Friction by Sandra Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

without, lay in the crook of her elbow.
    For several moments, he simply stared into her face; then he reached for a lock of hair and rubbed the curl between his fingers. Her lips made a sucking motion, then she swiped her cheek with the back of her hand and opened her eyes.
    Sleepily she blinked him into focus. “Daddy!”
    “Shh, don’t wake up your friend.”
    She sat up to receive his hug and return it. “Have you come to get me? Is it tomorrow yet?”
    “Not yet. I just wanted to stop in and see how you were doing.”
    “Good.” Yawning broadly, she lay back down and nestled the back of her head into the pillow.
    “You like your new playmate? Amy.”
    “Um-huh. She’s nice. We had a tea party and got to dress up in Miss Susan’s hats. I wore beads, too.”
    “Yeah? How’d the cookies turn out?”
    “We sprinkled sugar on top. Mine were pink.” She yawned again. “Do you want to sleep with me?”
    “I don’t think we would fit on this bed.”
    “You’re too big.”
    “Me? You and Mr. Bunny are taking up all the space.” He poked her lightly in the belly, and she giggled. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Go back to sleep, but give me a kiss first.” He leaned down. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.
    “Good night, Daddy. I love you.”
    “’Night, sweetheart. I love you, too.”
    She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. He waited until she was softly snoring again before reluctantly tiptoeing from the room.
      
    Five minutes later, he joined his father-in-law in the Gilroys’ kitchen. Even at this late hour, Joe was fully dressed and spit-polished. He had served three tours in Viet Nam flying F4s. At the end of the war, he’d left the air force. But the air force had never completely left him.
    He motioned toward the coffeemaker on the counter. “Help yourself.”
    “No thanks.”
    “Since I know I won’t sleep anyhow, I thought I had just as well have some.”
    They sat down across from each other at the dining table. Crawford said, “Grace went to bed?”
    “Finally. I had to slip her a mickey. I ground up a pain pill she had left over from that ear infection. Spiked her chamomile tea with it.”
    “Can’t hurt.”
    “Knocked her out.”
    “That’s what she needed.”
    “Did you go by the Ambersons’ house?”
    “Just left there. Georgia woke up only long enough to kiss me good night. I’m not sure she’ll remember that I was there. But it did me good to see her.”
    “You meet Frank?”
    “Just Susan. Nice lady.”
    “They’re good people.”
    The conversation stalled there. This was the way it had been since Beth had first introduced him to her dad. Once he and Joe exhausted chitchat about the weather and everyone’s health, they never seemed to have anything else to talk about.
    While married to Beth, Crawford had gone out of his way to be friendly and easygoing around Joe, even pretending an interest in his hobby of carpentry. But eventually, he’d accepted that he and his father-in-law would never be chums, and he was fine with letting their relationship remain civil and neutral.
    Certainly for as long as Georgia had been in the Gilroys’ custody, Crawford had done nothing to provoke Joe, to tip that delicate balance between them, to give Joe a reason to limit his access to her.
    But now, sitting in the homey kitchen, without Grace’s diplomacy acting as a buffer, he felt the brunt of Joe’s hostility toward him.
    “You talk to your cop friends?”
    Crawford wanted to disabuse him of the notion that he would receive preferential treatment because he was a law enforcement officer himself. “As you know, Neal Lester is the lead investigator. He and a guy new to me, named Nugent, took my statement. They knew most of it already and only wanted details from my perspective.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like I didn’t know you could move that fast.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “When the guy came in shooting, you reacted with remarkable speed and