Alone in the Dark by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online

us are able to do."

    Seeing how impatient he was to be gone, Patience walked Brady to the front
    door.Tacomafollowed in their wake like a silent Greek chorus, just waiting for an opening.

    "You don't have to walk me," Brady told her. "I know where the door is."

    "I know I don't have to, I want to," she emphasized, stopping at her door. "Not everything has to be just for pragmatic reasons, Coltrane. Sometimes people just do things to be
    polite." Why was he so afraid of being friends? He'd obviously thought enough of her
    safety to put himself out and play sentry. So why couldn't he just accept her friendship?
    "You stood guard at my door for who knows how long—"

    He interrupted before she could take off on another verbal odyssey. "I sat in the car for
    maybe thirty-five minutes."

    "Whatever." She waved a dismissive hand at his words. Facts weren't important here.
    Intent was. "I wasn't asking for an accounting, Officer." Temporarily stymied, she sighed and shook her head before she turned it up to his. "Don't youeverloosen up?"

    "Thisisloose," he informed her tersely. And if he was suddenly wondering what it would be like to kiss this five-foot-four, nonstop talking machine, she didn't need to know about it.
    Hell, he didn't even want to know about it.

    But the thought lingered just the same. As did the curiosity.

    "It's loose only if you're a steel girder," she quipped. She cocked her head and wondered all sorts of things. In the two years that he had been bringing King into the clinic, she'd
    only learned his name, rank and serial number. With his air of secrecy, he would have made
    a hell of a soldier. "Are you involved, Coltrane?"

    Of all the questions she could have asked, this one completely threw him. "What?"

    "Are you involved?" Patience repeated. Maybe Coltrane was so removed from everything,
    he didn't understand what she was talking about. "Is there someone waiting for you to
    come home right now, standing by the window and wondering why you're late?" she
    elaborated after a beat.

    "No."

    She shook her head, as if she'd stumbled across the root of his problem. "There should
    be."

    His life was just fine the way it was. No attachments, no complications. Streamline. "I
    thought you were a vet, not a psychiatrist." If he meant to make her back off by insulting
    her, the amused smile on her face told him that he'd missed his target.

    "Hey, even vets get to observe human nature once in a while," she told him. "And no one should be lonely."

    His eyes narrowed like thunder clouds before a summer storm. "Who says I'm lonely?"

    I do.But he obviously didn't appreciate her telling him so. She backed away. For now.
    "Sorry." She held her hands up in surrender. "I guess I'm reading into things again."

    He accepted the apology, but his tone was far from friendly. "It's a bad habit. You should
    stop."

    As she opened the front door Patience struggled to keep a straight face. "I'll work on it."

    The wind whipped its way through trees now, clearing out dead leaves that went showering
    out into the night air, performing a macabre dance as they scattered.

    The evening felt chillier than it should have been.

    Patience knew she should go back inside, but she stood where she was. Waiting for
    something. She didn't know what.

    And then a gust of wind took the ends of her hair, sending the strands gliding along his
    face. Brady caught a light scent that wrapped itself around him, dragging him in. He felt
    his stomach tightening.

    The sound of her soft laughter echoed in his head.

    Patience brushed back her hair from his face as well as her own.

    "Sorry about that," she murmured.

    An unfathomable look crossed Brady's face.

    Patience wasn't sure just what happened next. She liked to think that Brady made the
    first move.

    Or that they made it together.

    But in all likelihood, if she replayed the action in slow motion, she'd probably discover that
    she was the initiating party. Never considered quite as vibrant