Five O’Clock Shadow Read Online Free PDF

have found someone ‘already broken in,’ whatever that meant. But if she knew Grams, there was a sexual innuendo. So a man waited until he was forty-one to marry, so what? It didn’t mean something was wrong with him. Their sex had been adult. A coupling that quickly became comfortable and secure, maybe not as romantic, or not as frequent as she had hoped for, but adequate.
    Contrary to what his name implied, Randy never thought with his penis. And hadn’t that been one of the welcome changes? One of the things that had attracted her to him? She’d had enough of great sex and no substance. Randy had been successful, wealthy if she could believe the cops, and “together” in every sense of the word. The worst thing she could have said about her boyishly handsome husband was that he had been a nerd. Pauly sighed.
    â€œOh, baby, I know this is so hard. But you’ll feel better with your own things around you.” Grams patted her knee.
    â€œWhere am I staying?”
    â€œEast wing. Private bath, view of the Sandias. Sitting room/bedroom combination. A little over seven hundred square feet with private entrance.” Grams didn’t miss a beat as she maneuvered the Lincoln through heavy end-of-the-day traffic.
    Pauly thought of reminding her grandmother that she wasn’t a potential bed and breakfast customer; she knew the rooms. But she realized with a jolt that her grandmother was thoughtfully taking Paseo del Norte and not driving her over the Alameda bridge. Pauly wasn’t quite ready for that reminder, and for all Grams’ strangeness she must have realized it.
    â€œHofer’s fixed up a real nice work area for you downstairs, off the kitchen. Set up your computer, moved in some bookcases.”
    â€œSounds great.”
    â€œYou don’t need to pretend with me. I detect a genuine lack of enthusiasm. Honey, you just have to give life a chance. Time alone is a powerful healer. Just don’t fight it. Get involved. Take your mind off of what happened. You can’t dwell on water that’s already passed under the bridge. Oops, not a very good choice of words.”
    Pauly smiled reassuringly. Then she pressed her cheek against the coldness of the car window and closed her eyes. Nobody had promised rehabilitation would be easy. And she knew her grandmother meant well. But Pauly’s life wasn’t going anywhere at the moment. Actually, for the time being it seemed stymied. She felt like she was treading water.
    â€œHere we are, sugar.” Grams turned off Coors Boulevard and nosed the Lincoln down a dirt lane that wound back towards the river. They were just passing the huge windmill that marked the beginning of Grams’ property when she slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop.
    â€œDamn. I’ve told him to keep those things corralled.”
    â€œWhat things? What did you see?” But Pauly, who had hit her head on the visor, was talking to empty space since her grandmother had hopped out and was bent over something by the side of the road.
    â€œBig one for its type. I think this is an Egyptian albino something or other.” Her grandmother held a three foot, almost transparent, and completely lethargic snake away from her fur jacket as she climbed behind the wheel.
    â€œHere, you hold him.” Grams gripped him behind his head with a tight-fist.
    â€œCan’t you put him in the backseat?” Pauly squirmed away.
    â€œOh, for pity’s sake, he won’t bite.” But Grams hopped out again, opened the rear door and tossed the snake across the dove-gray leather cushions behind the driver’s seat.
    â€œHe looks dead.” Pauly leaned over the back of her seat to keep an eye on the snake, make certain that it didn’t slither off its perch.
    â€œJust cold-stunned. Sometimes they wander out of the garage.”
    â€œYou mean there’s more?” She hated snakes but tried not to let her grandmother