Reckless (Blue Collar Boyfriends Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

might throw caution to the wind and try in earnest to make herself known. The thought of taking such a risk sent wonderful, naughty tingles through her.
    She refused to be so selfish. Someone or something had put her here to help this man, and if she did a good job, she might not have to go back to the fog. Patience . If she paid attention, maybe she’d learn what she needed to do.
    The man finished his stretches, used his discarded t-shirt to dab his neck and under his arms, and swiped a hand over the switch on the wall to cast the room into orangey darkness.
    While her eyes adjusted, the creak of floorboards and the rustle of sheets told her he’d gotten into bed. She stood by, ready to offer comfort if he had nightmares again, ready to be whatever he needed.
    While waiting, she paced the bedroom and considered female names. “Katie?” That was a popular one. But it didn’t feel right. She absently flicked at the immovable baseball glove as she went by. “Mary? No. Liz?” She shook her head and kicked off her flip-flops. The hardwood floor felt cool and smooth under her feet, but it didn’t creak for her, even though she paced exactly where the man had walked. One after another, she tried on every name she could think of, scouring her lamentable sense of self for some sort of reaction. Nothing felt right. Nothing felt like her .
    Frustrated, she sat on the edge of the bed. The comforter and mattress welcomed her with tantalizing softness. Her whole body stiffened with shock.
    How had she not realized it before? Every object in the room refused to react to her touch, except the bed. And for whatever reason, when the man was in the bed, he could feel her.
    With a rush of excitement, she remembered stroking his hair last night —the strands had moved!
    A laugh of triumph bubbled out of her as she wiggled her bottom, settling deeper into the pillowy fabric. The man stirred.
    “Haley-girl?” he muttered, but his eye s remained closed, and his breathing remained deep and steady.
    She clapped a hand over her mouth. He’d heard her!
    Everywhere else, she could only observe, invisible and inaudible. But here on the bed, she was more. She was alive. She felt her smile all the way to her toes. Finally, progress.

Chapter 4
 
    The dream started out the same as it had last night. Derek was driving the Honda north on a traffic-choked, sunny I-5 when he, uh, cut himself off, he guessed. Even though he knew he was dreaming, fear flashed through him with shocky heat as the crash unfolded. But unlike last night, he never felt the urge to scream. He wasn’t alone. He felt someone stroking his hair and tenderly smoothing sweat from his forehead.
    The possessiveness in the touch reminded him of Deid re in the early years of their marriage, but his subconscious would never conjure her up for comfort. Besides, the tenderness in the touch was nothing like Deidre. That was something new. New and intriguing.
    He tried to end the dream and wake himself up, wond ering if he would glimpse wavy auburn hair and dark blue eyes. But the dream ignored his wishes.
    He hung upside-down behind the wheel of the red Honda. Out the jagged remnants of the windshield, the sun glinted off pebbles of glass sprayed across the pale-gray concrete. His chest felt funny, like it lacked the firm padding of muscle he’d maintained since his pigskin days, and oddly swollen and sore from the cutting strap of the seatbelt. His brain throbbed from too much blood going to his head, and the drip-drip-drip sound of thick fluid hitting the upholstered ceiling told him his head wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping all that blood inside.
    His vision pixilated. Then it went black.
    When he could see again, he was no longer upside down in the Honda.
    It was dark now. Rain beat down on an intact windshield. The dream had changed, but he still sat behind the wheel of a wrecked car, a white Nissan. Another airbag lay deflated in front of him. Another seatbelt cut across