Apt [Running to Love 6] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read Free Page B

her folks and tell them myself. It’ll be hard, but it’s gotta be done because you just don’t walk out on folks who’ve been good to you.”
    “And if she still loves you?”
    “It isn’t love, but I’ll let her down easy, face-to-face. It’s something I need to do.”
    Dr. Massey didn’t respond, just raised one eyebrow ever so slightly. It was unsettling, but Dave made his escape. He just hoped the good doctor didn’t take it out on his ass later.
     
    * * * *
     
    Fiona Lambert stared up at the large brick building and checked the address once again against the return address on the envelope in her hand, although she had it memorized, emblazoned on her brain. This was it. It looked more like a warehouse, but maybe it was like a treatment center or something. Dave had been much better before he snuck out like a thief in the night, but he still had some healing to do. He thought she wasn’t aware of how troubled he was and how that war impacted him, but she knew. Fiona thought he was mending because of what they shared and figured he’d run away because of that very thing. It had scared him. Idiot . She knew he loved her and probably thought to spare her because he was still a mess sometimes. The fool . Fiona believed she knew the man behind the behavior, and she certainly knew her own heart. She’d been devastated to find him gone, and if he hadn’t written when he did, she’d thought she might’ve gone insane with worry and fear. His pathetic note had satisfied her parents but not her. She had finished her secretarial training, so there was nothing stopping her from finding a job in Tulsa. Her first impulse was to track Dave down as soon as she arrived, but with her usual attention to detail, she’d found a small apartment for herself first. She started work at the medical supply company next week, and now that she had a base, she could find him and convince him to come back to her.
    Fiona knew that Dave might not be happy that she had moved to Tulsa, nor pleased that she’d found him, if indeed he was still here. He might still be trying to keep her at arm’s length, and he got kind of bossy sometimes. But she couldn’t stay back in Lansdown, not without him, and it was time she left home and made it on her own anyway. At twenty-three she was a veritable spinster in her small town because she didn’t want anyone other than Dave. He thought he knew her, thought she was a sweet, gentle, obedient girl, and indeed she was, for the most part. But Fiona had a will of iron when she believed in something, had a cause, and she didn’t give up easily. She squared her shoulders and walked up the broad steps. She grasped the enormous door knocker, allowing it to crash down on the wooden panels. It sounded like one of those death knells she’d read about. Her superstitious side suggested she flee, but Fiona was made of sterner stuff.
    “Yes?” A handsome blond man looked down his nose at her. It would have been effective if he hadn’t seemed to be hiding his lower body behind the door.
    “I’m looking for Dave Cutticio. My name is Fiona Lambert.”
    Green eyes narrowed and looked her over with intensity and something else. Fiona didn’t want to know what the something else was, but it gave her the shivers. In a good way. She held onto her manners and smiled politely, avoiding his stare.
    “Is he here?”
    “Not at the moment.” The man hesitated and then smiled, and all of Fiona’s reservations melted away. She was a fair judge of character despite the fact she was small-town, and while his initial appraisal had been a tad, well, a tad something, he’d figured something out. Maybe Dave had talked about her.
    “I’m Alistair Frayne. I’m Dave’s brother-in-law and his, uh, boss, you could say. Come in.”
    Fiona took his hand, and as he shook it, he used the contact to ease her inside a really nice meeting room. Maybe they did group counseling or something of the like here. But Alistair Frayne