocolate sauce. By the time our coffee arrives,
Morgan is over the embarrassment of upsetting me and back in
Spanish Inquisition mode.
    “ So, how do
you know him?” The salacious glint in her eye declares she’s hoping
for a hot hook up story. Boy, is she going to be
disappointed.
    “ He went to my
school. He was a cop in my home town for a few years before he
moved out here.”
    “ Uhuh…” She
nods, taking a sip of her coffee, never taking her eyes off
me.
    “ That’s
it.”
    “ That’s
it? ”
    “ Yeah.”
    She looks
around the room like she can’t believe what she’s hearing.
“You knew that guy back in Hicksville and you didn’t claim him
immediately? What’s wrong with you, girl? You do realize he’s
fucking beautiful, don’t you?”
    I blow out a
long breath and drop my head against the table. “Yes, I know how
hot he is. But he was twenty when he left town and I was sixteen.
Plus he has a girlfriend, Casey Fisher. They dated the whole way
through high school and moved out here together. So…”
    “ None of that
should have been a problem.”
    I just stare
at her. If the tables were turned, Morgan would be rolling her eyes
right now, but my mother forbade that particular trait when I was
younger. I haven’t been able to do it ever since, despite how much
I may want to. “Well it would have been pretty difficult. And
illegal. And besides, I was a mess. My dad…”
    A horrified
expression develops on Morgan’s face. “Ahhh crap, Ave. This guy
didn’t…was he on the force when your dad, um…”
    Finally. Some
quick thinking on her part. I focus out of the window, trying to
shut out the memory of Luke Reid on my doorstep, telling my mom
that my dad was dead. “He and his partner were the first officers
on the scene. He’d only been on the job four days. Nothing like
that had ever really happened in Break before. He puked in my mom’s
rose bushes.”
    “ Man, I’m
sorry, Avery. I’m hopeless sometimes. There just seemed to be
something there, so I thought…”
    “ There is something there.
Luke’s always felt sorry for me. I suppose being the one to find my
dad and the others imprinted itself onto his brain and now he can’t
shake it. We used to meet up whenever he was back in town. Mostly
we’d grab a coffee and he’d just talk at me.”
    Our
conversation stops when the waitress arrives with our food. I stare
glumly down at my waffles wishing I’d ordered something different.
Pushing the plate away, I go back to staring out the
window.
    Sam O’Brady.
Jefferson Kyle. Adam Bright. Sam O’Brady.
Jefferson Kyle. Adam Bright.
    “ That other
cop said he was in a band, right? I wonder where they play. Hey, if
you want me to answer your phone later, I can ask him if you don’t
wanna seem too eager?” She clearly didn’t just hear a word I
said—that for the past five years I have associated Luke Reid with
finding out my dad was dead. The girl has selective hearing. I
shoot daggers at her and she shrinks back into her seat. “Or I can
tell him you have avian bird flu and you can never see him again.
It’s no problem. I am a master of deception.”
    I allow myself
a small laugh and kick her under the table. “It’s all right. I can
handle