Midnight Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

while she was at it.
    He’d seen it, as inevitable as geometry. Which was why he broke land speed records getting to her and breaking her fall.
    Joe knew how to make his face a mask. Nobody saw what he didn’t want them to see and he knew he wasn’t betraying the absolute panic he’d felt at the thought of Isabel cracking her head open. He’d watched one helmetless marine die when he fell and cracked his head on a rock.
    Isabel, dead. Fuck. Not going to happen, not while he was around.
    She was pale but she sketched a smile. “That puppy needs some manners.”
    “She’d better hurry up and teach him some because Freddy’s going to grow up to be a big dog,” Joe said sternly.
    He had no patience for those who acquired animals they couldn’t handle. That woman could have cost Isabel a bad concussion, or worse.
    “So,” he said, holding her elbow. He’d rather put his arm around her waist, but one way or another, he was going to be touching her. Isabel looked pale and shocky. She was
not
going to fall. “Since I’m here, do you want to walk around the park or are you ready to go back?”
    “Back,” Isabel said immediately. She peered up at him, frowning. “How did you happen to be here at exactly the right time? Are you Superman or The Flash?”
    “I didn’t go for my run and I wanted some exercise. I like this park and I just happened to see you and see that dog come running at you,” Joe lied cheerfully.
    Because the truth would have sounded too creepy.
You looked unsteady on your feet so I followed you
,
and made sure you couldn’t see me.
    “Well, you showed up just in time, like a superhero.” She smiled at him. Her smiles were rare and they lit up her face. Joe should have felt bad about lying to her, but he didn’t. She wouldn’t have been smiling at him if he’d told her the truth.
    “Ma’am?” He stuck out his elbow at an exaggerated angle and she put her arm through his. “May ah have the honah of accompanyin’ you home?” He laid on a thick ole-timey Southern accent. Rhett Butler offering Scarlett his arm.
    “Why, sir.” She batted her eyelashes extravagantly. “It would be mah pleasure.”
    He was playacting but...whoa. It wasn’t hard to imagine her in some big ball gown, curtsying. She had such an old-fashioned beauty to her, made up of fine features, huge eyes with eyelashes that were like fans and perfect ivory skin. Those eyelashes of hers were so long they could create a breeze when she fluttered them.
    She frowned, the playacting completely dropped. “Joe?”
    Whoa. He’d been standing there staring at her like a total moron. The playacting had allowed him to study her face. He rarely looked at her for long because he didn’t want to come across as creepy because really? He knew he could stare at her for hours and wouldn’t that scare her away.
    “Raht here, ma’am.” He nodded and tipped an imaginary top hat. “Okay, let’s go.”
    They walked back slowly, because Isabel wasn’t a fast walker and because he wanted to stretch out their time together. And it was no hardship walking slowly. Not with Isabel by his side.
    She was watching the ground. Yeah, he recognized that. He’d spent two months walking carefully, watching every step. But he knew exactly why he had to watch his feet for months after being able to finally get out of bed.
    He’d been blown up. He’d died and come back. He’d been really messed up there.
    Why was she watching the ground so assiduously? Why was her balance so off? Why did she have to walk so slowly?
    What the hell happened to you?
    The words were there, on the tip of his tongue. She’d been wounded, hurt in some way. That was clear. But how? He’d caught that one glimpse of a scar on her forearm and that was it. It was a nasty one but not life threatening. She always wore long-sleeved sweats in the house and outdoors she was dressed for cold weather so basically he had her face and hands to judge by and they