Parker Read Online Free PDF Page A

just moved here from Kentucky, but I’m not
originally from there. In fact, I was born on a ranch not far from
here. The Crandalls? They are family. I bought this place from my
distant cousins. And since we have all night, I might as well start
at the beginning….”

Chapter Four
     
    Saturday morning
     
    Parker ambled across his porch, opened the
back door, and slowly moved into his kitchen—all the while hoping
his siblings were either still asleep or crashing at Liz’s
house.
    But hell no.
    “Well, if you don’t look like someone rode
you hard and put you up wet.”
    I wish. The way things had been
lately, he could use a sexual diversion.
    He glanced to Mercer, standing by the counter
with coffee pot in hand, and figured what she said was pretty much
a true statement. He had to look rough.
    The night was long, although pleasant.
Turned out Reba Morris was a very nice woman, with an interesting
life. He’d heard all about it up until about five o’clock this
morning when apparently, he’d nodded off sitting straight up in the
chair. He jerked awake to find Reba sleeping too and then quietly
left the room to call Mike. The doctor assured Parker that Reba was
probably just fine, and that he had done all of the right things,
but it wouldn’t hurt for her to follow up with her physician as
soon as possible.
    That was a relief.
    Parker didn’t wake her. He left a note on the
kitchen table with the instructions from Mike, and then at the last
second, jotted his phone number down and asked her to call him
later—just to let him know how she was doing.
    Maybe someday he’d get to hear the rest of
her life story.
    Where had she ended it? Oh, right. At
her wedding.
    Wedding. Interesting.
    He would’ve liked to hear more about
that.
    “Coffee is hot, Parker. Want a cup?”
    He nodded and took off his hat, setting it in
on the shelf beside the door. He ruffled his hair a bit and ran his
hands over his face—a feeble attempt at waking himself up—and then
joined them at the table. Mercer put a large mug of steaming black
coffee in front of him. He glanced up to his sister. “You’re an
angel.”
    She grinned and said, “You look like the
devil.”
    “I feel like hell.”
    “How’s Reba?”
    “She’ll be okay.”
    “I hope so because I like her a lot.”
    He agreed. He liked her too, for what it was
worth. “She was sleeping when I left.”
    Mercer’s eyebrows arched. “Should she do
that? I mean, with a head injury…”
    He waved her off. “It’s okay. I called Mike
Attaway. He said she’ll be fine, but she probably needs to
follow-up with her doctor. She’ll have a black eye and should
probably get that arm looked at sometime today. Shit.”
    “What?” Callie dished some egg casserole onto
a plate and pushed it, and a fork, toward him. “Eat up. Reba
actually made this. And what’s wrong?”
    Reba made it? When did that happen?
    Mercer turned to replace the carafe. “We’re
almost out. Should I make another pot?” A chorus of yesses went up
around the table. She fiddled with the filter and old grounds and
then continued, “She’s single, you know, from what I understand.
And man, she sure knows her way around a kitchen. Did you see what
she did in here before she left yesterday?”
    Parker was still stuck on the first of
Mercer’s words. She’s single, you know… Yes, somehow he
needed to learn the rest of the Reba Morris story. What had
happened between wedding and single? It was going to nag at him,
and he really didn’t want it to. He brought the coffee to his lips
and sipped. “So how come you know so much, Mercer.”
    She shrugged. “She’s new. People ask
questions and talk.”
    Hmm. “You women…” He glanced off for a
second, thinking, and then asked, “So what do they say about
her?”
    Callie laughed. “I think big Brother has a
crush on our new neighbor.”
    Parker shot her a look. “I’m thirty-five,
Callie. I don’t have crushes.”
    “But you like her,” she