My Sunshine Read Free

it.
    “Is she staying with you?”
    John shook his head. “Chloe just brought me here. My car broke down on the interstate. I need a room for the night.”
    “Sure,” the old man grunted. He pulled a key from the pegboard behind him. “Cash or credit?”
    John took a credit card out of his wallet. “Credit.”
    The man took some information from John and processed his credit card. Finally after several minutes, he handed John the key. “Room 210. Check out is at eleven-thirty. No smoking, no drugs, no parties.”
    “No problem,” John mumbled as he took the key.
    Chloe followed John out of the office. She turned and looked back at the old man. He had the phone to his ear. She hadn’t heard it ring, and she knew he was calling his wife, who would call her sister, who would call her cousin, the biggest gossip in the town. By morning everyone in Canton would know that she had checked into the motel with a stranger from out-of-town. And, true or not, most of them would believe it.
    She sighed, and John turned around. He saw the sad expression on her face. He wanted to ask what was on her mind and what he could do to make it better, but he didn’t.
    “Room 210 ’’, he said, “let’s go check it out.”
    She followed him to the room. He unlocked the door and swung it open. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean, and it had everything John would need for the night. He had stayed in many, many hotels in his career and this definitely wasn’t the worst on the list.
    “I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” she said. “Have a good night.”
    “Wait!” Her goodbye triggered something inside him. He didn’t want her to leave. “Why don’t you stay for a while,” he suggested. He really wanted her to stay. He had a reputation of being a playboy and most of the women he encountered knew it. It was easy for him to find a date, easy for him to get laid, but he wasn’t thinking about bedding Chloe. He wanted to talk to her. There was something about her that intrigued him.
    Chloe was surprised by his offer. She wanted to stay. She was unbelievably attracted to him. She hadn’t felt a twinge of attraction toward anyone in years, and he was someone unlike anyone she had ever met before. She wanted to stay and talk to him all night, and do whatever else might come along. After all, he would be out of her life again in less than twenty-four hours.
    What could it possibly hurt?
    She glanced down at her uniform. She knew she had to smell like the restaurant. “Let me go home and get a shower.
    I’ll be back in a half an hour. Is that okay? Will you still be up?”
    “If you’re coming back, I’ll wait,” he said. A thrill zipped through her and she practically ran back to her car.
    Daniel had already gone to bed when she got home to the apartment above his garage that she shared with him. She went to her room and stripped off her clothes, replacing them with a robe. She hurried into the bathroom. She showered, shaved her legs and washed her hair in record time. Once back in her room, she dressed in a pair of short denim shorts and an orange tank top. She replaced her glasses with contacts and ran a comb through her still-wet hair. She slipped her feet into a pair of sandals and left her room.
    Daniel was standing in the kitchen, holding a glass of milk.
    “Where on earth are you going at this time of night?”
    “Justin called and wanted me to meet him and Christy at the campground. There’s a lot of people up there. I thought I would go check it out.” She had thought of that lie as she was driving home. It was completely believable. Meeting her best friend, Justin, and his girlfriend at the campground was something she did on a regular basis.
    “Okay,” Daniel said, buying her story. “Have fun. No
    drinking.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” Chloe mumbled as she left the apartment.
    Twenty-eight minutes after leaving him, she was knocking on the door to John’s motel room.
    He swung open the door even before she had