Whispers from the Dead (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 2) Read Free Page A

could I say anyway? No amount of advice I could give him would make a difference. Ruby had cheated on him with his best friend, probably because Denton was a hot commodity and all the loving feelings were gone between her and Ben. She’d been nice enough when we were young, but she had always been a party girl. Some bad personality traits didn’t disappear or change over time. They only morphed into something even worse. At this point, no words from me were going to make Ben feel any better, and really, I was the last person in the world who should be giving him advice on the subject.
    But I was tired and wanted to go home, so I lied. “I don’t know why…it was probably just a physical thing and not emotional at all. Try to get some sleep and maybe the light of day will bring you some answers.”
    Ben sighed and said, “Thanks, Serenity. I appreciate you overlooking my bad behavior. I won’t do anything like this ever again. I promise.”
    “You better not. Next time I won’t be nearly as understanding.”
    Twenty minutes later I was finally trudging back through the snow to the car. Luckily, Charlie had insurance for just such incidents. And he’d been so relieved that no one had been injured, he wasn’t going to press charges either.
    I was slipping my gloves on and almost to the car when I noticed Daniel standing beside his Jeep. Apparently, he was waiting for me. I was in the process of weighing the pros and cons of stopping to talk to the former Amish man when he pushed away from his vehicle and strode over, meeting me halfway to my cruiser.
    “Happy New Year,” he said sweetly.
    I chuckled and my breath spread out into an icy mist between us. “Not much happiness going on around here.”
    “It could be worse.”
    I risked looking directly into his eyes and said briskly, “Oh, yeah, no one’s dead this time, but Ben probably wishes he was.” I shook my head. “Dammit, I don’t understand why people do this to each other. If Ruby wanted out, why not just be up front with Ben. And then again, why would she even want out; three beautiful girls, a nice house in the suburbs, and a great guy. What’s the matter with her anyway?”
    Daniel smiled at my little tirade, looking down at his booted foot as he pushed snow around briefly before meeting my gaze once again.
    “I’d really rather be talking about us.”
    “Us?”
    “You know, you…me…us.” His white teeth flashed in a brilliant smile and I was once again completely at a loss as to why this gorgeous guy was stalking me.
    He was so tall and his shoulders were so broad that he actually provided a nice break from the wind that was gusting hard enough to catch the loose snow in the parking lot and spray it up into the air in wild sheets of bitter cold around us. I was even tempted to take another step closer and steal some of the heat that seemed to radiate off of him, but I controlled myself and stood still.
    I had a sudden vision of Daniel, minus the Carhartt jacket and the flannel shirt. I knew that underneath all those winter clothes was a well-defined chest that connected to washboard abs. I definitely didn’t want to think about his firm butt or his strong thighs so I quickly forced the image to evaporate, and squarely met his gaze. Unfortunately, looking at his wide spaced brownish-black eyes and the amused set to his jaw that was covered with a few days’ worth of black stubble wasn’t much safer. He was too damned handsome for his own good.
    “We’ve already discussed this. It’s not a good time for us to get involved.”
    His amusement quickly evaporated and he snorted. “What are you waiting for? We’re both available and we’re highly attracted to each other. We survived a harrowing experience together…what more do you need to simply go out for dinner and movie with me?”
    Maybe I was being a complete idiot. I had issues—I knew it. But letting Daniel into my life was about the scariest thing I had ever faced. A gun