Clallam Bay (A Fresh Start #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

up one of the cranes. “A thousand paper cranes, Sonia,” she said then dropped it back down onto the table. “One thousand paper cranes.”
    While the two bickered back and forth, I reached for another piece of paper, but Sonia was quicker. When she yanked it off the pile, it sliced me right below the site of the splinter, and I yelped.
    “Oh, shit. Sorry, Hailey.”
    “Quick! Somebody call Coll!” Alyssa yelled and then laughed. “Call Coll. Get it? ‘Cause she hurt her finger.”
    Sonia fought a smile, claiming Alyssa sounded like an idiot bird squawking, which only made Alyssa laugh harder.
    Chuckling myself, I noticed something moving in my periphery and glanced out the window to find a leggy blonde entering my neighbor’s house.
    An unexpected heat flashed through my body, and I turned back to the table to resume folding my one hundred ninety-sixth crane as if nothing was wrong.
    Because nothing was.
    *
    Over the next couple days, I did the very best I could to steer clear of my smooth-talking neighbor. Sonia was right. He was a casual kind of guy, and I just wasn’t that kind of girl. And I didn’t trust myself enough not to try and talk myself out of that fact. He was too good at what he did. Made me feel too much for him to expect so little. Though really, what he was expecting wasn’t little at all. While I wasn’t a virgin, I wasn’t necessarily an experienced lover. To me, sex was more than just sex for the sake of sex. To me, sex meant something. It was meant to be special.
    So far so good, though. Mission avoidance was working out pretty well. Until it wasn’t anymore.
    “Hey, there. Need any help?”
    Ass up in the air, I briefly closed my eyes, mentally preparing over the bags of groceries in the backseat. I really didn’t need any help, but I also didn’t want to be rude. It was my curse.
    “Uh, yeah. Sure.” Crawling out of the car, I handed Coll three of the five sacks. “Thanks.”
    “No problem.”
    He followed me inside and into the kitchen, where I had him put the bags on the counter. I did my best to avoid touching, looking at, or even talking to him while I put away the groceries. But I could still feel his eyes on me pretty much the whole time. He made it really hard to ignore him.
    “Your students draw these?”
    I looked over my shoulder at the pictures hanging on my fridge. “Uh, yeah. How’d you know I was a teacher?”
    “I have great deducting skills.” He pointed to where one of the kids wrote “To Miss Wells. The best teacher in Clam.” “I also saw you on that field trip with your class. Remember?”
    “Oh, right. How could I forget? Kaylee sure hasn’t.” I gave him a smile, and he returned it just the same.
    “Yeah, she seems like a sweet one.”
    “She is.”
    He nodded. “So you like being a teacher?”
    “Yeah, I love it,” I somewhat fibbed.
    “And you knew you always wanted to be one?”
    I shrugged. “For the most part. What about you?”
    “What about me?”
    “Did you always know you wanted to be a fisherman?” I asked.
    He smiled. “Nobody wants to be a fisherman. It’s just something you end up doing.”
    “Like you’re born into it? Kind of like a birthright?”
    “You could say that.”
    “So you don’t like it?”
    “Hell, no.”
    “Then why do it?”
    His smile looked more like a grimace this time. “Like I said. It’s just something a guy like me ends up doing.”
    A guy like him? What the hell was that supposed to mean? I wanted to ask but didn’t since he seemed a bit agitated by the subject. Turning my back instead, I gave him some privacy while I put the boxed mac ‘n cheese away. By the time I remembered my manners it was too late. When I turned to offer him a drink he cut me off.
    “Did I do something?”
    I gave him a look. “Do something?”
    “Yeah. To piss you off?”
    “No. Why?” I asked. The picture of calm but with my heart in my throat. I had no reason to be pissed at him, which he knew. Truth be