Clean Lines (Cedar Tree #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Happens only every time I see her. Maybe that's the real reason I've been avoiding her more and more. Fucking burns to hit your head against the same brick wall over and over again. And make no mistake, that brown-eyed little spitfire has built one damn fine brick wall around her.
    Right now she's too preoccupied with her son to mind me, so I take a wall just inside the treatment room where she ushers him to just observe and listen. Naomi is carefully unwrapping my amateur sling, mumbling under her voice the entire time.
    "Mom. Stop fussing."
    Oh boy . Wrong thing to say, kid. I can see her back straighten as she rests her hand on the bed beside her son and leans her face in close.
    "Fussing?" The low timbre of her voice would be all sorts of sexy if it weren't intimidating as shit. "You think I'm fussing? You be glad I am keeping my cool and am in my professional mode, Fox, because let me tell you, I'd like nothing better than to break your other wrist for you right now!"
    The kid has the good sense to flinch, despite the fact that he is easily a head taller than his mom.
    "I can't believe that for weeks you wouldn’t talk to me, hardly do more than grunt actually, yet the first thing resembling a sentence I get is 'stop fussing?' This after you are brought in to the hospital by the Sheriff...the Sheriff, I tell you, with a fucked up arm when you and I both know you were supposed to be at home doing homework. Yeah, I'll stop fussing. Let me get right on that!"
    Turning around, she comes toward me and I have to fight to hide the grin that has crept up on my face. I'm only awarded a deadly glare before she slips past me into the hallway, leaving me with a miserable-looking Fox, whose head couldn't hang any lower. Save for a brief glance my way and a small smile I send him, the room stays quiet until Naomi returns with a nurse in tow.
    "Stacy will take you to X-ray, but I can tell you right now that wrist is broken and out of position. I just need to know how badly."
    "Mom, I'm—" Fox starts, but Naomi holds up her hand.
    "I don't want to hear it right now. Give me time to cool off and talk to the Sheriff. I don't want to say shit I might regret, Fox. Go with Stacy; she'll take care of you."
    Technically I should follow Fox wherever he goes but I have a feeling he won't be running off. I stick around to see Naomi deflate the moment Stacy wheels the stretcher out of the room.
    "Hey. Come on, let’s grab a quick coffee in the caf and we can talk," I offer, hating the tired and defeated look on her face.
    I honestly didn't think she would go for it, but she shrugs her shoulders and pulls herself together and leads the way over to the nurse's station to let them know where she can be found.

    My only excuse for following Joe to the cafeteria without argument is that I'm done. Stick a fork in me done. I'm about to lose my shit and I don't want to lose it all over the ER in front of my coworkers, thank you very much.
    I've been on eggshells these past few weeks since Fox got home. He's been virtually unapproachable, especially since finding out his dad is missing. Several phone calls to the Phoenix PD have not brought any relief on that front yet either. No, if I thought it was tense between us before he left for Phoenix, it's ten times worse now. I’ve tried now, on several occasions, to get an explanation out of him on what led his father to send him home. Fox has continuously shut me down, each time more insistently than the last. The only thing that’s given me some semblance of peace is that at least he hasn’t been getting into any kind of trouble outside of the house. In fact, he has mostly stayed inside and hasn't even had his old friend Miles around. That illusion is quickly shattered tonight when Joe walked him in, with his arm in a make-shift sling. Fuck me sideways .
    So here I am, sitting in the corner of the hospital caf with my hands wrapped around a hot coffee I probably shouldn't be drinking at this time of