The Hero’s Sin by Darlene Gardner

don’t need to show me the room. I remember where it is.”

CHAPTER FOUR

    B ECAUSE OF a cardboard bakery box, Laurie Grieb decided returning to Indigo Springs might have been a mistake.
    Not because of the apple turnover that was surely inside the small container, but because her resolve to refuse the delicious treat was wavering.
    “C’mon, Laurie,” drawled the man holding out the dessert. Like Adam extending the apple to Eve, Laurie thought. It was after nine o’clock Monday morning and they were in the driveway of her mother’s house, which Laurie had moved back into a week ago. “We both know you love apple turnovers.”
    He spoke in the same cajoling tone he’d once used to get her to make love with him when she was a teenager. Even though her resulting pregnancy had taught her how important it was to resist him, she grabbed the box.
    “Okay, fine.” Her mouth watered at the sugary-sweet smell drifting up from the box. “But I’m only taking it because I skipped breakfast. It doesn’t mean I want you coming around, Kenny.”
    “You’re welcome.” He managed to inject a touch of vulnerability in his slight smile.
    She felt about two feet tall until she remembered thereasons she couldn’t let Kenny Grieb back into her life. His dark sunglasses illustrated one of them. She guessed he wore them more to conceal bloodshot eyes than as a shield from the sun. The Kenny she’d known wasn’t so much a big drinker as a reckless one, but then irresponsibility was the theme of his life. Too bad she hadn’t figured that out until she’d married him.
    “You’re hungover.”
    “You’re right. Say the word, and I’ll stop drinking. I’ve done it for you before.”
    She closed her eyes at the pain that pierced through her at his casual remark. He’d stopped drinking when she was pregnant. Though her pregnancy, the reason he’d married her, had only lasted four months.
    “I don’t want you to do anything for me.” She kept her tone clipped so he wouldn’t know she was touched by his gesture. “I mean it, Kenny. Leave me alone. No more turnovers. No more flowers. No more phone calls.”
    “Now is that any way to talk to your husband?”
    “Ex-husband,” she corrected sharply. “We’ve been divorced for seven years.”
    They’d gotten married straight out of high-school almost nine years ago and hadn’t even managed to make their marriage last two years.
    “A mistake.” He’d gained weight since they’d been together, but not enough to keep him from looking good. His brown hair was the length she liked, long enough that the ends curled and clipped the collar of the green T-shirt he wore with khaki shorts. “I never should have let you go.”
    “You married somebody else six months later!”
    “Another mistake,” he said.
    That, at least, was the truth. His second marriage, to a singer who performed on the Pennsylvania pub circuit, had lasted only weeks. She’d heard they’d eloped after a quick courtship. Kenny was good at giving women the rush.
    “I don’t have time to stand out here listening to you, Kenny. I have things to do.” She walked past him to the compact car parked in the driveway, careful to avoid physical contact.
    “Where you going?” he asked.
    “I have a job interview at nine-thirty.” Now why had she told him that? She didn’t owe Kenny a single thing, not even answers. She gazed at him meaningfully over the roof of her car. “Speaking of jobs, don’t you have one?”
    “Sure do,” he said. “But Annie said I could take the eleven o’clock trip today.”
    Annie Sublinski owned Indigo River Rafters. So that was the reason he was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt with the Indigo River Rafters logo rather than in his mechanic’s overalls. “What happened to your job at the auto shop?”
    He didn’t reply, providing her with the answer. “You got fired, didn’t you?”
    “I decided to go in a different direction.”
    She should show Kenny it didn’t make