Breaking the Silence by Katie Allen Read Free Book Online Page A

do that like a pro—do you have a dog?” Jenny asked.
    “No. It’s not hard. Just hold the leash and walk.”
    Jenny couldn’t decide whether he was kidding or not—he really had that deadpan thing down—but she laughed anyway. “Hey, don’t knock the skill—it’s one of the few I possess. I’m a black belt in dog walking.”
    Will glanced at her. Probably his turn to decide whether she was kidding or not.
    “What do you do?” Jenny asked.
    “You mean…hobbies?” He sounded a little horrified at the thought.
    “Actually, I meant what do you do job-wise but you’re welcome to tell me about your hobbies too,” she said sweetly. “Do you collect pinecones for wreaths, perhaps?”
    He gave her that sideways look again.
    “Macramé?”
    She got a half smile out of him at that.
    “I’m a programmer.”
    “Ah, one of those.”
    “‘Those’?”
    “I mean that in the most positive way—I have the utmost respect for your people.”
    “ My people?”
    “Yeah. I think I’m missing that extra chunk of brain that allows a person to be a programmer. I’ve never learned to speak computer very well—just enough to write up a very shaky truce with my laptop. We agreed that if it doesn’t crash on me two hours before a deadline, then I won’t throw it out a window. Oh and I know enough to fix Christian’s e-mail when he mucks it up.”
    “Christian?”
    Jenny might have been shaky on computer languages but she was starting to understand Will’s monosyllabic one a little better and, if she wasn’t mistaken, that last word had definite jealous undertones. This made her happy.
    “He’s a friend from work. He drags me out with him sometimes to the gay clubs in the Twin Cities.”
    Will nodded. “Work?”
    “Anderson Engineering. We do mechanical engineering—HVAC and plumbing.”
    “Like it?”
    Jenny thought about it for a minute. “Usually. I had a bad week.”
    Will lifted a questioning eyebrow.
    “Oh just the usual—annoying coworker, gossip, that sort of thing,” Jenny summarized. Will looked at her blankly.
    “Don’t you have that one person in the office who gets on everyone’s nerves and asks you out even though you’ve made it perfectly clear that you aren’t interested?” Jenny asked. She meant it as a joke but she could actually picture Will walking around the office, trailing lovesick coworkers, male and female, oblivious to the heartbreak he left in his wake.
    “No. I mean, I mostly work at home.”
    “Oh.”
    “Don’t like my boss much,” Will offered.
    Jenny appreciated the effort. “Why—what’s he like? Or she?”
    “He likes meetings.”
    “Ugh. Say no more. Does he make you go to meetings for hours and hours that get absolutely nothing accomplished and then get mad if you fold up your notes into a paper football and try to flick a field goal across the table?”
    “Yes.” Will paused. “Except for the football part. Haven’t tried that.”
    “I see that I’ll have to teach you the finer points of paper football and Skittle-hockey. If you do well with those, you can work your way up to boss hand puppets. You have a long way to go, Grasshopper, but I will be your Sensei.” Jenny put her hands together and gave him a little bow.
    Will gave her the sideways look and half smile. So cute.
    Jenny was startled to see her turnoff up ahead. She hadn’t realized that so much time had passed. She was just two blocks from her house. For a one-word guy, Will was surprisingly easy to talk to. And look at.
    “Here’s my turn.” Jenny pointed and reached for Rosie’s leash.
    “I’ll walk you home.” Will had the macho tone again. Jenny just shrugged and dropped her hand but she was secretly pleased, both at the manliness and the fact that their walk wasn’t over yet.
    “I was wondering—” Jenny spoke before thinking and then broke off. Did she really have the balls, so to speak, to ask him? Oh well, what would it hurt? “Would you want to—I mean, we have this