Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON
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high school sports and therefore achieved a degree of
respectability.
“Maybe. Did you ever think about anyone else when
you were fifteen?”
Her laugh was watery. “Maybe more than most kids
do. My family had…problems.”
The tiny hitch in her voice gave him an insight.
“That’s why you loved school so much.”
“I suppose so. It was my refuge.”
He wanted to know what kind of problems made her
want to hide out at school, but knew it wasn’t any of
his business.
“Not that it was that terrible,” she said hastily. “It was
just that my parents were fighting. They got a divorce
my first year of college.”
“Did you wish they’d done it years earlier?”
She dumped more onions in with the browning meat
and shook her head. “No. Although that would be
logical, wouldn’t it? But who’s logical about things
like that? I knew my father had been having affairs.
Even when I hid in my room, I could hear their voices.
And then I saw him one day. Midafternoon, coming out
of a motel room with this woman who worked with
him. He kissed her, then they got in their separate cars
and drove away. It was like seeing a stranger. You
know?” She wasn’t chopping anymore, and John turned
to see her gazing into space as if she didn’t remember
where she was. The knife in her hand was suspended
above the onion. It didn’t seem unnatural that tears
streamed down her cheeks. She continued after a
moment, “I didn’t know whether I should tell my