Dry as Rain by Gina Holmes Read Free Book Online Page B

glanced at the cover. A man held an adoring woman in his well-dressed arms. Since when did she take to reading romances? She was already disappointed enough in our relationship, the last thing she needed was an idealistic hero to compare me with.
    â€œYou think you’d know what to do with her?” I asked the one-dimensional man, before setting the book back down as I’d found it.
    I left the bedroom and walked into the living room. Everything was tidy as usual. Kyra had been such a pack rat when I’d first met her, but over the years my anal need for order and cleanliness had rubbed off on her. Now, like me, she preferred everything in its place.
    A fish bowl sat on an end table beside a lamp. A small blue beta floated between two leaves of a fake plant nestled into blue gravel. I’d forgotten all about our fish, Steve. I tapped on the glass, wondering if he was dead, but he took off like a shark was hot on his tail.
    Good old, hearty beta fish, I thought. The perfect pets. They didn’t need to be walked or petted and could even go days without food. Too bad I didn’t marry one.
    I sprinkled a few flakes on top of the water, then checked my watch. This time tomorrow my wife would be home. I recapped the fish food, took one more look around our home, and shut the door behind me.

Eight

    You only want what you don’t have until you get it.
    Who was it who had said that to me recently? I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to remember. Right now, I wanted only to see Kyra walk through the door so I could take her home. Of course, solving the dilemma of getting her out of Batten Falls was only going to force me to face bigger problems.
    I felt like a weary old man as I sat in the now-familiar conference room waiting for Dr. Hershing to join me. I looked at the wall clock. Already twenty minutes had passed. What was taking him so long? If the man would come on already, I could still make it to the lot by noon and get a halfway-decent nine-hour shift in.
    Air-conditioning poured in from the vent right above me, causing a single cobweb strand to flutter in its breeze. Feeling the chill, I slipped my suit jacket off my chair and put it back on. When I looked up, Hershing stood before me.
    In one hand he held a notepad. The other was extended toward me. “Good morning, Eric.”
    I shook his hand, looking at the door. “Good morning. Where’s my wife?”
    He slid his fingers from my grip. “Kyra will be down shortly, but I wanted to discuss a few things with you first.”
    I gave my watch what I hoped was an obvious glance. “I’m kind of in a hurry.”
    He pulled out a chair and sat. “What could be more important than your wife, Mr. Yoshida?”
    Deciding whether or not to respond to the jab, I licked my lips, tasting the cola I’d drunk on the way over.
    He flashed an almost-genuine smile as he set his interlocked hands atop the pad he’d carried in. “I have a few questions for you before I release Kyra to your care.”
    Oh good, more questions. “Have at it.”
    â€œIs it true you and your wife are separated?”
    I felt my face catch fire. “Who told you that?”
    â€œYour stepfather, Alfred.”
    â€œYou spoke with him again?”
    â€œNo, just when Kyra was admitted.”
    So Hershing had already known the state of our marriage when he asked me the other day if our twenty years together had been good? That figured. “Stop playing games. You already know the answer, so why bother asking? Why don’t you tell me about my marriage since you know so much?”
    He looked down at his hands as though in prayer, but instead of praying, he read something on the legal pad. “You’re very defensive, Mr. Yoshida, but you don’t need to be with me. I was married once. I understand how difficult things can be at times.”
    I studied him. So he was divorced and planning on giving me advice? The blind