The One Worth Waiting For by Alicia Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

another wave of weakness washed over him. He felt his knees go suddenly loose, and the next thing he knew, she was beneath his arm, guiding him toward the bed.
    “Big stupid fool,” she muttered the whole way. “Big stupid fool.”
    She had him back in the bed and covered up as fast as possible. She didn’t want to look at his naked legs with their mysterious scars, and she certainly didn’t want to see the rest of him. She wanted him well, and she wanted him gone.
    “Tomorrow,” he whispered as if reading her thoughts. She glanced up to find his eyes staring into hers with an intensity she didn’t like.
    “Cagney can bring some clothes,” she said after an uncomfortable minute. She remained standing at the bedside when she really should be moving away. Garret awake was not an easy man to handle.
    He nodded, his dark eyes still not leaving her alone. Suddenly, he grinned again, this time the twisting of his lips at once bitter and mocking. “So anxious to see me go?”
    “Never knew you liked to stay,” she stated right back.
    His grin widened. “You always did understand me.”
    For one moment, she couldn’t say anything at all while the words twisted her stomach into tight little knots of old aches and new pains. She forced herself to take a deep breath, and smooth her hands over her vintage skirt.
    “Where will you go?” she asked calmly, congratulating herself on sounding so composed.
    His grin, however, wavered. He turned away, and for a long moment, he closed his eyes. And though he didn’t say a word, she knew he was remembering the words he’d once spoken but now didn’t seem to want to recall. The ragged holes in his mind allowed him to know about her and the bus stop, but denied him what happened to his back.
    “I’m sure I’ll think of something,” he said at last, his big body moving restlessly beneath the worn white sheets.
    “It’s all right,” she found herself saying, the words creeping out on their own. Defensively, she raised her chin. “Cagney’s my best friend, Garret, and you and I, we go way back, as well. You can stay as long as you need to. Cagney thinks maybe you’re safe here. If that’s the case, you should stay. At—at least,” she faltered, “at least until you know more.”
    He gave her a little smile, but it wasn’t pleasant. “You always did take care of everyone,” he said softly, his frustration directed at once at himself but making him lash out at her anyway.
    Her hands stilled on her skirt, then she forced herself to shrug. “Charity is never wasted.”
    “Little Suzanne, the kindergarten teacher,” he whispered, his dark eyes sweeping over her. “Always raising everyone else’s children. What will you do when they grow up, Suzanne? What will you do when this batch is gone, as well?”
    For a moment, she couldn’t move, his words cutting too near all those deep fears she only acknowledged late on rare nights. She made herself continue to breathe, but even then, her voice trembled when she finally spoke. “I remember you as being many things, Garret Guiness,” she whispered at last. “But I never remembered you as being so cruel.”
    She turned, her skirt swirling around her legs, and even as he reached out to her, she swept from the room. The door shut firmly behind her, and he was left only with the frustration burning his gut and the soft waft of roses in the air.
     
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
    G arret had healed enough to roar.
    Standing in the hall outside the closed bedroom door, Suzanne could hear his raging demands interspersed with Cagney’s quiet, steely replies. Garret wanted his clothes, a car and an immediate departure. Cagney informed him his clothes were burned, the car returned, and he might as well stay put until he fully regained his memory.
    In the hallway, Suzanne found herself nodding her agreement, then quickly suppressed the movement with narrowed eyes. She didn’t care what Garret did, she reminded herself sternly. Garret