Sunset Hearts by Macy Largo Read Free Book Online Page B

nodded but didn’t reply. She had a feeling he didn’t totally buy her story, but she wasn’t about to admit the truth.
    She tried not to think about the man she witnessed being murdered. That might make her yak the soup.
    Alan must have realized she wasn’t going to talk. “Once you finish that, I’ll take you to the walk-in clinic.”
    “Thank you.”
    “It’s okay. I imagine you’re going to sleep the rest of the day and a good chunk of tomorrow. Listen, I have to take a charter out tomorrow, but if you promise not to try to run away, I’ll leave you here by yourself.”
    She might be stubborn, but not stupid. Paulie couldn’t trace her here. Not this quickly. “I’ll stay. Are you sure it’s not an imposition?”
    When he smiled, her heart thumped in reply. Shaggy blond hair, those big brown eyes, sweet, gentle voice, and a hunky bod. What wasn’t there to like? He was adorable, gay or not. “It’s no imposition,” he assured her.
     
    * * * *
     
    The doctor bought her story about falling overboard hook, line, and sinker. She wore one of Alan’s baseball caps with her hair shoved under it. He gave her a tetanus shot, rinsed her wounded feet out with antiseptic, and stitched two of the wounds with dissolvable sutures. After putting her on a preventative round of antibiotics and admonishing her to stay off her feet for the next several days, the doctor declared Alan’s “cousin,” Jenny Walker, otherwise okay.
    Alan stopped at a drugstore to fill her prescription. He got her a wheelchair they provided for customers and she held a hand basket in her lap while he pushed her through the store so she could get other things she needed. She bought some cheap tourist T-shirts and beach shorts, underwear too, giving her more than just one set of clothes.
    On their way back to Alan’s, she remembered hair dye. “Dammit. I should have gotten that, too.”
    He laughed. “You just survived a night in the Gulf, you’re sliced up like you lost a round with a set of Ginsu knives, and you’re worried about your roots?”
    “No. I hate being a blonde. The only reason I dyed my hair was for…” She thought about it. “He is my ex now, isn’t he? Not that I probably could have left any other way.” That led to more nervous laughter, which soon turned into crying. “Jesus, I’m losing my mind.”
    He parked in front of his house. “No, you’re exhausted. I bet you sleep the rest of the freaking day.” He carried her inside to the guest room, got her situated, then rolled in an office chair. “Use this, stay off your feet so they can heal like the doctor said. I already checked and it’ll make it through the bathroom door.”
    Her eyelids felt like two anchors had been tied to them. “Your boyfriend is a lucky guy, Alan.”
    He smiled, but it looked a little sad. “Yell for me if you need me, kiddo.”
    She crashed into sleep.
     
    * * * *
     
    Alan closed the bedroom door. With a little time to himself to think, he needed a shower. The holes in her tale about why she jumped overboard sounded big enough to fly a jumbo jet through. With three younger sisters, he knew better than to push Daphne for more answers. She would open up to him and tell him the full truth when she felt safe enough to do it.
    Until then, he’d have to wait her out.
    Now the problem would be wrangling Jerald so he waited her out, too. He would want to go all cop on her ass and try to force the story from her.
    Something had terrified her, without a doubt. A person doesn’t get rescued from the Gulf just to try to jump out of a boat again. Not unless they have something to hide.
    Or fear.
    After his shower, he sat at the kitchen table. She’d left her wallet laying there. He picked it up and looked through it. Daphne Peres. Daytona Beach address. Her driver’s license had been issued a month earlier, before her renewal date. Just moved, maybe? Twenty-three years old. She’d had her birthday that past July eighteenth. She also