Call On Me by Angela Verdenius Read Free Book Online Page A

than just close
friends. He loved seeing her smile and laugh, hated seeing her
unhappy or crying. Their closeness meant he knew when she was
unhappy, regardless of what she said.
    It was rather
like being a personal forecaster to her moods. Interesting, he
hadn’t thought about that before and he glanced sideways at her,
this time curiously. Didn’t most good friends, even best friends,
grow apart with time, or at least move on with their lives? Did
they ever really stay close?
    Maybe it was
because they lived beside each other, had done since the Mackay
sisters had moved into the house ten years before when their
parents had died and they‘d come to live with their grandmother.
After she’d died five years ago, the sisters had continued living
there and he’d been so glad. Yeah, he was good friends with Ali at
school, but since she’d come to live next door they’d become even
closer. He hated to see that vanish if she ever chose to leave.
    No sooner had
that thought crossed his mind than he tensed. Leave? Well, maybe
she would one day. If she met the right man, she’d marry him and
might leave, go away, and, well, things would change, wouldn’t
they? It was natural.
    He stole
another glance at her. Relaxed, her elbow on the doorframe of the
panel van and her head propped up lazily in her hand, she projected
peace and tranquillity, something he knew full well depended on her
mood. Would any other man pick up on it?
    Hell yes, they
wouldn’t be able to help but pick up on it, she could be volatile
at times. And sweetly vulnerable in her own way. He frowned. But
would any other man understand? There was a troubling thought.
    “Ghost?”
    “Huh?” Startled
out of his strange, unsettling thoughts, he relaxed his hands on
the steering wheel. Weird, he hadn’t even realised he’d been
gripping it so tightly.
    “Are you
okay?”
    “Of course.
Why?”
    “Well, you’re
kinda scowling.”
    “Kinda
scowling?” He tried to laugh it off. “Pshaw!’
    “Not kinda,
actually, you were scowling.”
    “Just
thinking.”
    When she
shifted in her seat to face him more, the faint drift of her
perfume stirred through the air to waft under his nose. Panache.
Nice. Really nice. He’d never really noticed her perfumes
before, except as pretty smells. This perfume seemed to suit her,
light, fresh, yet with an undercurrent of something more.
    Interesting.
This evening was producing some very interesting thoughts.
Intriguing. Puzzling. Maybe the experts had everything wrong and
men could get menopausal, that would explain his weird ideas. Ali
always swore men got menopausal. He grinned.
    “From scowling
to grinning,” she said. “Spill your thoughts, Sinclair.”
    “Not
happening.” He shook his head.
    “Oh really? Not
even if I tempt you with…“ She fiddled around in the glove box
again, emerging with a small, plastic-wrapped cupcake. “This?”
    “You horrible
wench! Are you saying if I don’t spill my guts, you won’t give me
that cupcake?”
    Unwrapping it,
she held it before her mouth warningly. “Spill.”
    “That’s
blackmail.”
    She touched the
tip of her tongue to the icing.
    “That is
grossly unfair.”
    She licked the
icing.
    “Geez. Okay.
Porn, I was thinking of porn!”
    “That’s
disgusting.” She took a big bite of the cupcake.
    “Hey! My
cupcake!” She had icing on her lips and when she licked it off with
the tip of her tongue, he groaned.
    “You’re a
fiend,” he accused, swallowing. That cupcake would taste delicious.
He just knew it.
    “Serves you
right.” She handed him the remaining half.
    Giving her a
glare, he devoured it in one bite. “Evil. Just pure evil.”
    Smiling smugly,
she settled back against the seat. “Oh yeah, baby, I can be so
evil. You have no idea.”
    “Trust me, I
do.”
    She
laughed.
    Licking the
icing from his fingers, Ghost resumed driving. The quiet between
them was once more companionable. He loved ghost hunting with Ali.
The road unwound in the dark