Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition) by Gail Roughton Read Free Book Online

all’s one remaining bookstore — that e-pub revolution was taking a toll on conventional booksellers — and glared up at one the higher shelves. It would be up there, of course. Hardly a current bestseller. She stood on tiptoe and stretched, but even at five foot eight she couldn’t quite make it. And customers weren’t supposed to climb the ladders and there wasn’t a clerk in sight. She stretched again and succeeded in knocking a book off, but not the one she wanted.
    “Damn,” she muttered under her breath, bending to retrieve it.
    The resonant voice sounded beside her.
    “Here, let me help,” it said . S he started. That voice. Impossible. No way. Her eyes traveled slowly upward, taking in the well-cut tan Dockers, the long-sleeved denim shirt rolled casually up to reveal the lightly tanned forearms. They moved higher and settled on the face of the man beside her. No way.
    “The one you want is always out of reach,” the voice continued. Ria was staring, she knew she was . But the man she thought was there wasn’t really there. In just a minute, her mind would clear itself out and replace the image she thought she was seeing with reality. But it was sure taking a hell of a long time for her mind to cooperate.
    “Which one are you after? I’ll be glad to get it for you.”
    “The—uh—” Ria stammered and stuttered, infuriated with herself. “I’m sorry, I’m not usually so muddled, but—have we met?” Oh, God. She sounded like a pickup in reverse.
    He smiled. “No, I don’t think so. I’m certain I’d remember.”
    “I—uh—” she stammered again and furiously told herself to get a grip. She pointed. “ That hardback edition of the collected Shakespeare plays. ”
    “Really?” he asked, surprise in his voice. “You read Shakespeare? For pleasure? Excuse me, that d idn’t come out right. It’s just—he’s not casual reading these days.” He stretched his six-foot frame upward and pulled the volume down.
    “No,” she said, accepting the book. “I know he’s not, it’s just that he’s soothing sometimes, when I’m real tired or irritated, the flow and rhythm and beauty of the words calm me down .”
    “ Lots of humor in with the dark there, too. Always thought he’d get a real kick out of it if he could see how seriously the English professors take him. Personally, I think he just intended to tell a good story.”
    Ria laughed. She’d always thought the same.
    The man wearing the impossible face held out his hand. “ I’m Paul. P aul Everett . ” Ria’s eyes widened . She froze in position, her mind repeating a name over and over again. Paul Everett Devlin, III. Then s he shook her head slightly and held out her hand.
    “Ria Knight,” she said. “Are you from Macon, Mr. Everett?”
    “Paul . No, I’m not from Macon. I’m—listen , did you want to look for anythi ng else? I haven’t eaten yet, and I was just about to grab something if you’d like to join me . I’m safe, I promise . ‘Course, Jack the Ripper’d say the same thing.”
    Ria tried to make some sense of the kaleidoscopic jumble of thoughts and focused on the obvious . She’d lost her mind. Very simple. She was standing in a bookstore talking to empty space .
    “I, uh—no! I mean yes! No, I wasn’t going to look for anything else and yes, I’d like to join you.”
    H e strode easily beside her back up to the cashier and slipped the volume of Shakespeare out of her hand, adding it to the two books he carried .
    “Oh, no, that’s so not—”
    “ It’s not every day you run into somebody reads Shakespeare for pleasure . Consider it my support for the arts, why don’t you?”
    She stood aside and waited and as they walked out into the m all, she stopped suddenly.
    “Oh, that was stupid of me!”
    “Pardon?”
    “I ordered an out-of-stock book the other week and I meant to check on it tonight. I won’t be a minute,” she said, and dashed back to the counter.
    “Excuse me,” she said,