Songbird by Maya Banks Page A

lingered in her mind. He didn’t want her to go. Greer didn’t want her to go. But did she have a future here? And in what capacity did they want her to stay? Greer had been blunt. He wanted her. What did she want? What did she need?
    God, but she missed Sean’s smile. His understanding. The way he made love to her. The way he made her feel. She tried so hard not to feel guilty. He wouldn’t want her to. He’d be the last person to want her to languish over his memory. Unfortunately, knowing it and practicing it were not the same. Not when every waking moment reminded her that if she’d made different decisions so many lives wouldn’t have changed.
    Lost in thought, she ate quietly, not really listening to the conversation around her. One by one, the hands got up, collected their sack lunches and disappeared out the back door to go to work.
    “Make me a list, Buck, and we’ll pick up what you need while we’re in town,” Taggert said as he leaned back in his seat.
    She blinked when Greer turned toward her.
    “Go get dressed, Emmy,” he said. “You can ride in with us and do your shopping.”

Chapter Eight
    When Greer had first suggested replacing her wardrobe, she hadn’t considered that it would mean going into Creed’s Pass. She hadn’t set foot in the town since she’d fled after Sean’s death.
    Now she stood in front of the small all-purpose mercantile, her fists clenched at her sides as she glanced furtively down the main stretch of town.
    Her gaze alighted on Tilly’s motel, and she flinched, closing her eyes in pain as that night came back. Her and Sean laughing. Walking along hand in hand from the corner café after dinner, returning to their room.
    They hadn’t stayed at the ranch. They never did. Not since they’d married and the visits back had been so awkward. That was her fault. It was she who couldn’t bear to face Taggert and Greer and pretend that nothing had ever happened.
    The man had come out of nowhere, the knife glinting in the light from the streetlamps. Sean stepped in front of her to fend off the attack and took the blade to his chest.
    The attacker’s hand wrapped around her throat, squeezing as she screamed until he silenced her.
    Alerted by her screams, several nearby people rushed into the street. Her attacker had dropped her but not the knife, and then he’d run. Never to be found. Was he still out there?
    She’d dropped to Sean’s inert figure, her hands pressing against the terrible wound in his chest. Blood, so much of it, spilled onto the street.
    He’d known. God, he’d known. He looked up at her with such love in his eyes. Then he’d told her he loved her before taking his last breath.
    Her breath released in a silent stutter, and she squeezed her eyes shut, determined not to lose her composure.
    “Emmy?”
    Taggert’s concerned voice reached past the oppressive weight of her grief. She turned to see him standing there, his dark eyes filled with so much understanding it was nearly her undoing.
    “I should have thought,” he said. “We’ve been back into town so many times that I forgot this is your first time back.”
    She shook her head as if somehow she could deny the agony that stabbed as sharp and as deep as the knife that had ended Sean’s life.
    “I’m okay,” she managed to get out. “Let’s go in.”
    He touched her arm reassuringly, and Greer opened the door so they could walk in.
    She couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for clothes shopping. She chose a few pairs of jeans and simple T-shirts and browsed the two racks of dressier clothing, which were nothing more than nicer western shirts and a few denim skirts.
    Wanting to be done with it, she piled the clothing over her arm and headed for the cashier. She stopped short when she saw her father standing at the register paying for his purchases.
    His gaze swept over her. There was a brief flicker of recognition, but he turned away as if she were nothing more than a stranger. No