Covered Bridge Charm Read Online Free PDF Page A

rolled into one.
    When the pleasure faded, however, he realized that kiss would instigate something terrible. He could feel it in his bones. Sheer terror. Nappanee beckoned stronger than ever. Snatching his cell phone, he punched in speed dial.
    “Hey, Jimmy. I’m worried about Carly.”
    “Why? That crazy old dog didn’t attack her?”
    “No, nothing like that.”
Unless he was the dog.
“She thinks Si gave her permission to recruit volunteers for the center. Only, he’s stalling until she forgets about it.”
    “Fat chance she’ll forget. All right, I’ll talk to her.”
    “Great. She’s coming to my party. Maybe you can give her a lift?” If she came on her brother’s arm, it might not cause such a stink with the family. He wondered if he should tell Jimmy about Nappanee. A guilty thought struck him. He’d kissed Carly, knowing full well he might be leaving. A more disturbing thought followed. Carly’s kiss was chaste-like. For some reason, that bothered him more than the fact she’d only kissed him to pinch a few pennies.

CHAPTER FOUR
    C arly flipped on her living-room light and almost stepped on the soft creature dashing circles around her feet. Dropping her purse on an end table, she eased back the curtain enough to watch Adam’s taillights disappear around the corner. With a sigh, she sank into the sofa’s saggy spot and touched her finger to her lips, which were still warm from his kiss. “Oh Cocoa, what on earth was I thinking?”
    Resting her forehead in her palm, she tried to reason with her anxious heart. “It meant nothing.” To him, anyway. Sure, Adam was always her brother’s
good-looking
friend. The dark brooding fellow who attracted female attention. Every brother has one, right? But she’d never been interested in him until he started instructing the retirement center’s woodworking shop, and he’d earned her admiration with his compassion for the elderly. So different from his gregarious, ambitious cousin. But Jimmy was mostly responsible for her budding friendship with Adam.
    When her brother had taken his trucking job, hauling Oregon fruits to the Midwest and picking up loads there that often kept him away from home for days at a time, he’d enlisted Adam to keep an eye on her. At first it embarrassed her to have Adam taking Jimmy’s place, keeping her woodpile stacked, hauling her bike around, and fixing her garbage disposal. But she’d grown accustomed to it—a lopsided friendship to be sure. And she’d never entertained thoughts that he was actually interested in her as a woman. Wasn’t that what he’d hinted at tonight? It came as a surprise, then, that his free birthday kiss could stir up something which long lay dormant. She should have known free was too good to be true.
    His kiss came with a cost. A sad longing settled over her. She was playing with fire, and she’d surely get burned if she wasn’t careful how she handled this situation in the days to come.
    Thump! Thump!
    Uh, oh.
“Cocoa, no-no,” she warned.
    Again,
Thump! Thump!
    Two thumps too many, too late. The chocolate-and-white rabbit lunged at her legs and started digging furiously on her stockings. “Careful, sweet. I know you need attention. You’re lonely, too.” She reached and gently disengaged its claws from the ragged mess on her calf. Lowering herself to the floor and leaning her back against the couch, she rubbed Cocoa’s head until the offended rabbit settled down and became a fat, furry puddle. Adam’s snide remark leapt to mind,
“By the way, you’ve got a gigantic tear in your stocking.”
    Laughter bubbled up. Following that, she remembered Martha’s fingernail getting caught in her stocking and the older woman’s stern reprimand about buying stockings on sale. Bits of the irrational conversation that had taken place inside the elevator soon had her laughing hysterically. It felt good to release the tension from the whole elevator episode. It must have affected her more than