Free Saving Sophie: Book Seven In The Bodyguards Of L.A. County Series by Cate Beauman

She turned to another page among the stack. “Right here.”
    His kitchen was coming to life before his eyes. “Those’ll work.”
    She smiled again. “I thought they might.”
    “What else have you got?”
    “How much money do you have?”
    They both grinned. He couldn’t get enough of her gentle voice and pretty smile. “Plenty to get this started.”
    “Well, I’ve got plenty of ideas. Let’s look at a few of these appliances.” She turned to yet another page and he leaned in close, more than content to spend the next little while looking at toasters and blenders in Sophie’s company.

    Chapter Seven

    Sophie sat by Olivia and Kylee at the kitchen table , coloring while the girls chatted and on occasion asked her to pass a crayon. The kids were her saving grace at this party. She glanced at the beautiful women standing around the massive island in the spectacular kitchen wearing their pretty, fashionable clothes, chatting and laughing like a big, happy family. She didn’t know how to do this—be around people, blend, converse, feel like she belonged.
    She stole another peek at Wren, Morgan, Hailey, and the woman who looked so much like Abigail Quinn, Alexa. They were like gorgeous Madonnas, all holding their babies or, in Sarah and Alexa’s cases, carrying their children in utero. And their husbands, many of whom she’d seen at the office, were no less striking.
    She didn’t belong here in her jeans and simple white top—the best she could do with her meager wardrobe options. She scanned the group of men standing around or sitting out on the deck, searching for Stone, who had long since disappeared. Sighing, she wondered where he’d gone and why hadn’t he taken her with him.
    “My mom’s going to have Owen any day now. She’s excited. She wants her feet to stop swelling.”
    Sophie looked at Olivia as the little girl colored a Disney princess, trying her best to stay in the lines—and mostly succeeding. “I’m sure you’re excited to have a new brother on the way.”
    “Yeah.”
    Sophie picked up a pink crayon to color in the gown she was working on. “And your mom’s having another baby too, Kylee. That’s exciting.”
    “My mom throws up but just sometimes. Daddy said she won’t throw up at all pretty soon.”
    “Oh.” Sophie smiled, always surprised by what children were willing to share. “Well, I’m glad she’s feeling better.”
    “Me too. Now I won’t have to watch Emma in the playroom when she runs to the toilet.”
    “Mm, yes, I see.”
    There was a commotion in the hallway. Bear and Reece, the Cookes’ enormous Mastiffs, and Mutt, Alexa and Jackson’s lab, barked joyously as Abby’s voice carried down the hall. Sophie stiffened as the woman she’d done her best to avoid made her way into the crowd, stopping to hand out hugs, with Jerrod following behind.
    “Um, girls, I’ll be right back,” Sophie said, setting her crayon on the table. She should have known she would bump into Abby when Stone told her they were going to Ethan and Sarah Cooke’s house. Why did she agree to come, especially when he vanished and left her alone in a houseful of strangers?
    “Okay,” the pretty blonds said in unison.
    She scooted back from her chair and made her escape out the glass doors leading to the deck, smiling at Wren’s husband as he looked her way. She had to get out of here. The Cooke Estate wasn’t more than four or five miles from Stone’s cliff. There had to be a bus stop down the road somewhere. She headed down a flight of stairs, coming to another deck. This place was huge—much bigger than Eric’s house of horrors. How the heck did she get out of this maze?
    She reached for the sliding door by the pool area and stepped into the coolest game room she had ever seen. “Wow,” she whispered as she took in the arcade games and skee-ball machine settled among plush leather furnishings. The movie-theater-sized-screen on the back wall was insane. “Wow,” she said