Halos Read Online Free PDF Page B

wispy brown scarecrow hair. If Steve had a blow dryer, he probably kept it under lock and key.
    No, that was unfair. She had to see things from his perspective. She worked the comb through her hair again. It would take an hour to air dry. Or freeze into witch hair—maybe she could scare up a job. At least she was clean. She dressed and went out.
    The smell of eggs and buttery toast made her stomach clutch up like a fist. She was a morning eater as a rule, though the meal at Moll’s had been much more than she usually had in the evening. She’d intended to head right out to continue her job search, but Steve turned from the stove.
    “You want some eggs?”
    She hesitated.
    “Or don’t you eat cholesterol?” He looked her over. “Tofu and sprouts more your style?”
    “I eat anything.” Beggars could not be choosers. And she knew what health food cost from stocking the shelves with her mother.
    “Wouldn’t know it to look at you.”
    “Well, I’m from Anorexia Beach. No one eats much when you live in bikinis.”
    He shot her a glance. “One egg or two?”
    “Two. My bikini was in my car.”
    He almost smiled. “Toast?”
    “Just one, thanks. Do you have any juice?”
    “In the refrigerator.”
    She searched the shelves and found a carton of orange.
    “Pour me a glass, too, will you?” Steve pointed to the cabinet that held glasses. At least he was no longer growling.
    She filled two glasses and set them on the table. He flipped her eggs. Their edges were crispy brown from all the butter in the skillet. A moment later, he slid the eggs and butter over the slice of toast. Her mouth watered. He carried both plates to the table, and she followed.
    Laying the paper napkin in her lap, Alessi said, “My mother had this grace she used to say. ‘Thank you for this food, O Lord. Make this meal a feast, if only in our minds.’”
    Steve scrutinized her. Didn’t he believe in grace?
    She took up her fork and looked down at her plate. “Of course, this is a feast already.”
    He said, “Cut the act.”
    She looked up sharply. “What act?”
    He raised his brows. “Your Pollyanna con might fool Ben and Dave, but I see through you.”
    “Oh.” She cut into her meal. Yellow egg yolk oozed over the corner of her toast, and she speared the bite and chewed.
    “You have nothing to say to that? No witty comeback, no denial?”
    She swallowed and wiped her mouth. “In the three and a half years I’ve been on my own, I’ve met two kinds of people. The kind with their minds made up, and the kind who wait and see.” She took another bite. It was delicious cooked in excessive butter like that.
    “You’re not old enough to be on your own three and a half years.”
    “Twenty-one last June. I was given a car on my eighteenth birthday and invited to hit the road.” She took a gulp of juice. It had sat a little long in the carton.
    “Why?”
    She shrugged. “Guardianship only lasts until then. Aunt Carrie and Uncle Bob had fulfilled their duty.”
    “So they kicked you out.”
    A sting touched her heart. “It wasn’t like that. I was … an embarrassment. My mother eloped with my dad. No one in the family even knew about me until both my parents had died and I had to go somewhere.” She pushed damp strands of hair behind her ear. “I was a gawky twelve-year-old. They did the best they could.”
    He was silent so long she was sure he didn’t believe her. He’d already decided she was a liar. So what? People made judgments all the time. That was their problem. They’d judged her mother for choosing her dad. It wasn’t her fault he’d drowned five years after they married. So she was a single mother trying to make ends meet. Did that mean she was a loser?
    Alessi finished her eggs in silence. “That was good. Thanks.” She stood and took her plate to the sink. She dribbled dish soap over the yolky plate and spritzed it with water, then wiped the ragged cloth over it and rinsed. She loved when things came