Falling in Love by Dusty Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

But yeah, maybe a couple of little ones
earlier.” She could hear a smile in the man’s voice.
    Unbelievable.
    “ I’m sitting right here,
Constable. Man, don’t those burgers smell good—”
    Gah!
    “… charcoal broiled, you
can sit and watch them flame…”
    “ All right, Mister Jacobs.
I’ll be there when I get there.” She reached for the microphone
with her other hand. “And you had better be on your best behaviour.
Mister Jacobs.”
    Otherwise, I am going to
bust your ass.
    But good.
    Mister Jacobs.
     
     
     
    Scene Three
     
     
    Three days later, Mark was still
thinking about her.
    But then, he would be.
    What else was there to think
about?
    He couldn’t get her out of his
mind.
    Is there something wrong
with me?
    One could only assume that
there must be.
    Barefoot and shirtless, he
hadn’t even showered yet. Mark Jacobs sat on the couch, feeling
pretty glum about things. To say he’d been making a real ass of
himself lately would be a bit of an understatement. That would be
one thing for sure. The TV had some kind of racing on and yet his thoughts were
very much elsewhere. To say that Mark had regrets about his life
right about then would also be an understatement.
    When the knock came at the door, he
almost jumped out of his skin. Who in the hell could that be? It’s
not like he had friends anymore.
    He got up and looked through the
peephole before unbuttoning the latch, lock and chain.
    What he saw out there had surprised
him, possibly even shocked him.
    “ Hello? La—Constable
Barrett?”
    She was alone.
    “ Hi, Mark. May I come in,
please?”
    “ Sure.” He stepped back
and she entered.
    “ Uh, please, come in. Have
a seat.”
    To his amazement, Laine handed over
her heavy purse. She took off her long overcoat. She was in full
uniform. Mark opened the closet, and realized that he didn’t have a
single damned coat hanger in the place. He usually just took his
coat off and hung it over the back of a chair. She blinked, and he
stammered something incoherent, and so he ended up putting it on
the end of his bed in the other room. Luckily, his bed was made.
Old habits died hard sometimes.
    He was back in a moment.
    She was on the couch, sitting about a
foot from the left end.
    There was a bottle of beer, pretty
much getting down to the dregs, right there.
    “ Got another one of them
brewskis?”
    “ Oh—yeah.” His eyebrows
rose as he moved to the kitchenette area to get a couple
more.
    When he came back she patted the couch
to her right. With rising pulse, he set the two beers down and sat
beside her.
    She kicked off her shoes, picked them
up and tossed them over by the door.
    Laine looked at Mark, sitting there
all panic-stricken and mystified. She had no idea what she saw in
him. Vulnerability maybe. A certain kind of honour,
maybe.
    Three tours in Afghanistan. Sniper
duty, wounded in a rocket attack, commended for bravery under fire,
campaign ribbons, discharged with the rank of Master Sergeant. He
was just rotting away here on that fucking shitty disability
pension.
    “ Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em,
soldier.”
    “ Huh?”
    “ Aw, come on. Mark. I know
you got some.”
    Mark’s cheeks flamed red. He searched
her face. He picked up his beer and had a drink. Luckily for him it
was only his second, or the thinking faculties might have been a
lot worse off. The TV droned softly in the background.
    Mark would hate loud noises, but then
that was fine with her.
    “ It’s all right, Mark. I’m
off duty. I get off at six-thirty, sometimes seven o’clock. No, I
just thought I would drop around and thank you for the lovely
cheeseburger. And the fries. That was really very thoughtful of
you.”
    Mark sat there looking down at the
table, hunkered over. Then he sat up, and sat back and let out a
long, shuddering breath. His eyes came up now.
    “ Well. You’re welcome, of
course.”
    His past sort of explained that
ruthless control over his demeanor, also the fact that nothing
scared him