Restless Spirit by Sommer Marsden Read Free Book Online

and Irv thinks I’m lingering. Can I get you a drink?’
    ‘I’m very sorry for your loss,’ he whispered back and then, ‘Dr Pepper.’
    ‘Thank you.’ I smiled.
    He nodded. ‘Alas, the gods finally drop an interesting woman in my lap here at AL and she has to rush off.’
    ‘AL?’
    ‘Allister Lake.’
    ‘Duh,’ I said.
    He winked at me, and to my shock and dismay, I felt that wink in my belly and lower. ‘Hey, you’re new. Give it a few weeks and you’ll be a local and you’ll be abbreviating it too.’
    ‘Ahem!’ Irv said.
    I pointed to pretty boy with my pen. ‘I’ll get your Dr Pepper … um … Mr …’
    ‘Reed,’ he said. ‘My name is Reed Green.’
    ‘Like Mr Green Jeans!’ I said. Then I turned fast and prayed to drop dead. Because that always impresses a good looking man … a Captain Kangaroo reference.
    I pulled his Dr Pepper and took his order, fish sandwich with lettuce, mayo and a toasted roll, an order of fries and lemon meringue pie for dessert. When I delivered the pie I blurted, ‘Undercover Father!’
    He grinned at me and I felt that curl of heat in my gut again. Which made me think of Shepherd and what he’d done to me. And that made me think of meeting him in an hour and that made me antsy.
    ‘Good job.’ He tucked into the pie, rolled his eyes, took another bite.
    ‘And then–’
    ‘And then some other nothing-special, average TV shows and two movies and I got bored.’ He smiled as if to say end of story.
    ‘Oh, sure. I’m sorry. And now you …’
    Why had I started that sentence?
    ‘Now, I write screenplays sometimes – if I feel like it – and have a berry picking farm.’
    I laughed. ‘A what?’
    ‘A berry picking farm.’ He gave me a teasing smile.
    ‘Ah, see, I look at you and immediately think berry farmer.’
    The traffic into Irv’s Eats was slowing down and Irv did not clear his throat at me. ‘As you should. Former TV star and now berry man.’
    I smiled, realising when I glanced at the clock that in less than an hour I’d be at Shepherds. I had a vision of him on his knees, my fidgety fingers clutching my thighs as I came, water dripping from my hair, rain on the windows. I sighed without thinking about it.
    ‘You OK?’
    ‘I am. Sorry. My brain is racing, I just moved here, new job … just new everything.’
    ‘Ah, let me take you for a drink tonight and calm you down.’ His features were fine and almost delicate. High cheekbones, flawless skin, and Lord, those October sky blue eyes. I almost said yes and then, ‘I can’t. I have plans.’
    ‘Of course.’ There was that boyish smile, smooth silken voice that wasn’t too deep and manly or too soft and feminine. It was a liquid silver voice that flowed and calmed and made you think happy thoughts. ‘What was I thinking? A gorgeous young thing like you moves to town and I think I’d get first opportunity to woo you? Crazy old man.’
    ‘Old? Like what? Thirty?’
    ‘Thirty-three. See? What do you know?’
    ‘That you’re a whole four years older than me. Are you calling me old, Mr Green?’
    ‘Would it earn me a drink?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘A smack?’
    ‘Maybe.’ I took the tab and the money he offered.
    ‘How about you just let me take you for a drink on a night you don’t have plans and I can tell you how you don’t look a day over twenty-two.’
    ‘Deal,’ I said. ‘I’ll go get your change.’
    ‘No need. The top bill is yours. The rest are for Irv. Tell him the pie was perfect.’
    The top bill was a twenty and it had a phone number scrawled on it. I tucked it in my apron pocket and went to the cash register. When I turned to say goodnight, Reed Green was gone.
    I pushed my hands to my belly when I parked outside Shepherd’s house. Lights burned behind those opaque windows and now they made me think of haunted eyes. ‘Haunted, Nan,’ I sighed to my grandmother.
    Another sudden fist of guilt punched me in the chest and I sobbed out loud before gritting my