Into the Light by Ellen O'Connell Read Free Book Online

was interested in him. She couldn’t be. She couldn’t be interested in any man, but her stranger was interesting, which was different. And he was sympathetic. No, empathetic. And his voice....
    She was being silly, female, and foolish. She would stay right here the way she had promised she would. She could remember the conversation with him here the same as she had at home a hundred times.
    After all he wouldn’t be there. He had returned from the East and college to spend time with a family that lived far from Hubbell. He had only been in town the night of Miriam’s wedding to visit a friend.
    Even if he was still staying with his family and even if he had come to town again for today’s celebrations, he’d watch the fireworks in the park along with everyone else. The town hall sat dark and empty tonight. No one would be there.
    Foolish or not, she left her best dress on and wished she had given in to Aunt Em’s oft-stated desire to replace the aging gold dress with something more stylish, a more complimentary color. Which had to be the silliest wish she’d ever had. No one would see her. No one would be in the little garden behind the hall.
    Still, she wanted to sit in the place where it had happened again, remember his voice, his words, the way talking to him made her feel.
    If she let herself dwell on the memory of the drunk and his friend and thoughts of how many like them would be on the streets tonight, her nerve would fail. Deborah floated out of the house and down the front walk wrapped in a cloud of her own nerves, icy hands and feet unaffected by the hot summer night.
    A laughing group of young people approached, stragglers on their way to the park. Deborah paused by Miriam’s front gate until they passed, then followed as close as she dared. Let anyone watching think she was part of the group.
    Her unwitting chaperons led the way right to the town hall. No moon lit the walk around the dark building. Clouds hid even the stars. Her footsteps on the gravel path crunched so loudly she half-expected her family to hear, come running, and drag her to the park, scolding all the way.
    At last. Her outstretched hand touched the rough back of the same wood bench she had occupied the night of Miriam’s wedding.
    A trace of spicy, masculine scent drifted to her on the warm air. Could scent be nothing but a memory?
    She scanned the shadows under the trees, afraid to believe what her eyes told her was the blacker shadow of a man on the opposite bench, even more afraid the shadow was the wrong man until he spoke.
    “I hoped we’d meet again, but I didn’t dare hope it would be tonight.”
    A wave of pure joy washed away nerves and fear. “Oh! I didn’t expect you to be here either, but I....” How could she explain being here without embarrassing herself? “It will be one big crowd in the park, and it’s quiet here.”
    His low laughter rippled over her like a caress. “And you don’t like crowds. I’d forgotten about that, but I’m glad of it now, and I’m glad you’re here. But tell me you didn’t walk here by yourself tonight.”
    “I-I didn’t. I was with a group of people right until I reached the hall.”
    “And they left you here by yourself?”
    “Not exactly. I escaped again.”
    “You esc.... Is that how you think of it? As escaping from where you’re expected to be? Doesn’t your family miss you?”
    “Oh, no. Most of the time they know where I am. Tonight, though, they do think I’m at my sister’s house. They wouldn’t approve of my being here any more than you do.”
    “But I do approve of you being here. I just don’t like to think of you getting here without a safe escort.”
    “I really did come with a group.”
    “Mm hm.”
    The sound he made was full of disbelief, but at least he dropped the subject. Sort of. She moved around the bench and sat.
    “Last time we talked, when you said you had escaped, I didn’t think you were serious.”
    “I wasn’t. Not really. Saying