LEAD ME ON by Julie Ortolon (find a book to read TXT) 📕

“Stop it!” He held up a finger when the tears started to spill down her cheeks. “Don’t think you can get off the hook by crying. And don’t you ever, ever say your mother doesn’t love you, because you know that’s not true.”

“It is true!” Chloe wailed. “She’s so wrapped up in herself, she barely knows I’m alive.”

“Good God, you really are turning into my sister, blaming all your problems on your mother, on being neglected, on everyone and everything but yourself.”

“Don’t say that!” Chloe wiped her cheeks with the washcloth. “You don’t know what it’s been like. I can’t go back there. Please, Uncle Scott. Don’t make me go home. I’d rather die!”

“Jesus.” He turned away. “I can’t deal with this right now. We’ll finish this later.” He headed for the door, needing to get away until he could think straight.

“Uncle Scott! Please! Don’t make me go home. Please!”

He slammed the door on her anguished pleas and stormed down the stairs. Allison was on the landing, holding Chloe’s shoe to her chest, her eyes huge with shock. He went right past her and out the front door of the inn.

Allison watched him go, not sure what to do. Chloe’s broken sobs finally drew her up the stairs, but the closer she got to the door, the more her stomach tightened with uncertainty. She stood for a while listening, every maternal instinct urging her to comfort the child on the other side of the door. But she didn’t know this girl, and felt certain Chloe would yell at her to go away even if she offered a shoulder to cry on. But what if the girl didn’t? What if she welcomed her comfort? The mere possibility made her palms sweat. Quickly setting the shoe by the door, she turned and fled downstairs.

Adrian, Rory, and Chance had all come into the hall and were standing around looking like witnesses to a car wreck. “What the hell was that about?” Adrian asked when he spotted her.

“Scott’s niece,” she answered.

“So I gathered. What’d he do, beat her?”

“No! Of course not.” She saw the doubt on everyone’s faces and her spine stiffened. Why was her family so quick to think the worst of Scott when they didn’t even know him? “If you’ll excuse me ...” She crossed to the front door, needing to find Scott to be sure he was all right.

Chapter 13

Scott heard someone call his name, but didn’t bother responding. He sat on a driftwood log staring at the portion of beach he could see through the tangled trees. The blue waters of the cove stretched out to meet the bright morning sky. No trace of the storm remained except for the scent of dampness that clung to the shadows. Allison appeared at the opening to the clearing, backlit with sunshine. He wasn’t surprised she’d found him, since he’d surely left a trail of footprints in the sand, but he was surprised she’d looked.

“Hi,” she said in a tentative voice.

“If you came to chew me out for making a scene in front of your other guests, you can save your breath. I’ve already taken care of it.”

She came forward, into the shadows, and sat beside him. “I came to see if you’re all right.”

“I don’t know.” He rubbed his face. “Christ. I’ve never done that before. Yelled at her like that. Ever. I don’t know what got into me.”

“My guess would be fear.”

“Fear?” He gave her a startled look. “I wasn’t afraid while I was yelling at her. I was furious. I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever been so angry at someone. Even so, she didn’t deserve that. A good talking-to, yes, but not having the one person she thought she could depend on yell at her until she cried.”

“Maybe she did deserve it after what she put you through.”

He stood and moved to the edge of the shadows, where the leaf-strewn ground gave way to sandy beach. The breeze rustled through the trees, promising a perfect spring day. Down on the pier, two scuba divers were suiting up, checking their tanks. With the sunlight sparking off the blue water, the white beach contrasting with green lawn, the scene looked like a commercial for a tropical vacation. Pearl Island, a place to escape all your troubles.

“You remember what I said about life being filled with false expectations?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, Chloe is a perfect example. She thinks every kid in the world except her got Leave It to Beaver, and she’s mad because she thinks she got a raw deal. How can I make her understand we all got a raw deal? She needs to stop searching for something that doesn’t exist.”

“Maybe it does exist for some people.”

“Yeah, right. There’s as much chance of people finding a happy home life as there is of those scuba divers finding Lafitte’s lost treasure.”

“You don’t think anyone in the world is happy?”

“I didn’t say that.” He turned to her, leaning his back against the trunk of an oak tree. “The people who have learned to stop striving for the impossible at least find contentment. The rest—people who keep thinking that love is this grand prize that will solve all their problems— are destined to suffer one big disillusionment after another.”

“You talk as if love doesn’t exist.”

“Oh, it exists, in all its varied forms. Like with Diane and Chloe; they love the hell out of each other, but it solves nothing for either one of them. It just gives them more freedom to hurt each other.”

“That’s very sad.” She looked at him with a confused frown as if destructive relationships were a foreign concept to her. “I guess it depends on the people involved, as to whether love makes them weaker or stronger. But you are right about love making you vulnerable to pain.”

“Yeah,” he said, glancing back toward the cove just as the scuba divers stepped off the pier and splashed into the water.

His mind shifted