Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Laura Scott (free e reader .TXT) 📕

even thought she might be a little thankful that I’d saved her husband’s life.” His laugh was hollow. “Seems like I messed up a lot of people’s lives that day, some I’m only finding out about now.”

Paige reached out and stilled his hand in hers. When he withdrew, she knew a sharp sense of loss. Well, what had she expected? He didn’t want solace from her; he wanted results.

“You know better than to take anything she said personally. She wanted someone to blame, and you were handy. It’s as simple as that.” Paige didn’t doubt that if Mr. Pope had died, his wife would have blamed Liam for that, too. She was one of those unhappy individuals who was always looking to lay guilt on someone else so she didn’t have to deal with the consequences of her own choices.

“She took some shots at me, too,” Paige reminded him. “I can’t say they didn’t sting, but I’m not going to waste a minute worrying over them. My grandmother would say her heart’s as sour as a lemon that’s sat too long in the sun.”

“Your grandmother sounds like quite a woman.”

“She was. After the accident, I spent a lot of time with her, even lived with her for a while. She knew how things were at home and did her best to make it up to me. When she died last year, I felt like I’d lost my best friend. My parents didn’t come to the funeral. They were busy with their new families, so it was just me and my friends from S&J there to mourn her.”

Grief ambushed her, and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. “Sorry about that,” she said, knuckling away the errant tears. “I don’t usually cry like that.”

“No, I don’t guess you do.” This time, it was Liam who took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

The warmth of his hand was comforting. Too comforting. Put it away. She needed to keep things on a professional level. Hadn’t she just reminded herself that the only thing that could exist between Liam and herself was a business relationship?

The reminder, though, did little to ease the zing of attraction his touch sparked. As unobtrusively as possible, she removed her hand from his.

After pushing her dishes to the side, Paige propped her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her folded hands. “Let’s start back at the beginning. Tell me everything you remember about the day of the accident.”

“I spent years trying to forget that day.”

“It’s important. Go back in time and try to remember. No detail is too small.”

“Okay,” he said, voice unutterably weary. “I’ll do my best.” He paused as he picked his way through memories.

A small smile kicked up the corners of his lips. “I remember Brett sitting by Rosemary Wilkins on the bus trying to sweet-talk her into going out with him the next night, telling her that he was the only man for her. Rosemary was flirting back, flipping her hair over her shoulder, smiling at him, the way girls do. Nothing serious, just playing along. I remember thinking that prom was only a few weeks away and that he was looking for a date. He had a way with the girls. I was envious over that.”

“That was Brett,” Paige agreed. “Always the flirt. He had a thing for Rosemary, but he liked a lot of girls back then, and they liked him back. What else?”

“Marie was talking to me, telling me about the new dress she’d bought for the senior prom and how I needed to get her a corsage to match it. Blue, I think it was. I remember sort of zoning out.” He gave a sheepish look. “Guys don’t care about dresses, you know. We look like we’re interested, but we’re not. I pretended like I was paying attention, but I was really going over the game in my head, replaying it, wondering if I could have made that last pass if I’d put a spin on the ball.”

“Brett used to tell me the same thing when girls started talking about dresses. Anything else?”

“There was Sam Newley. He never said much, but when he did, you tended to listen.” Liam’s expression turned thoughtful. “He was always quiet, but on the way back, he got real still, sort of watchful, like he was waiting for something. I remember wondering what was making him so skittish-looking and left Marie to check on him, but he just shook his head. I finally gave up and went up front. I wanted to talk with the coach about the game. Then everything went wrong.

“One minute we’re riding along just fine, and the next, we’re falling off the bridge. It happened so fast that nobody knew what was going on. In a couple of minutes—or maybe it was seconds—we were underwater. We didn’t have time to react except to panic. Everybody started scrambling for the exit doors, but they wouldn’t open. I used my elbow to break a window near the front door and managed to get out that way. Once I was out, I opened the doors. Kids started pushing their way out, but the bus kept sinking. Our coach was knocked out, but another kid and I managed to get him to the surface.”

Paige shuddered inwardly, thinking of the absolute terror that Brett and the others must have experienced. She wanted to tell Liam to stop, but she didn’t. She needed to hear this as much as he needed to say it. For too long, she’d avoided the day that her brother had died. Now it was time to face it.

“People were trying to scream, but they couldn’t.” Liam’s voice grew hoarse, as though the words were stuck inside and could only escape if he pushed them out one at a time with a great effort.

Paige kept her voice soft. “What happened next?”

“Some of the kids got out on their own. I tried to get to Marie, but