Johnny (Connelly Cousins #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

worry if he ended up getting totally, unabashedly shit-faced. He was long overdue.
    His eyes brightened at the fully-stocked fridge. He hadn’t even realized he was hungry, but seeing all of his favorite deli meats reminded him that he hadn’t had anything since that burger after work. And she’d even sliced up tomato and lettuce!
    Johnny pulled out all of the ingredients for a super-sized Dagwood sandwich and laid them out on the counter. Grabbing the universal remote, he flicked off the soft rock station. He’d never been a fan of the stuff to begin with, and in his current funk, the sweetly romantic lyrics were pissing him off. He switched to some teeth-rattling hard rock. Yeah, that was more like it.
    Head bobbing along with the bass, Johnny finished one beer and started another while he munched on his sandwich and looked around. Lina had done a nice job cleaning up the place. For a couple of years after their parents’ untimely deaths, it had sat, unused. Michael was off playing Army for real and Lina had been away. Johnny hadn’t been able to bring himself up here alone.
    Too many memories. They’d been pretty young when their father built this place, but Johnny clearly remembered being out there with Michael and his dad, “helping” with kid-sized tools from his junior tool belt. He smiled at that. The tool belt had been a Christmas gift. Even then, he had loved working with his hands.
    It still hurt to think that he’d never work beside his father again, but at least he was able to remember some happy times now, too.
    Johnny shook his head and put his plate in the sink. He didn’t need nostalgia piled onto his heap of angst, not tonight. Maybe it had been a mistake coming up here alone, with nothing to counter his sudden wave of sentimentality. Then again, he sure as hell didn’t want anyone else to witness it.
    What he really needed was a few more beers, a good long soak in the hot tub, and ten or twelve hours of uninterrupted, dreamless sleep. Johnny grabbed the rest of the six pack, turned off the lights, and headed toward the back.

Chapter Five
 
    T he music changed.
    Stacey’s eyes popped open. She’d been dozing on and off to the soft rock station, her body relaxed, her mind subconsciously turning the lyrics of each song into a story. At some point, the easy love ballads had switched to pounding bass and screaming guitars.
    Why had the music changed? And when?
    Now alert, Stacey strained her ears to hear over the music. It was faint, but it definitely sounded as if someone was moving around out there. Her heart began to pound, brutally aware that she was buck naked and immersed in a hot tub – not exactly the best position to be in for receiving unexpected company.
    Unexpected was the operative word. Her imagination began to run wild as she lifted herself to the edge of the tub. What if it wasn’t company? What if someone had broken in?
    Stacey turned off the jets and listened intently. The clink of a bottle, the clank of a dish. Someone was in the kitchen, but not trashing the place. Her worries eased down just a notch. It was probably just Lina coming to check on her, she thought, reaching for the towel hanging from the arm of her wheelchair. Besides, an intruder would never have made it past the state of the art security system Lina had shown her...
    Oh, crap . She had remembered to activate that after Lina and Kyle had left, hadn’t she? She’d thought about it, but she couldn’t remember actually doing so. She’d been so eager to start working on the opening scene of her book and had been distracted.
    The fluffy white towel wasn’t cooperating. She tugged again; it was stuck. With her panic rising at the fear of being caught au naturel , Stacey gave it a desperate, hard pull. The towel came loose, but the brake lever on her chair disengaged in the process. Stacey watched in horror as her chair began to roll away. She lunged for it, but it was too late. Her wet bottom slid along the