Dead by Midnight - Beverly Barton [77]
“What’s she like?”
“Abby?”
“Yes, Abby.” Not for the world would she tell Mike that his children had practically come out and told her that they didn’t like Abby Sherman, the woman he had been dating on a fairly regular basis for several months.
“She’s a really nice person. In many ways, she reminds me of Molly.”
Molly, the woman who had taken her place in his heart and in his life. Molly, who had given him two beautiful children. Molly, who, in death, had been elevated to sainthood, at least in Mike’s eyes. If Abby Sherman reminded him of his late wife, then she had to be damn near perfect.
“I look forward to meeting her,” Lorie said.
Mike stared at her, a puzzled look in his dark blue eyes.
“If she makes you happy, I’m glad.”
“What about you, Lorie, are you happy?” he asked, then quickly amended his question. “Were you happy before this mess with the threatening letters and—?”
“I was content,” she told him. “It took me a long time to reach that point.”
“I’d like to see you happy. I hate what happened today. I hate that people can be so cruel and unforgiving. In the past, I was one of those people. I wanted to hurt you the way you had hurt me.”
“You did.”
“I know.”
“Mike?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ever settle for anything less than the real thing,” she told him. “Don’t convince yourself you should marry Abby Sherman or any other woman because she’d make a good wife and mother or because she reminds you of Molly. When you get married again be sure it’s for the right reason.”
“For love?” He grunted. “I’ve been in love twice in my life and I lost both of those women. I think the next time around, I’ll gladly settle for something safer. Friendship, loyalty, fidelity, mutual respect.”
The doorbell rang and a loud rapping on the front door followed immediately.
“Stay here,” Mike told her.
Shelley came into the room from where she had been in the kitchen making a private phone call to Powell headquarters. While Mike headed for the front door, Shelley walked over and stood by Lorie.
Mike eased open the door. A uniformed deputy stood on the porch. Lorie sighed with relief. But her relief was short-lived.
“Sorry to bother you, Mike, but I knew you’d want to see this.” He lifted his right hand and held up a single piece of paper. “Somebody has circulated these all over Dunmore. They’re plastered to walls and telephone poles and even street signs.”
Several choice profanities shot out of Mike’s mouth in rapid succession.
“What is it?” Lorie asked, her pulse racing, her gut instinct telling her that whatever it was, it was bad news.
Mike turned and held up the paper so that she could see it. Oh, God, she’d been right. It was bad news. The single sheet was a printer copy of her Playboy centerfold. Lorie Hammonds, naked, smiling, posing seductively.
Chapter 16
When he had phoned Abby and explained the situation, she had been far more understanding than he’d thought she would be.
“I’ll be more than happy to pick up the children and bring them with me to Jack and Cathy’s party,” Abby had told him. “I think it’s very brave of Ms. Hammonds to actually show up tonight. It’s terrible the way people are talking about her, calling her all those awful names. Even though what they’re saying about her is true.”
He told himself that Abby’s last comment hadn’t been a catty remark about a woman she saw as a rival. If she were any other woman…But she wasn’t. She was Abby. She didn’t have a mean or hateful bone in her body; if anything she was too nice.
Mike knew he could have gotten one of his deputies to escort Lorie and Shelley to the party. Several of the deputies were Jack’s buddies and would be there anyway. What had started out as a small get-together for a dozen or so people had wound up a big celebration with a guest list totaling more than forty.
Standing on Lorie’s porch, showered, shaved, and wearing his best khaki pants and blue button-down, Mike hesitated before ringing the doorbell. Although both he and Lorie knew the real reason he was here to pick her up this evening, the whole thing seemed too much like a date