Free Moonlight Masquerade by Jude Deveraux Page A

now. But it wouldn’t be for two more years. It would be forever.”
    â€œWow!” Reede said. “I never thought of it that way. I think . . . ”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThis summer Jecca and Kim made me face Laura, and they said that she may have done me a favor.” He told Sophie how his childhood bedroom had been covered in travel posters. “I told Mom that Laura would go with me and that we’d . . . It wouldn’t have worked, would it?”
    â€œI guess not,” Sophie said. “From what I’ve heard of you, you’re needed by the world, not just Edilean.”
    â€œYou know how to make a man feel good, don’t you?”
    â€œThat’s just what . . . ” She didn’t want to say Carter’s real name. “Earl said right before he dropped me flat. He also said—” She broke off.
    â€œHe said what?” Reede asked softly.
    â€œIt’s too new for me to repeat all that.” She glancedat the cookbook on the bed. What she needed more than anything in the world was to talk to someone about what she’d done. A lawyer maybe? But she knew that a lawyer would advise her to give herself up. Tomorrow, she thought, she’d return the book. She’d send it from another state so the postmark wouldn’t be Virginia. She’d—
    â€œAre you still there?” Reede asked.
    â€œYes. I was just thinking about what you told me.”
    â€œAnd how to get revenge on Earl?”
    â€œI . . . ” She hesitated. How much could she trust this man? She took a breath. “I came away with something that belongs to him and I’d like to return it, but I don’t want him to see that it was sent from Virginia.”
    â€œWhere do you want it sent from? I have friends all over the world. We’ll package it, send it overseas, and my friends will send it back to the U.S. They won’t even look at it. How does that sound?”
    â€œWon’t that take a long time?”
    â€œExpress shipping goes everywhere.”
    Sophie had to blink back tears of relief. Except for the jerk who nearly ran over her, everyone in Edilean had been so very nice . She wanted to help make Reede’s life easier. “There are some unpaid bills on your kitchen counter. Mind if I pay them? You could sign some blank checks for me—if you can trust me, that is. How’s your online banking?”
    Reede grinned. “Sophie, I’ve never set up online banking, but I hear it’s very handy. How about if tomorrow I meet you at the office at nine and we set it up together?”
    â€œI’d like that,” she said, smiling.
    â€œOkay, so now I’m the doctor, it’s about midnight, and we both need to go to bed.”
    Sophie had to suppress a laugh at the way he said it, but he caught his error.
    â€œFoot in mouth. So you go to bed and I go to bed. I mean . . . ”
    â€œI got it,” she said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    â€œAnd bring your package to send to the very stupid Earl.”
    â€œI will,” she said, smiling. “Good night and thank you.”
    â€œYou’re the one deserving of the thanks. What was that orange soup?”
    â€œButternut squash.”
    â€œAnd the mashed stuff?”
    â€œParsnips.”
    â€œThat’s what Kim said it was. All right. Go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”
    She said good night again and hung up.
    Sophie lay in the bed for a while, looking up at the ceiling and smiling. Maybe things were going to be all right, after all. If she returned the cookbook to Carter’s family they might not pursue her. And if it were postmarked from another country they might not find her.
    For the first time since she left her stepfather standing on the sidewalk, Sophie thought she might possibly have a shot at a life. It was possible that the past was done with and that today,