Annette Broadrick A Loving Spirit (pdf)

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"Did you get enough to eat?" His smile flashed again, and she could feel her
relaxed mood slipping away. Did he have any idea how attractive that
boyish smile was?
"I ate enough to keep me going for a week," she replied. She searched
nervously for an innocuous topic of conversation. "Have you lived at the
lake very long, Sergeant Donovan?""Three years. And the name is Mike."
"Do you like it here?"
"Very much."
He looked amused, and she realized that her nervousness must be showing.
He looked very relaxed and at ease as he sat there sipping on his coffee and
watching her. When she didn't say anything else, he spoke.
"I understand you've lived here for several years."
"That's right. Five. How did you know?"
He shrugged, reminding himself that he wasn't supposed to know much
about her. "Somebody may have mentioned it to me. Your shop is quite
popular, from all reports."
"Yes, I'm thankful to say." She glanced down at her hands, clasped on the
table before her. Her thoughts had completely deserted her.
"Sabrina?"
She glanced up quickly. "Yes?"
"Do I make you nervous?"
Her gaze darted to meet his. "Oh, no. Of course not. I mean, well...it's not
you exactly. It's the situation. I'm not very good at this sort of thing."
His face reflected his confusion. "What sort of thing?"
She waved her hand in a gesture that encompassed him, the table, the room.
"I don't do much socializing." '
He grinned, relaxing once again. "Oh. Neither do I. Guess that makes two of
us."
"I guess so." She couldn't think of anything else to say.
' 'What gave you the idea of starting a gift shop?'' he asked.
"I received a small inheritance that I wanted to invest. Glass sculpture and
crystal figurines have always fascinated me I've been collecting them for
years so I decided to turn a hobby into a profession." She paused, thinking
about that first year. She forgot her shyness and went on to explain, "I had
met Rachel one time when I was visiting in the Hot Springs area. She's such
a creative person, and when I first got the idea for the shop I contacted her
and asked for her help in collecting items that might prove to be popular.
She has a shop where several artists work, turning out the products that I
sell."
"How do you spend your hours away from your shop?"
Sabrina smiled at the casual way he asked the question, so different from the
intentness of his expression. "During the winter Jessica and I watched our
fair share of movies and worked jigsaw puzzles. We spent summers around
the water."
Michael knew who Jessica was because of his investigation, but he didn't
want Sabrina knowing how much information he had accumulated about
her. He knew she would be offended to learn how thoroughly he'd delved
into her life. He was just thankful that he'd found nothing in her background
to warrant continued investigation, because that would have effectively
prevented him from spending his off-duty hours with her.
He already knew he wanted to spend as much time with her as she would
allow. So he pretended ignorance.
"Jessica?"
"My daughter. She's a freshman at the University of Missouri in Columbia."
"You must miss her now that she's away," he said, watching her expressive
face reveal her feelings. He reached over and touched her hand, which was
resting on the table.
Sabrina heard the understanding in his voice, and a sense of comfort stole
around her like a cloak.
"Yes, I do," she admitted in a sudden burst of honesty, not only to Michael
but to herself. "Jessica's father died when she was two. I suppose it was only
natural that I planned my life around her."
"But it makes life a little rough when they leave."
Sabrina heard pain in his voice and impulsively asked, "Do you have any
children?"
He nodded. "A son, Steve. His mother and I were divorced when he was ten.
I'm afraid it wasn't one of those friendly divorces you hear about. Phyllis
hated my job and the long hours. She felt I wasn't a stable enough influence
on Steve. As soon as the divorce was final, they moved to the West Coast to
get away from my influence."
"How old is Steve now?"
"Twenty. He's enrolled at Stanford," Michael's voice showed no emotion
whatsoever.
' 'Do you see much of him?''
"No. I've tried to arrange visits between us, but his schedule has always been
heavy. Phyllis saw to that. I flew out a couple of times to see him when he
was younger, but we were both ill at ease." He shrugged, as though he
wanted to shift some burden he was carrying. ' 'We talk on the phone
occasionally, but that's about the only contact we've had in recent years."
Sabrina turned her hand, which was resting beneath his, so that her palm
touched his. She slid her fingers between his and squeezed. ' 'No wonder you
can understand what I'm going through now."
His silver gaze met hers. He saw her concern and understanding reflected in
her eyes and realized that he'd shared with her feelings that he'd managed to
keep buried for years. Instead of being embarrassed, he felt a sense of relief.
She was a parent. She knew how it felt to lose a child from your daily life, to
wonder how they were doing, to know they had another life now, one that
didn't include you.
He looked down at their clasped hands and felt encouraged. They had found
a bond of sorts, an empathy. It was a start.
Determined to lighten the mood, Michael grinned and said, "I warned you,
I'm not very good at social chitchat. At the rate I'm going, we'll both be
crying in our coffee in a few minutes."She laughed, just as he had hoped she
would.
Michael casually lifted their clasped hands and took her hand between both
of his. "There's this guy I work with Jim Payton who's always pushing
me to meet friends of his wife, trying to get me to go out more."
"Can I ever relate to that! Pam, my assistant at the shop, is forever nagging
at me about the same thing."
They smiled at each other in mutual understanding. Michael was pleased to
note that Sabrina no longer seemed to be nervous with him. He felt as
though he'd achieved a major breakthrough.
"What we need to do is to convince both of them that we are perfectly
capable of taking care of ourselves."
"You have no idea how often I've tried to point that out," Sabrina responded.
"So what I was thinking was..." Michael took a deep breath and prayed he
wouldn't reveal how important her response to what he was going to say was
to him. "...maybe we could do each other a favor and spend some time
together."
He felt her stiffen, and he almost groaned. She pulled I>er hand away and
placed it in her lap. He caught a hint of wariness in her eyes when she asked,
"What did you have in mind?"
Michael heard caution, but he also heard interest, and relief swept over him.
"Oh, I thought we might get together for a meal once in a while...or a movie.
Something along those lines." He was quiet for a moment, and then he
grinned. "Take today, for example. I've got the day off, with nothing to do
that can't be postponed. Maybe we could do something to enjoy the nice
weather before it gets too cold to stay outside."
"I'm afraid I can't today," she replied with what Michael considered to be an
encouraging reluctance. "UPS delivered a large shipment of merchandise
from one of my suppliers yesterday. I'll probably spend the rest of the day
unpacking at the shop."
"Could I help? It's the least I could do after the mess I left for you to clean up
the other night."
Sabrina knew that if Michael came to the shop she wouldn't be able to
concentrate enough to get anything done. The longer she was around him
the more potent she found his charm. There was no mistaking the fact that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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