How to Knit a Love Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

Scarier.
    She could just hold it all night.
    Abigail suddenly understood the allure of chamber pots.
    She took a deep breath and willed her body to relax. This was better. The floor was still as hard as before but she tried to allow herself to sink into it. Everything would be okay. It would all look better in the morning.
    A huge whomp jolted her upright. She stifled a stream and reached for the flashlight. The noise was directly over her head, and it was followed by another whomp seconds later.
    Was that… flapping?
    Damn, damn, damn. Her fingers fumbled to find the small button that would light the flashlight. Her breath seemed to be stuck in her throat—she could barely get air around the fear she couldn’t swallow.
    Abigail directed the beam at the ceiling.
    Something large. With wings.
    The scream she’d been holding back tore from her throat. As she followed it with the beam of light, the bat flapped around the peaked ceiling.
    A bat! A bat , probably rabid. Above her.
    Without even thinking about what she was doing, Abigail scrambled out from the sleeping bag, shoved her feet into her slippers and ran down the stairs, pushed through the boxes, and stood outside.
    She couldn’t breathe. In the cold air, it was necessary to concentrate on the very act of breathing in, then breathing out. She bent forward at the waist.
    She couldn’t sleep in there. She just couldn’t.
    Tears filled her eyes, and she dashed them away with the back of her fist. So stupid. She’d already failed. Maybe she’d just buy a truck-bed cover and sleep in the back until the cottage was fixed up.
    If it ever got fixed up.
    She straightened and looked across the yard at Cade’s house.
    In the upper right corner, on the second floor, backlit against a yellow glow in the window, Cade stood watching her.
    Just like he’d watched her this afternoon from the ridge, on his horse.
    God, could he see that she was crying from there? Damn him.
    She gave a fake smile and a wave, and went back into the cottage. Her purse. She needed just her purse and the sleeping bag. She got both, running as fast as she could through the mess, hearing things scurry as she ran. In the cupola room, she didn’t look up, didn’t swing her flashlight beam to the ceiling.
    She peeked out the window before she exited the cottage. The coast seemed clear—the light in the room she had just seen him in was off.
    Abigail raced through the cold night air to her truck. She unlocked it and threw herself inside. She cursed herself for letting her mind wander to the scene in Cujo where the people were in the car, hiding from the dog.
    If a rabid dog flung its body at the side of her truck right now, she didn’t think she’d be much more scared than she already was.
    This was going to be just fine. Sure, it was a pickup, so the bucket seats didn’t recline much, and she’d have to sleep basically sitting up. But she could do that. She wrestled her body into the sleeping bag, not even bothering to remove her slippers. She used the sweater she’d been wearing earlier as a pillow, propping her head against the glass driver’s-side window.
    She sighed and closed her eyes. Not a great start.
    Moments passed. She felt her body relax. So sleepy. It was going to be okay.
    Then something pounded on the glass her head was resting on.
    Rabid dog! Cujo! Abigail screamed like she had when she saw the bat, and she couldn’t stop the scream, even when she opened her eyes and saw it was just Cade, standing at the window, his hand drawn back from knocking on the glass. Abigail used every ounce of her willpower to stop screaming. She felt tears spring to her eyes. This wasn’t fair. She was done being scared.
    She swung the door of the truck open, and twisted her body so that she faced him, still in her mummy-sleeping bag. She was an idiot.
    Cade’s eyes were wide. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know I would scare you like that. You’ve only been out here a few minutes, I didn’t think