Free The Pint-Sized Secret by Sherryl Woods Page A

are five of us. The oldest and the youngest have already staged rebellions that shook the family. I suppose I’m just staying put to please my father, maybe help keep the peace a little longer. Isn’t that what us middle kids do? Try to please? Try not to make waves?”
    “Since I was an only child, I have no idea. What would you rather be doing?”
    Jeb couldn’t very well reveal that his dream was to join his brother as an investigator or, at the very least, to turn internal corporate spy for his father. So, he thought wryly, it seemed he was going to have to keep a big-time secret, too. Maybe the total honesty thing wasn’t as easy as he’d always assumed.
    “I’m still figuring that out,” he evaded. “How did you get interested in geology and oil, anyway? It’s pretty much a man’s world.”
    A smile crossed her lips, then faded. “My dad was a wildcatter. He had more dreams and ambition than success, so I guess I caught the fever. But I was more practical than he was. I wanted to learn how to find the stuff with scientific data, not just gut instinct.”
    Jeb wondered if it was her father who’d been the beneficiary of her research for Delacourt Oil. Was that why she was betraying the company, to give her dad a long-overdue break?
    “Where is your dad working now?”
    “He died several years ago,” she said, her expression revealing that the sorrow of that was still very much with her. “A severe thunderstorm came up when he was on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He drowned.”
    “I’m sorry. You must miss him a lot.”
    “Every day,” she said. “My mom died when I was still in grade school, so it had just been my dad and me for a long time. It was a bit of a nomadic existence, so I rarely kept the same friends for long. You’re fortunate to have such a large family, to have spent your whole life in one place.”
    “Most of the time,” Jeb agreed with a touch of irony. He couldn’t help thinking that her life could have been his. But for the whims of fortune, her father could have succeeded wildly in the oil business and his own father could have failed.
    She reached for a strawberry from the container in the basket, then slowly bit into it. The ripe berry spilled juice on her lips. Jeb’s gaze locked on the red moisture in fascination as she ran her tongue across her lips to catch the errant drips. His body reacted as if it had been his tongue tasting that sweet juice…tasting her.
    This was bad, he thought, reining in his hormones. Very bad. Brianna had gone from suspect to desirable woman in the past twenty-four hours. His suspicions didn’t seem to be keeping pace with his libido. Pretty soon his head was going to lose the race. Since his father didn’t seem concerned about the leaks, why should they worry him so? Maybe he should just give up his investigation and openly court Brianna, assuming she would allow it.
    Unfortunately, he wasn’t the kind of man who liked to leave a job unfinished, which meant his hormones needed to be kept in check just a little longer.
    “Maybe we should go,” he suggested with more regret than he wanted to admit to.
    Wide blue-green eyes met his, then darkened to the shade of a storm-tossed sea as the moments ticked by. Desire? Passion? Was that what he saw churning in the depths? Heaven help them both if it was, because he doubted he was strong enough to resist it for long.
    And then, if it turned out she was as guilty as he feared, there would be hell to pay.





Chapter Six
    T he picnic Brianna took to the rehab center on Sunday was nothing at all like the one she’d shared with Jeb the day before. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, cold sodas and chocolate chip cookies might not be on a gourmet menu, but they were all her daughter’s favorites. Emma greeted the spread with enthusiasm, the previous day’s sulking forgotten.
    This was what her life was about, Brianna reminded herself a dozen times as she and Emma shared their meal.