Loving Mr. Daniels by Brittainy C. Cherry Read Free Book Online Page A

night, and I thought it was nice of them to invite me to eat with them.
    But I knew I didn’t fit in with their table for four. Rebecca pulled out a folding chair from their storage room for me to sit on. There was a metal piece on the seat that pushed into my left thigh, but I didn’t complain.
    Rebecca cooked a lot of food. Enough to feed an army. As we sat down, I went to dig into my food and Rebecca held her hand up. “Sweetie, we pray over the food first.” She gave me a kind smile, but I could see a bit of disappointment that I didn’t even think of doing so. “Henry, can you lead it again?”
    I chuckled and huffed under my breath. “Yeah right.” All eyes flowed to me. My eyes went to Henry, confusion filling them. “You pray?”
    “You don’t?” Rebecca jumped in.
    I felt like a sinner from her simple question.
    The answer was no.
    The awkwardness of the situation set in and I came to a strong resolution. I knew nothing about Henry and this family seemed to know everything.
    I knew it was stupid, but a part of me was pretty saddened by that. Why was it that you wanted those who ignored you to love you the most?
    Henry said a prayer while everyone closed their eyes and held their hands together. Well, almost everyone. I just sat and stared at them all during that time. Ryan never closed his eyes either.
    “Amen,” the group muttered together and opened their eyes. They dove into the steak dinner in front of them. 
    Hailey didn’t have a steak on her plate. She never had any meat at dinnertime. The other day, she told me that killing and eating harmless animals was a terrible act. She said that it was against the natural order of things, that people weren’t supposed to eat meat. So she stopped.
    I assumed that she’d never studied the fact that lions never hesitated to eat a gazelle if they were hungry.
    “Oh, Ryan and Hailey…don’t forget. You two are teaching Bible study in the morning.” She might not have noticed, but I watched as her two kids rolled their eyes.
    Tomorrow was Sunday, which meant that today was Saturday. I’d almost forgotten about my invite to Joe’s bar to hear Mr. Beautiful Eyes perform.  And by ‘almost,’ I meant I’d been thinking about it ever since I saw him. I was mostly excited to learn his name, seeing how I had only been calling him Mr. Beautiful Eyes.
    “I think I’m going to head upstairs and get ready to go.”
    Henry raised an eyebrow. “Go where?”
    I gave him an are-you-seriously-concerned-about-my-whereabouts look and he sighed. Then I gave myself an is-he-seriously-not-concerned-about-my-whereabouts sigh.
    “I made you a key. It’s hanging in the front hall,” Henry said as I stood up from the table.
    Well, that was thoughtful.

    All dressed up and ready to go out, I opened the wooden box and pulled out my bucket list, staring at all of the choices. I knew I needed a note from Gabby. I just had to find an easy way to get to one without breaking her rules of just ripping a letter open.
    The clock sitting on the dresser read nine thirty p.m. Hailey walked into the room and smiled my way. “Just arrived a few days ago and you’re already trying to leave?” she laughed.
    “No…it’s not that. It’s just…”
    “Too much change?” she asked, finishing my thought before I’d even thought it.
    I nodded and couldn’t help but smile when she stood up and tossed me her keys.
    “Take my car. It’s the Ford Focus. I’m not going to ask where you’re going because I’m a terrible liar. And if I had to rat you out, I would feel bad.”
    “Thanks.” I picked up a couple of the CDs from my collection to play in her car and prepared to make my exit without running into Rebecca or Henry.
    “Welcome. And Ashlyn?” Her voice heightened as she reached for her bottle of facial lotion and started to apply it to her skin. “It’s not so bad here.”
    “Yeah. It’s just that I miss there . I’ll be back later.”

    In Hailey’s car, I