Better Than Gold by Mary Brady Read Free Book Online Page B

investigate the site thoroughly first.
    She pushed off. Get back out there . Nothing would happen until she did. A smile. It was just a smile, she told herself and brought her guard back up.
    Several ceramic coffee mugs rested in the dish rack. She grabbed one, shoved a handful of cream and sugar packets into the pocket of her coat and headed back out to face fate or the enemy or whoever this guy turned out to be.
    He stood, pensively staring at the gap in the wall. When he turned to face her, she shook her head at the flash of warmth that she could not stop as it spread through her.
    “Let’s go outside,” she said as she approached. “It’ll be warming up some by now.”
    With the carafe and cup in his hand, Daniel followed her out to where benches on the old sidewalk flanked the front doorway.
    “You can see the harbor better from that one.” She pointed at the bench to the right of the doorway.
    “Very nice. Very Maine,” he said as he sat down on the far end of the white-painted bench where he could see the boats, gulls and Mainers doing what Mainers did every day.
    She sat on the other end and held out her cup as he loosened the lid of the carafe and poured.
    “Cream or sugar?” She reached into her pocket and then held out her hand with the packets on her palm.
    “Black.”
    She wasn’t surprised.
    He sat back and as he gazed out over the harbor, she studied him. His profile, with well-defined nose, sharply defined upper lip and full soft bottom lip, looked good in the morning sun. Who was she kidding? He probably looked good in just about every light—or maybe very little light—like maybe that of a bedside lamp.
    Hmm. She put her coffee on the bench near where he’d placed the carafe and folded her arms over her chest. These were things she definitely shouldn’t be thinking about when her future was at stake.
    She turned her attention to the endlessly changing but always wonderful view five blocks or so away on the docks at the end of Treacher Avenue. The water of the bay sparkled dark blue, and the fishermen and those who serviced the boats hurried around in their morning scurry, some starting their day, some already well into it.
    A woman with a baby stroller stopped as she waved to someone on a boat in the water, but the boats were too far off to see who waved back. The town’s stray brown dog stopped and sat beside her until she moved on and then so did he.
    His cup sat beside hers and he had leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “It’s like an artsy movie.”
    “Evidence that life does go on even in a small town the world has never really noticed. I don’t ever get tired of it,” Mia said as she relaxed into the view.
    “One of my fondest characteristics of people from Maine. They appreciate where they are.” Dr. MacCarey, Daniel, looked more relaxed, seemed to have forgotten he was in a hurry to get the job done and get out of town.
    “Would it be so bad if we never knew who the man in the wall was?” And everybody’s lives could return to normal?
    She had stirred up more than she had ever planned. She had to get this guy to let things go. To get out of town no matter who was in that wall.
    She could hear the little angel on her shoulder reproaching her even as she had the thoughts. Integrity! You’ve got nothing if you don’t have integrity .
    Phooey.

CHAPTER FOUR
    M IA RUBBED HER shoulder and asked Daniel, “Do your records mention Liam Bailey?”
    “He was an early landowner. The assumption is made that the town was renamed after him, but there is no record as to why.” Dr. MacCarey, Daniel, withdrew his gaze from the harbor and turned it on her. His eyes were definitely that deep dark earthy brown, the kind created to hold sensuality and mystery at the same time, and right now they held a keen kind of interest.
    “Anything else?” The words croaked a bit when she spoke, so she picked up her coffee cup to break eye contact.
    “The library at the university has some