Everybody Knows (Sunnyside #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

so... so....”
    He didn’t think “wonderful” was the word she was
searching for. When she didn’t finish the sentence, he had to ask. “I’m so...
what?”
    “Never mind. You said you grew up on a farm?”
    Clearly, she didn’t intend to share her previous
thought which made him all the more curious. “It was my grandparents’ farm, but
I spent a lot of time there. The rest of my family’s there now celebrating my
dad’s sixtieth birthday. I came back to set Malcolm’s leg this afternoon, or
I’d still be with them.”
    “So, aside from the famous bicycle/rose garden
incident, what other tales from the dark side will the town be clamoring to
share about you?”
    Too many to think about—good, bad and ugly—but
he’d let her uncover the truly bad and ugly ones on her own. The gory details
of how he’d killed his best friend when he was seventeen would make great
gossip in the grocery store one day. “Well, there was an unfortunate occasion
in a pumpkin costume when I was six. But the less said about that the better.”
    She chuckled, and he moved on. “I know my misspent
youth must be fascinating, but I need to call my sister. Are you willing to
stay at her place?” He hesitated. “It might not be what you’re used to.”
    She blinked up at him. “How do you know what I’m
used to?”
    “You lived in Chicago.” He’d gone to Northwestern
as an undergrad. Normal life for him in those years had been about scrimping
and saving, but he couldn’t see the vision in front of him doing the same.
    “Hah,” she said. “On a librarian’s salary? In case
you don’t know how much that is, it’s a pittance. Especially compared to, say,
oh, I don’t know, a doctor?”
    “Hah,” he said right back at her, although he saw
her point. Just as it was a stereotype to think all doctors were rich, he knew
there were plenty of poor people in Chicago. She didn’t look like one of them
though. Everything about her shouted dollar signs and lots of them. “You don’t
know the salary a small-town doctor pulls down. I mostly get paid in produce.”
    “Ah, the barter system.” She exaggerated a
grimace. “That’s positively medieval. Does your W2 list a hundred thousand
dollars, forty goats, six sides of beef, two chickens, eight bushels of corn,
and four bunches of radishes?”
    She almost got him to chuckle with that one, but
he frowned instead. “God, no. A hundred thousand dollars would be way out of
the ball park, and the number of farm animals sadly under-reported.” He waited
for her smile before looking her up and down and then glancing at her expensive
car. “I’m just a poor farm boy, not used to much. Salaries and occupations
aside, everything about you presents itself as ex-pen-sive.”
    “Is that right?” Her eyes flashed, and he expected
excuses or explanations, but she just shook her head. “Your truck probably cost
as much as my car.”
    That much was true, but he shook his head right
back. “Loaner.”
    She jerked her chin in the direction of the
Infiniti. “Gift.”
    Who in hell could afford to give a present like
that?
    Harper tapped the toe of her high-priced
ankle-breaker, reminding him he needed to get a move on. “As long as there’s
running water and a bed at your sister’s, I’ll manage.”
    “Okay. After I call Rachel, I’ll help you get what
you need from your car.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket.
    “Won’t I need my car?”
    “Planning on going someplace?”
    “I thought someone—er, you were going to show me
the library, and I need to get something to eat.”
    “We’ll walk.” He dropped his gaze to the sandals
that didn’t resemble anything humans should wear for getting from one place to
another. “Or we can take my truck.”
    Lifting the trunk of her car, she pulled out an overnight
bag. Then, holy shit, she exposed an even greater expanse of leg when she had
moved around and leaned into the front passenger seat to grab a large leather
satchel.