Free The Redemption of Jake Scully by Elaine Barbieri

aside, Sadie was not prepared to handle the complications that having a beautiful, sincere young woman like Lacey working for her would entail.
    Lacey needed to find a place that was more secure…more protected. The problem was, that place did not exist in Weaver, except in her room near his.
    Yes, what had he done?

Chapter Five
    “A re you sure you can’t stop for breakfast, dear?” Mary McInnes’s lined face moved into a frown of concern as Lacey passed through the boarding house kitchen on her way to the street. “You haven’t been taking any of your meals here. I worry that you aren’t eating right.”
    “I’m fine, Mary.” Breathless with haste, Lacey continued, “Sadie will be waiting for me at the restaurant. I can eat there if I get hungry.”
    “But the restaurant is so busy…”
    “I’m fine, thank you.”
    Outside moments later, Lacey walked quickly toward the main street. Mary was a dear woman. A widow with grown children who had made their homes away from Weaver, she looked after the residents of her boarding house with a surfeit of motherly love, which Lacey appreciated, and which she was certain Scully had taken into consideration when arranging for her room there.
    Scully…
    Lacey took a deep breath as she approached the corner of the street. Scully had helped her move her things when she had said goodbye to Helen and taken her room at the boarding house a few days earlier. Mary had had no problem with allowing Scully into her room to help her—a privilege that Lacey had learned Mary granted to few male visitors to her respectable establishment. She had been comforted by the warmth Mary displayed toward Scully and had been pleased to see Mary show insight into Scully’s character.
    As for herself…
    Lacey’s step faltered.
    She missed Scully. Not that he had distanced himself from her since she had moved. He hadn’t, but the physical distance between them had been as difficult for her as she had expected. She was lonely in her room with strangers on all sides—residents of the boarding house who were friendly, who said all the right things intended to make her feel at home, but with whom she had no connection that even approached the bond Scully and she shared.
    She had been so cautious in staying out of Scully’s way during the nighttime hours at the Gold Nugget. She had remained in her room and busied herself with countless necessary tasks. When they were completed, she had sat down with her Bible to reread the familiar words she had virtually committed to memory, while images of nights spent in that same way with her grandfather grew gradually clearer in her mind. She suspected that the sense of security she had felt knowing Scully was nearby had somehow facilitated the clarification of those memories. She had come to anticipate with true warmth Scully’s knock on the door before she retired for the night, when they would spend unhurried time talking in the doorway, no matter how heavy the traffic in the saloon below had become.
    Those moments with Scully had meant so much to her. Losing them had cost her dearly.
    Even her nightmares…
    A chill raced down Lacey’s spine. The intensity of her nightmares continued to increase. When she awoke in her silent room after those nighttime terrors, the shadows seemed somehow darker still.
    Lacey murmured a prayer for the strength she needed to combat her fears. She was an adult now. She had come home to Weaver to repay Scully for his generosity and his caring over the years, and to regain memories of her grandfather that eluded her. She couldn’t accomplish either of those purposes if she allowed her fears to gain control.
    In the meantime, she was anxious for Scully’s morning visit to Sadie’s restaurant, anxious to see in Scully’s sober gray eyes a warmth that was meant for her alone. She—
    Lacey stopped still as the sound of a slap turned her toward the less respectable boarding house on the opposite end of the side street, where