Straight from the Heart by Tami Hoag Read Free Book Online

white belly with a dimpled hand.
    “Hi, Muriel!” Rebecca shouted. “I’ve brought your new boarder.”
    “You bought a new four-door? But I liked that little car you had. It was so cute. What did you buy, a sports car? I’ve always pictured you in one of those foreign jobs with the top down.”
    Rebecca shook her head. “No. I’ve brought the man who’s renting a room from you.”
    “Jace Cooper, Mrs. Marquardt,” Jace shouted. He offered her his hand. Her cat reached out a paw and batted it at him.
    “Mr. Cooper!” Muriel’s face lit up even more in recognition. She cuddled her cat to her ample bosom. “Don’t mind Chester. He’s such a card. Justin and his little friends have been trying to teach him the high five. Come in, come in.”
    She shuffled back from the door and started down the wide hall. A trio of calico cats hopped out from behind a dilapidated potted palm to follow her. At the sight of the strangers, two of them scooted under a library table.
    The house was as imposing on the inside as it was on the outside. Barely a drop of the fading sunlight penetrated the ancient brocade drapes. Dark, ornately carved woodwork dominated the walls and added to the gloom. The furniture looked sturdy enough for elephants to stand on.
    “You know,” Muriel mused aloud, “I hadn’t given much thought to renting, but I think it just might work out. This old house has been so empty since my Winston passed on.”
    “Her husband passed away about a year ago,” Rebecca explained as they followed the woman down the hall, passing a large, dust-covered electric organ. “She’s more or less shut herself up in this house ever since.”
    “Without ever opening a window,” Jace muttered, making a face. The aroma that hung in the air was one unique to musty old houses filled with cats.
    “Frankly, I’m surprised anyone was able to talk her into renting a room. Who—”
    “What’s she like?” Jace interrupted as they continued toward the back of the house.
    “Oh, she’s sweet, a little absent-minded and hard of hearing.”
    “No kidding,” he said dryly. “Does she like cats?”
    “Here you go, Mr. Cooper,” Muriel said, standing to one side of the doorway. As she swept her arm in invitation, Chester did a back flip to the floor. “I decided you might as well have two rooms since I have plenty more to roam around in. There’s a bathroom just down the hall, and the back porch is right out through that door.”
    Rebecca passed through the small sitting room to the bedroom and dropped Jace’s bag on the sturdy mahogany-framed bed. Definitely not Jace’s style, she thought as she glanced around at the heavy green drapes and the antique fringed lampshades. The place looked like a funeral parlor from a Vincent Price movie.
    Back in the sitting room, Chester had taken a place on a burgundy fainting couch and lay sprawled on his belly, glaring at Jace with unblinking yellow eyes. Jace had backed up to the window and was trying to raise it as he spoke.
    “This is fine, Mrs. Marquardt. Very nice.”
    “You don’t smoke, do you, Mr. Cooper? I can’t stand smoking. It stinks a place up so.”
    “No, ma’am, I don’t smoke.” As he turned he bumped his bad leg against a low table and winced.
    Rebecca leveled a no-nonsense look at him and pointed to the next room. “To bed. Now.”
    Jace grinned and winked at Mrs. Marquardt. “Now there’s an offer I can’t refuse.”
    Muriel’s eyes rounded in shock like bright little marbles. “Rebecca! You young ladies nowadays are too assertive. There’ll be no hanky-panky here.”
    “Jace is a patient of mine,” Rebecca explained.
    Blue-tinted curls bounced as the landlady shook her head. “Well, there’ll be no playing doctor in my house.”
    “You don’t understand. He just had knee surgery. He should be lying down.”
    “Oh. Fine.” Her face brightened with understanding, and she smiled like a cherub. “Just so you’re not with him,