Kisses From Heaven Read Free Page B

sixteen?”
    “Really, I…”
    “It’s a big lag, between sixteen and thirty-six. I can’t decide which is more ridiculous—the image of you in that bar looking like a virgin in a brothel or the image of me trying to remember how to land a left hook in the face of the meathead who was hassling you. Not that I find either image amusing,” he said flatly.
    She floundered in the quick little silence that followed, flashing back to the moment when he’d come up from behind her and the trouble had dissipated like docile little waves on a quiet sea. She could pinpoint it as the moment her hands had stopped shaking. He sounded angry that she had been in the bar in the first place; she didn’t know what to make of that, but she groped rapidly to take charge of the conversation again. “I used to think that anyone who really wanted work could find it, but that certainly hasn’t been true lately.”
    “I take it you’re gainfully employed?”
    “I’m a personnel manager. Though for how long… I’d like to say I could offer you a job, but with things as they are…” She felt an involuntary surge of compassion toward him. Whatever else he was, he didn’t look like a man who enjoyed being on the unemployment line.
    “It’s perfectly all right.” The gravelly voice had a sudden cryptic undertone. She glanced at him curiously, but then a horn beeped behind her. The light had turned green.
    “I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said quietly.
    “You didn’t. But why do I keep getting the feeling that you feel safer thinking I’m on the welfare rolls?”
    His half-smile seemed mocking, and she didn’t care for his tone at all. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said crisply. “First of all, I feel perfectly safe. Obviously. You just went out of your way to help me, at a time when most people would have looked the other way. So—”
    “I’m glad,” he said swiftly.
    “Pardon?”
    “That you feel so safe.”
    She refrained from gritting her teeth. All right, she didn’t feel safe. She felt absolutely stupid driving home with a perfect stranger twice her size sitting beside her. But he didn’t have to rub her nose in it.
    “Tell me about your training in karate,” he consoled her. “It might make you feel better.”
    For an instant, she bristled with an absolute fury, but it subsided just as quickly. Totally against her will, she found herself chuckling. “Four years,” she said blandly. “A black belt, of course. I’ve won world tournaments. Not karate, judo—you know, the bigger the opponent, the harder he falls? It’s a distinct disadvantage for the enemy to be larger; you use his weight against him, you see…”
    When she was done describing her mythical judo skills, he was laughing. They both subsided into silence. “Feel better?” he asked after a time.
    For no rational reason, she did, she realized, frowning. Was it because despite herself this man intrigued her, or because she was relieved that they were going to be on her doorstep within the next five minutes and she would be rid of him?

Chapter Two
    Loren was uniquely conscious of Buck’s appraisal as she turned into the winding driveway that led to the Shephard house. At first glance, the grounds implied wealth and grace, but a closer scrutiny revealed that the paved drive had pocked and not been fixed, that the old asphalt tennis court hadn’t seen a tennis ball in a very long time and was now so overgrown it was no longer likely to. The house rose in two old-fashioned stories, an overhanging eave with pillars in front, the southern side shaded with maples and white oak in the summertime. The garage was separate, and though it was capable of holding four cars, her van wouldn’t fit under any of the low ceilings. Not that she would bring this to Buck’s attention, she thought as she drove the van up to the front door for the ease of getting Gramps out.
    But surely as he looked at the house, Buck couldn’t help noticing that the