Kisses From Heaven Read Online Free PDF Page A

assured her, “but when I care about the woman I’m with, I’d rather she didn’t attract other male attention—at least deliberately. I’d rather have her to myself. But then maybe this David is nothing important to you.”
    Angela suddenly looked stricken, a measure of how important David actually was to her, and she glanced down at the blouse and pants again. “Why, I wouldn’t… You don’t think he’d suspect I was trying to come on to someone else, do you?” she asked Buck seriously.
    “I don’t believe you’re having this conversation with a total stranger,” Loren said helplessly.
    “But that’s just the point,” Angela said defensively, turning again to Buck. “So you really think…”
    Two changes of clothes later, Loren was astonished to see her sister leave in a plain navy blue sweater that dated two years back and actually had a measure of breathing space in it. David Brown was let in, greeted and the pair left as Loren and Buck were finishing dinner.
    “I hope the young man has honorable intentions,” Buck said dryly as the car lights splashed across the kitchen window and then disappeared. It was, to Loren’s surprise, already dark.
    “By some miracle,” Loren said wryly, “David’s a winner. His dad owns a hardware store, and David’s taking a year of business courses at a local college before joining him. Not to say that I’m naive enough to think David’s devotion to my sister is based on an appreciation of her mental abilities. Angela’s most eloquent communications tend to be, shall we say, nonverbal?”
    Buck nodded, leaning back comfortably with one of his feet cocked on the rung of a chair, sipping coffee. “And you? Are you equally eloquent with your…anatomy?”
    “No, of course n—” The answer came out so easily that she blinked. “Now you just listen here!”
    “You’re certainly safe as church this evening then,” he interrupted her blandly. There was a sea of humor in his narrowed green eyes as she sputtered for the appropriate put-down. “You’re old enough,” he said dryly, “and you’ve got the looks. Or is that what terminated that short-term marriage of yours?”
    “How on earth did you even know I was—”
    “Gramps,” he said helpfully. “On that long ramble between the bar booth and the back of the van.”
    “For your information, Mr. Busybody, seven years ago I separated from my husband of six months because he didn’t like to work and I did, and the only thing that held us together that long was our sex life. Is there anything else you wanted to know?” Loren snapped furiously.
    “Actually…”
    “Actually, I think it’s past time you were headed home.”
    “ Actually, I think it’s time you checked on your grandfather.”
    When exactly had that craggy half-smile altered to something else? Suddenly, there was naked appraisal in his eyes when she stood up, as if he were just now letting her know that he had noticed every detail of the powder-blue outfit. And suddenly he had grooves on his forehead she hadn’t noticed before, an iron chin of assurance… Telling this man he had a lot of nerve would be like bouncing a marshmallow off a steel wall. She felt an unfamiliar instinct of danger, suddenly aware not only that he had managed to find out almost everything about her in a very short time, but that she was not entirely immune to his humor, to his lazy way of taking charge, to the…look of him. “Listen,” she said firmly, “I am going to check on my grandfather, but when I come back—”
    “I’ll call the taxi as soon as you return,” he assured her, and she stared at him momentarily before stalking out of the room and heading upstairs.
    Her fingers massaged an ache at the back of her neck as she walked. This Black Friday was beginning to take its toll on her. She leaned against the doorway to her grandfather’s room, the hall light casting a soft halo on his sleeping shadow. Exhaustion hit her at once, like the bullet