Healer (The Healer Series) by B.N. Toler Read Free Book Online

natural reaction to our touching one another?
    Truly, he could have grabbed me and tongue thrashed me at that moment and I would have loved it. However, I heard somewhere hard to get was what men like, so all I could do was pretend to be angry to hide my embarrassment. Of course, in my extremely limited experience, I didn’t know men hate drama. I looked away, trying to appear miffed. Yeah, I was clueless.
    “Don’t they say relationships need to start with honesty?” he asked, releasing his hold on my arm.
    “Relationship?” My heart wrenched with hope.
    He smiled slightly. “Friendship.”
    I liked the way relationship sounded better, but didn’t dare make that point. I also reminded myself to stop be ing such a love sick teen. I just met this guy.
    “I’d li ke to see you again.” He smiled and his voice seemed sincere.
    Heat flamed my face. I was out of my league and knew I had already made myself appear to be an irrational teen. Lucy wouldn’t want me to see him. My inner self proceeded to lie down on the ground screaming and kicking her feet at the notion I shouldn’t see him again. In my brilliance, I dug deep and found a perfect line to exit on.
    “Maybe in my dreams. ” I smiled and turned to walk away. I know how corny that was, but in my defense, I was seventeen.
    When I got h ome that night, Whit waited on the front porch in nothing, but his tennis shoes and basketball shorts. I rolled my eyes.
    “Somebody’s in trouble ,” he mocked as he pulled his shoulder-length hair back into a ponytail.
    “For what?” I asked panicked.
    “Looks like you already know.” He laughed. He must have felt my energy surge when my heart beat accelerated. Judging by the ridiculous dopey smirk on his face, I could see he was enjoying the idea that I was in trouble. “Lucy got a phone call from the Shively police department today. Officer Malkin, wanted to check and see how you were after you fainted yesterday.”
    Officer Malkin, the tall female officer that questioned me . “Great.” I mumbled under my breath.
    As I entered the house, I mentally prepared myself for what would be no less than a nuclear meltdown.
    Inside, Lucy waited, just as Whit had warned me. I decided to be honest about everything.
    Well, mostly everything.
    Well maybe only about twenty percent of the truth.
    “You revealed yourself , Aldo. You’ve put us all in danger.”
    “It wasn’t intentional, Lucy.”
    Then the loaded question came.  “How old is he?” She crossed her arms over her chest and her glasses slid halfway down her nose.
    “Older than me.” I shrugged. In the short life I had lived up until this point, playing dumb had worked maybe two times out of a million, but that didn’t stop me from trying.
    “How old, Aldo?” She stood like a statue, her voice stern.
    “Twenty-five.” I tried to say it as if I had no clue she would find it upsetting.
    “Are you kidding me?” She threw her thin arms in the air like I had just told her I was pregnant. “We need to move.”
    “No , we don’t!” My voice boomed.
    She turned and stared at me surprised, her eyes wide. “You are not seeing this ma n.” She picked up her coffee mug and huffed into the kitchen. Lucy and I never fought, mostly because I did whatever she told me to. To defy her felt like the cruelest thing I could do because, she had taken us in and protected us after our mother died giving birth to us. Lucy said our father bailed as soon as he found out our mother was pregnant. Lucy was all we had and she took us in, unselfishly and wholeheartedly. But I would see Thomas again… as long as he took my playful banter about seeing me in my dreams seriously, and she couldn’t stop me.
    “What man?” Whit walked into the living room from the hall, where he had been eaves dropping, no doubt.
    “No one.” I rolled my eyes. Why did he always have to interrupt?
    “Lucy,” I called, as I made my way into the kitchen.
    “My answer is no, Aldo.”
    Whit