Sarah Mine Read Online Free Page B

wave while she sipped her coffee. There was a tennis match look from her to me. Back and forth. I expected Sally’s neck to pop. “Let me get that order in for you. You look half starved.”
    “And so it begins,” Sarah said, setting her cup down. She gave a gasp and pressed a hand to her breasts. “Did you see? William Deveraux is home. Still as handsome as ever.”
    Grinning, I sat back as Sarah batted her lashes as if they were coated in five layers of mascara, like Sally. Oh, yes, I did like this new Sarah.
    “What a troublemaker that boy was. Lands, I remember when he streaked through town upon graduation. I never.” She fanned her hand by her neck and I laughed at her little eye roll that said perhaps “Sally” wasn’t as scandalized as she said. “And did you see who he was sitting with? He was with that Sarah James girl.” Another dramatic gasp. “Oh, there was gossip about those two. Not that I ever believed it. Now I’m not one to gossip but one night they were caught out at the old mill. Naked,” she whispered loudly. “Imagine that! Such behavior for a Deveraux.” She clucked her tongue. “Such behavior.”
    Sarah shrugged a shoulder with a little eyebrow lift then sipped her coffee. She was rather brilliant. We had never hooked up at the mill, old or otherwise. But people loved a good scandal and William Hilton Deveraux had been pretty damn good at scandalizing. “Since rumor has us naked at the mill, wanna go flash some skin?”
    “Pervert.”
    “Yes,” I said with a stretch. “Yes, I am. And you like that about me.”
    “Debatable.”
    “Love it,” I mouthed at her as Sally set our plates down in front of us. “Thanks, Sally.”
    “I heard about your father. Such a pity.” Sarah coughed, interrupting Sally and asked for some water.
    Just like that my appetite died. I stared at the perfectly golden pancakes and extra crispy bacon. The thought of eating any of it made me want to throw up. A foot nudged the inside of my left leg and I looked at Sarah.
    “Fuck them. Eat your pancakes.”
    “Not hungry.”
    She tapped my thigh this time and I reached down to squeeze her ankle. I wasn’t on speaking terms with my father. If I were lucky I never would be. When I was kicked out, I left town and was gone for a year. My return had earned me the knowledge that I was disinherited, thank God, and there were no more chains holding me to Pierce Point.
    I still came back, though. A giant “fuck you” to Big Jack Deveraux and his vision for me.
    She lifted a slice of bacon up and held it out to me, waving it beneath my nose to seduce me with the scent of crispy, greasy pig fat. It worked. I caught her wrist, took a bite then reached for my fork. When she went to ease her foot away, I held it in place. I saw the quick look she gave the diners. We were getting looks because word was spreading: Hill Deveraux was back in town. I wondered if they saw a reunion TV show in their head: asshole father and rebellious, disinherited son reunite over deathbed and father lives.
    I hoped the fucker died.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Sarah
    I leaned against a lamppost and watched Hill take a picture of two little girls sharing their ice cream cones with each other. It was cute. Each held a cone while they tasted the other’s flavors. He had been silent since the café and I knew it had been the mention of Big Jack. “You knew, didn’t you?”
    He lowered his camera for a second, then without responding to me, he took another picture of the girls. He turned suddenly and caught me in the crosshairs of his lens. I looked away as the soft snick came. He walked toward me, the shutter whirring as he continued to take pictures. “Stop it. I’ll leave.”
    He lowered his camera, a large piece of expensive-looking equipment that had seen a few years in his backpack. “You have no idea, do you?”
    “About?”
    He braced his hand above my head and leaned into me. “Even after everything I said in your bathroom, you