Out in the Country Read Online Free

of the down payment for the property, and Jessica and Rob had just handed over a good chunk of their savings. Then this Guy character disappeared.”
    “But can’t they prosecute?”
    “Perhaps, in time, but they didn’t have a formal contract.” Lynne sighed. “It was a business arrangement based on friendship, and in the end he wasn’t much of a friend. And Rob wasn’t much of a fiancé, either,” she added with a grimace.
    “It sounds like they were both complete skunks. Poor Jessica. What’s she going to do?”
    “Well, actually...” Lynne traced the rim of her mug with one fingertip. “She’s coming here.”
    “Here?” Molly sat up in surprise. “For a visit, you mean?”
    “Yes, I suppose. To be honest, she’s rather at a loose end--her flat’s been sold, she gave her notice on her job... She put everything into this hotel business, only to have it come crashing down around her ears.” Lynne sighed. “She needs a break, a proper one. And so I invited her to stay.”
    “It sounds like a good plan,” Molly said. “I haven’t seen her in ages, since I was in about sixth grade! It should be nice to see her again.”
    “Yes...” Lynne smiled and tried to ignore the slight sting of disappointment she felt at her own fledgling hopes shot to earth before they’d even taken wing. Jessica had experienced a far greater disappointment, and Lynne knew her friend needed her now.
    Molly must have sensed it, though, for she leaned forward, her eyes darkening with worry. “And what about you? It isn’t just Jess’s plans that have fallen apart.”
    “I’m disappointed,” Lynne admitted, and was surprised at how deeply disappointed she truly was. “I was counting on getting a little distance from... everything,” she continued quietly. “But I like to think there’s a reason the way things happen, so...” She shrugged, trying to smile. Molly didn’t need the added burden of her own disappointments and worries right now.
    Molly frowned and took a sip of tea. “Yes, that is a comforting thought, I suppose,” she said, although she didn’t sound completely convinced.
     
    As Interstate 87 wound its way north, the leaves turned from a stretch of placid green to the vivid hues of yellow, scarlet, crimson and gold.
    Lynne glanced up from driving, smiling at a copse of yellow-tinged birches. “Wait till they’re in the full glory,” she told Jessica, who smiled in anticipation.
    “And then the highway’s clogged with foliage chasers!” Molly chimed in from the back seat.
    “That’s true,” Lynne agreed. She glanced in the rearview mirror at her daughter, who was using the four hour trip to Hardiwick, Vermont, to grade thirty-two English essays on Robert Frost.
    “I’m sure it’s magnificent,” Jessica said.
    Her friend was looking better, Lynne decided as she snuck another covert glance at the passenger seat. When Lynne had fetched her from the airport, Jessica had looked like a shell of herself, her face pale and strained with fatigue, her eyes blank and wide. Now her cheeks had a bloom of colour, although her eyes were still guarded, shadowed with pain and memory.
    She’d been in New York for nearly a fortnight, and they’d hit just about every museum, park, and tourist attraction the city had to offer. The steady stream of activities had been comforting and mindless, Lynne knew, a distraction to keep Jessica from dwelling on everything that had happened.
    Yet you couldn’t be distracted forever, and Lynne knew it was only a matter of time before Jessica had to deal with Rob’s betrayal, the loss of the hotel, and most importantly, her own heartbreak.
    She was grateful for this trip, a change of scenery for both of them. Two weeks of sightseeing was plenty, she thought wryly.
    “There’s the exit for Hardiwick,” she announced and put on her indicator. “I haven’t been up here in awhile, actually. It will be good to see Kathy and Graham in their own home.”
    “Adam grew up