Here With Me (Paloma's Edge) Read Online Free PDF Page A

4
     
    Hunter
     
    MARISKA HADN’T NOTICED THAT I’d been in here before she’d arrived and sat down with some girl with short wavy hair. When her friend had left, I’d photo-copied pages from one of the reference books that I needed for my paper that was due on Monday. I’d considered going over to her, and had decided against it. Mariska looked so elegant with some loose strands framing her face, while the rest of her hair was held in a colorful metallic clip. Shoulders and arms bared in a strapless dress, Mariska could entice any man in here who liked women.
    She was a weird one. At Anderson’s car dealership, she’d had no idea that Mike had said that he wished she’d worn shorter dresses and that she was one of the prettiest women in Franklin Parks. Mariska had been the reason I’d whirled around, and, in that moment, Beth had been staring at me like she’d seen a ghost.
    “You should leave now, since the library closes soon. I know it’s a pain to drive late at night after reading, or whatever it is that you were doing here, ” she told me with a soft sigh and placed her papers in the middle of her textbook.
    I smirked at her attempt to subtlety get rid of me. “I was doing some research. Way before you came to sit with your friend at the table. And I am used to driving at all hours, but thanks for your concern.” She gave me a hesitant nod of her head, shifting her gaze around the library like she was worried that someone she knew would see her with me. While the blush she’d had on her face had been fleeting, it’d been unsettling for her—and, truthfully, it’d been unsettling for me, too. What had caused her to have that reaction?
    The librarian shot a glance at Mariska and I on her way to the information desk. “You’re welcome,” she responded acerbically. She and I rose from the table simultaneously. A frown creased her eyebrows. “Did Beth tell you that Jill, my co-worker, wants your number?”
    “Beth did tell me.” I studied her and noticed that she avoided my eyes. “I have to think about it.”
    She paused a foot away from the entrance of the library and I heard her drop her phone back into her purse, with an incredulous expression. “What’s there to think about, Hunter?” She didn’t give me the chance to reply. “Jill’s pretty, nice, and wants to go out on a date with you. I wouldn’t pass that up.”
    Shaking my head, I laughed so hard that the librarian came out of the library and motioned me to be quiet. I bowed my head to her before she went back inside and let out another chuckle. “Oh, I should be lucky,” I quipped, “That I can go out with Jill.” Scowling, she walked faster and I caught up with her in a second. “I should take any offers I can get, huh?”
    Mariska shrugged her shoulders and flicked her eyes over to me in answer. She pushed the door to the stairwell without holding it for me. She ran down the steps, her tresses flowing in the air. I was next to her when she reached the lobby of the main floor by the security guard’s post.
    “You can go home,” Mariska breathed out as she texted on her phone. “Jake’s going to walk me back to my room.”
    “I am fully aware that I can go home, but I’ll walk you first,” I insisted and her fingers stopped moving on her phone’s screen, her gaze fixed on me. “It’s not safe for you to wait outside. You don’t know when the guard will be back to escort you to your residence hall.”
    “Why are you doing this for me?” She asked me with suspicion in her voice.
    “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
    She turned her chin up. “That won’t make me like you, Hunter.” Her tone was clipped.
    I opened the door for her and told her matter-of-factly, “I could give a shit if you like me or not. If you really feel that I am a danger to you, then call Jake. I’ll be here until he gets you off my hands.”
    She looked apathetic. “This won’t get you anymore brownie points with Beth.