Secret Hollows by Terri Reid Read Free Book Online

a smile spreading over her face. “Snow day tomorrow? When is the storm supposed to hit? Okay, so snow ends late enough for school to be cancelled, but early enough to have the roads cleared by early afternoon.”
    She pulled a notepad across the desk and scribbled on it, “ Can you go sledding tomorrow?”
    “No, I think it would be great,” she said into the phone. “I’m just checking my schedule.”
    Bradley pulled the pad, picked up the pencil and wrote, “Is this some kinky proposition?”
    She choked and slapped his arm, blushing as she recalled their previous misunderstanding about sledding. He grinned and nodded.
    “Yes, I’m open for tomorrow. Oh, no, I don’t mind. You just made my day,” Mary said with a smile spreading across her face. “Oh, well then, that’s perfect. Okay, let’s talk tomorrow, but I think we could plan on one o’clock. Great! Thanks.”
    Bradley sat on the edge of the desk and waited until Mary hung up the phone. “So, what’s perfect?” he asked.
    “The older boys have science fair projects they have to work on,” she said. “And Katie said it would be extremely helpful if we could take Andy and Maggie out for the afternoon. Doesn’t sledding sound like fun?”
    Bradley stood up, picked up his jacket and walked to the door. Just before he left he turned, smiled and winked at her. “Why don’t I just save my answer for our wedding night? Okay?”

Chapter Seven
    The alarm went off at 5:30 and Mary groaned as she reached around blindly trying to shut it off. The loud buzzing continued while Mary desperately searched all the corners of her bed for the clock.
    “If that bloody noise doesn’t shut off soon, I’m going to shoot something!” Ian called from the other room.
    “I can’t find it!” Mary yelled back, trying to untangle her legs from the blanket, as the alarm seemed to get even louder and more insistent. “Besides, you don’t…”
    Ian stormed into the bedroom, dressed only in a pair of sweat pants that hung low on his hips, his blonde hair tousled and a scowl on his face.
    “… have a gun,” she finished weakly. Even in her sleep-fogged state, she could acknowledge that Gillian, Ian’s fiancée , was a lucky woman.
    He turned on the light, looked around the room for a moment and then marched to her dresser and turned off the clock. Turning to her, the clock clenched in his fist, he waved it towards her. “Can you just explain to me why a grown woman has an alarm clock set for the ungodly hour of 5:30 and then hides the bloody thing all the way across the room?”
    “Well, I do it so I’m totally awake by the time I turn it off,” she explained drowsily, as she rubbed the back of her neck absently. “It works most of the time.”
    Eyes narrowing as he looked at her, he asked, “Does it now?”
    She yawned. “Well since it’s snowy, I really don’t have to get up that early,” she added. “So, if you just want to put it back on the dresser, we can both go back to bed.”
    “Oh, and you think you’ll just be going back to sleep?”
    Smiling sleepily, she nodded, nestling back down into her blankets. “If you could just switch the light off on your way out the door…”
    “Really?” he asked. “You’re going to wake a man from a sound slumber in the wee hours of the morning and just go back to sleep without so much as a thank you kindly.”
    “ Mmmmm-hmmmm ,” she murmured, already nearly back asleep.
    He looked around the room and a slow smile spread across his face. “Have you ever seen Braveheart , darling?” he asked, as he walked toward her bedroom window.
    “Ian, really, can’t we have this conversation later?” she complained. “I’m trying to sleep here.”
    He slipped the window open and reached out to the sill and window box filled with snow. “Ach, sorry, but I think it’s only fair we have the discussion now,” he replied, packing a large snowball between his hands.
    She sighed and snuggled further into her