A Little Bit of Déjà Vu Read Online Free Page B

sprinkled through his hair simply intensified his metallic gaze.
    If only she’d had time to put a curling iron to her hair. And lose fifteen pounds. She really needed to get some new outfits that didn’t fit as if they’d shrunk in the laundry.
    Alex held his hand out toward her. “Mrs. B, I’d like you to meet my father, Jake. Dad, Emma’s mom, Margie Bradford.”
    Jake glowered at her, his eyes blazing with.... contempt ?
    How could he possibly be angry when he was the one who’d rejected her? If anything, he should be grateful for what she’d done for him. She glared right back and stiffened at the confusion on the kids’ faces.
    The last thing she wanted to do was explain how Jake and she were acquainted. With any luck, he wouldn’t want them to know about their past any more than she did. Maybe he was just ticked off she hadn’t told him who she was before this.
    Margie swallowed back her anxiety and pasted on a superficial smile. She’d be damned if she’d let him see he’d rattled her. “How do you do, Mr. Manion. It’s nice to finally meet.”
    His mouth tightened as he shook her extended hand, murmuring under his breath, “So you want to play this like strangers, huh, Rosebud?”
    Jake’s gaze ping-ponged between Emma and Alex and the color instantly drained from his face. “Please, God, no.” He grabbed Margie’s arm. “I think we’d better check out the dessert case.”
    “Dad, would you sit down?”
    Ignoring his son, Jake dragged Margie to the front of the diner and snapped, “Maggie, please tell me she isn’t mine.”
    His use of the nickname he’d given her when they’d first met chilled her like a frigid shower. Back then it had made her feel special and cherished. Now the name served as a painful reminder of the stupid girl she used to be, Jake's heartless betrayal, and of the baby she would never hold. Not in this life anyway.
    “What’re you talking about?” She frowned and rubbed the sore spot where his fingers had dug into her arm. The revulsion on his face made him look as if he might heave on her at any moment, cuing her in to the horrific thing he was suggesting. “ Ugh —no! How could you even think—”
    “Thank God.” His shoulders slumped, and a breath of relief rushed out of him. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me who you were when we spoke on the phone. You must’ve been laughing your ass off all these months.”
    “Hardly. Believe me, I nearly choked when I found out you were Emma’s teacher.” Literally. “And when your son asked her out….”
    He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “This is too strange to be real.”
    “Well, if it makes you feel any better, it’s no mere coincidence. My conniving cousin set me up by convincing me to take the job here.”
    “It figures Barbara would be involved. We can discuss tarring and feathering her later.”
    “What I can’t believe is our kids fell for each other.” She glanced back at them seated in the booth, wearing matching wrinkles in their foreheads. “What were the odds of that?”
    “Actually, pretty good if you think about it. Emma reminds me a lot of you, and Alex is so much a chip off the old block it’s scary. Why wouldn’t the chemistry between them be just as dynamic?”
    “I suppose.”
    He prodded her back toward the table. “Let’s go. The kids probably think I’ve misplaced a few of my marbles.”
    “They’re not the only ones.”
    “You think this is weird?” He snorted. “Stick around for the second act.”
     
     

Chapter 2
     
    Alex catapulted out of his seat as Margie strolled back to the table with Jake on her heels. “Dad, what the heck’s going on? Did you tell—”
    “No,” his father cut him off, shooting a pointed look at him that had the effect of an invisible muzzle. “I was thinking about having dessert instead. My appetite isn’t what it was.”
    Ditto. Margie’s stomach felt as if it had rocks in it.
    “Nothing appealed to me.” He swept his