Her Dear and Loving Husband Read Online Free PDF Page A

tendencies?” he asked. 
    “I don’t.”
    “No matter how much they want to change? No matter how resolved they are? Are we victims of some predetermined destiny? I knew some people who thought that way once. They weren’t a pleasant group to live around.”
    “I think if you’re mean you’re mean and if you’re not you’re not.”  
     “You’ve been watching too many horror movies,” Jeremy said. He didn’t try to hide his disdain. He closed his textbook and shut down his notebook computer. He looked at the time, at the door, at the window. Then he began texting on his cell phone. James didn’t stop him.
    “If I knew a hot vampire like Edward or Bill I’d give them as much of my blood as they wanted,” Trisha said. She giggled, and so did the girls sitting next to her. “They could bite me anytime.”
    James looked at the clock on the wall. “Time’s up,” he said. “See you next week.”
    As the others filtered single file from the classroom, Levon turned to James. “No hard feelings, Doctor Wentworth?”
    “Of course not, Levon.”
    Levon smiled, a flash of white brilliance, and he extended his hand. James stepped behind the instructor’s desk, sliding his hands into the pockets of his khaki trousers.
    “I’m sorry,” James said. “I have a cold and I don’t want you to get sick. You have a big game tomorrow night.”
    Levon pointed out his folded arm instead. “All right, elbow bump.”
    James laughed, and they touched elbows.
    “Good luck tomorrow night,” James said.
    “You coming to the game?”
    “I’d love to but I can’t. Midterms coming up, you know. Maybe next time.”
    “You need to get out more. I never see you out with the other professors, and I never see you around town. You never go to the games. Are you married?”
    James was startled by the suddenness of the question, and he tried to set his expression. He didn’t want Levon to see how shocked he was, but the look on Levon’s face told him he had not been quick enough.
    “I didn’t mean anything by it,” Levon said. “I was just wondering if you had anyone waiting for you at home.”
    “Not anymore.” 
    “Too bad. You’re a youngish guy, what, about fifty?”
    James shook his head. “You young people think everyone older than you is fifty. I’m thirty, Levon.”
    “All right, thirty, even better. From the way the girls giggle about you, you must be okay. They all have a crush on you.”
    “They do not.”
    “They do.” Levon threw his backpack over one shoulder. “You should find a friend before it’s too late, Doctor Wentworth, you know, a nice lady. That’s all I’m saying.”
    James sat on the edge of a student desk, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched the young man in front of him.
    “You’re right,” James said, laughing, like the fact that he kept so much to himself was the biggest joke in the world. “Not about finding a nice lady. I did that once. I mean about getting to a game. I’ll come soon. I promise.”
    Levon seemed satisfied with that answer. As Levon left the classroom, James saw Timothy loitering outside. By the time James stepped over to talk to him, Timothy had disappeared. James looked down the hallway and heard the boy’s quick-time steps crossing the pavement of College Drive. He knew he would have to talk to Timothy about that, again, soon. It didn’t help anything to have him disappearing like a slight-of-hand trick. James went back into the classroom, packed up his book bag, and left campus, not as quickly as Timothy, but fast enough. It had been a long night.

CHAPTER 4
     
    Sarah couldn’t stop thinking about the house she saw when Jennifer drove her home.  It didn’t make sense that it should look familiar when it was located on a street she had never been down in a city where she was new, but she was certain it was the one she had seen in her dreams. Since the psychic reading two nights before she felt like she had restless leg syndrome, like