Finding Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

familiar and competent, she was also very cautious about letting her take over. She’d be more careful this time. She had to be.
    “Here you go, love.” The bartender was a large woman with smiling eyes and cropped salt-and-pepper hair who’d begun calling Sarah by name when she came in. She placed a shot glass upside down in front of Sarah and gestured toward the other end of the bar with her chin. “That lovely blonde down there’d like to buy you a drink.”
    “Would she now?” Sarah drained her beer. “I think I’ll let her. Bombay and tonic. With a lime, please.”
    “Coming right up.”
    Sarah had been in New Zealand for more than a month and this wasn’t the Þ rst drink somebody had sent her way at this bar.
    It was, however, the Þ rst time she considered the fact that it was a Friday night and maybe spending it in the company of a beautiful blonde would be preferable to spending it alone. The bartender slid the drink in front of her and Sarah wrapped her hand around the cool moistness of the glass. She held it up in a salute to the blonde. Then she gestured with her eyes to the empty stool next to her. The blonde smiled, picked up her purse, and headed in Sarah’s direction.
    Yes, a little company might be just what the doctor ordered.
    • 36 •
    FINDING HOME

CHAPTER FOUR
    Natalie banged the back door open much more savagely than necessary, taking her anger and frustrations out on the innocent building rather than on her coworkers or customers, much to her own relief. She knew the drill, had been working in retail long enough to understand that no matter what her mood might be, if she gave out rudeness, she’d get rudeness back in spades. So she swallowed her foul disposition until she got a chance to let it loose on something that could take it with no hurt feelings…in this case, the door.
    She needed to calm down. She took a couple of deep, cleansing breaths, trying to remind herself that people were often assholes and she couldn’t let the assholes get the better of her, even if they were completely and unnecessarily rude.
    Hauling the wheeled garbage cans across the back lot to the Dumpster none too gently, she muttered angry words under her breath, wishing she hadn’t let the guy get to her. Am I PMSing?
    she wondered, thinking that would explain why a customer who claimed she’d screwed up his order completely had sent her so dangerously close to the verge of tears. She inhaled again, willing herself to calm down and let it go.
    A rustling behind the Dumpster stopped Natalie dead in her tracks. Garbage pick-up was due this morning, and between Valenti’s and the pizza joint next door, the Dumpster was Þ lled to
    • 37 •
    GEORGIA BEERS
    overß owing. Despite being in a well-populated area of the city, it wasn’t unheard of to have a raccoon or a possum rooting around in your garbage. Even a skunk was a possibility.
    Not wanting to worry the Valentis and bring them out in the chilly almost-spring air but uncertain exactly what to do, Natalie stood there, one hand on the edge of a garbage can, one hand pressed Þ rmly to her chest, as if making sure her heart wouldn’t beat itself clean out of her body. Okay, moron, do something. Be that tough dyke who was going to knock another person senseless just a minute ago. She squinted, trying to see what was making the noise. What if it was a raccoon? What exactly did she think she was going to do about it? Ask it nicely to be on its merry way? She rolled her eyes at herself as the rustling continued, but nothing appeared.
    “Psst!” She made the sound loudly, feeling like an idiot.
    Under her breath, she mumbled, “Oh, good. Hiss at it, whatever it is. That’ll help. Maybe it’ll think you have a secret and come out to see what it is.”
    The rustling stopped and both Natalie and the rustler remained still and silent for what seemed like hours. Then the sound began again and Natalie repeated her hiss.
    “Psst!”
    Unaware of the fact