Someday Soon Read Free Page A

Cain needed this woman’s touch. He was desperate for her gentleness. His heart, perhaps even his soul, needed this time with her.
    The music ceased, but he kept moving. It felt too damn good to have her in his arms. Linette broke away from him, and for an instant he resisted, tightening his grip until he realized what he was doing.
    Irritated with himself, he dropped his arms and stepped back. Linette Collins made him weak, and that was something he couldn’t allow.
    “Thank you,” she said softly. She didn’t need to say it had been a long time since anyone had held her. He knew. This wasn’t the kind of woman who bed-hopped. She’d deeply grieved the loss of her husband. Cain also knew she’d grieved alone, without seeking the solace of a lover.
    In one way, Cain envied her husband. There would beno one to mourn his passing. No one to stand over his cemetery plot and weep. That was the life he had chosen. The way it had to be. There was no room for gentleness in his life. Not now, not ever. Not if he planned to survive. And he did.
    For what?
    The question came at him like the pinpoint beam of a laser slicing through his mind. All at once he hadn’t a clue why he found it so damned important to stay alive. He had no immediate family. No heirs.
    As far as money went, he could retire now and it would take two lifetimes to spend what he’d accumulated in the last several years with Deliverance Company.
    By tacit agreement, he and Linette wandered back to the party, which seemed to be in full swing. Without a word, they went their separate ways. Which was for the best, Cain reasoned. Linette was a sweet thing and deserved happiness. It wasn’t likely she’d find that with him. By nipping this attraction in the bud, he was doing her a kindness.
    Cain caught sight of Nancy and Rob dancing on the other side of the room. Small clusters of groups were involved in chitchat, something at which he felt completely inept. With little more than a backward glance, he retrieved his coat and left. Later, he’d send Rob and Nancy a Christmas card and thank them for the party. He was half tempted to mention meeting Linette, then decided against it.
    In the hallway outside, waiting for the elevator, he sensed someone’s approach. It shouldn’t have surprised him to find Linette rounding the corner, but it did. She seemed startled as well, and her round eyes widened.
    “So we meet again,” he said.
    When the elevator arrived, they stepped aboard together. He pushed the button for the lobby. Stepping back, he studied the woman who stood before him. Within a matter of seconds, they would each go back to their separate lives.
    Cain experienced a sense of desperation that was foreign to him. Even worse, he felt like a world-class fool. If Mallory knew what he was thinking, or Murphy, Bailey, or Jack, either, they’d lock him up until this bout of insanity had passed. Men like Cain simply did not become involved with women like Linette Collins.
    On the ground floor, Cain watched Linette hurry across the street and climb inside her car. He stood rooted, unwilling and unable to move as her Toyota turned the corner and disappeared from sight.
    After a moment he drew in a deep breath, then headed toward the rental car he’d picked up at the airport three days earlier.
    His name was Cain, and right then he felt aptly christened. His namesake had been the son of Adam and Eve. The first child born outside the gates of paradise.

2
    Linette was busy at her shop early Saturday morning when the phone rang. Although she wasn’t due to open for another half hour, she reached for the receiver and tucked it between her ear and her shoulder as she unloaded skeins of brightly colored cashmere wool.
    “Wild and Wooly,” she said automatically.
    “I wish you hadn’t left the party so early,” Nancy mumbled on the tail end of a yawn. It was apparent she had recently rolled out of bed.
    “I had to be to the shop this morning,” Linette