Saving Alyssa (Mills & Boon Heartwarming) Read Online Free PDF Page B

one you had when you were a little boy, ’member, Daddy?”
    â€œI sure do.” How could he forget the gentle giant that had been more sibling than pet?
    Alyssa giggled. “Tell Billie his name.”
    â€œCash.” He didn’t know why, but he felt obliged to explain. “My dad named him Cash Money, because he’d been abused before we adopted him, and cost a fortune at the vet’s.”
    Noah glanced over at her, and for a moment there she looked mildly interested. Then she pointed left, and he realized the route had captured her attention, not the story.
    â€œYou just passed my street,” she said.
    Now it was Noah’s turn to groan, because it meant driving up to Hamilton Street to make a U-turn in the post office parking lot. Halfway there, traffic on Main Street slowed, then came to a grinding halt. While drivers around him raised their hands and muttered, Noah gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles ached. Trapped at a dead stop between parked cars and the constant flow of traffic heading east, he and Alyssa—and Billie, too—might as well have bull’s-eyes painted on their foreheads.
    He held his breath. Checked the side mirrors. Glanced over his shoulder, looking for what, he didn’t know. Facing front again, he peered into the rearview mirror.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Daddy? You look...scared.”
    â€œNah. Just frustrated. You know how I get in traffic.”
    He watched the concern drain from his daughter’s face, and just that fast, she was back on track.
    â€œOh, yes. Daddy hates   traffic jams,” she said to Billie. “Sometimes he even gets so mad about it that he says bad words!”
    Billie chuckled quietly, then pursed her lips and looked out the passenger window. Noah shook his head. What a weird time to miss Jillian. On second thought, it wasn’t weird at all. His wife had been so easygoing and easy to love. He didn’t need an Einstein IQ to figure out why the few women who had inspired a second glance since her death had done so: they’d been gorgeous, smart and outgoing— just like Jillian. He blamed loneliness for his knee-jerk, momentary attraction to Billie back at the shop.
    â€œDid your mom think you were going to be a boy?” Alyssa asked. “Is that why she named you Billie with an i-e? ”
    A second, then two passed before she answered. “My granddad’s name is Bill.”
    Alyssa clapped her hands. “Oh, I get it! Your mom wanted to name you after him, but when a baby girl popped out, it was too late to pick a new name!”
    â€œIt’s not my real name. It’s just what everybody calls me.”
    If she didn’t want to share the name printed on her birth certificate, that was okay with him.
    Traffic eased up, and so did Noah’s tension. They drove in silence for several blocks, until Alyssa noticed the Firehouse Museum. The next couple minutes were filled with what she remembered about its interior, where old firefighters’ uniforms and helmets, tools and dozens of model-sized fire engines had been displayed behind red velvet ropes or inside glass-shelved cases.
    â€œHave you been there, Billie?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œMaybe we could go together.”
    Noah glanced over at Billie, whose eyes were wide with surprise...and indecision.
    â€œThe museum is open on Saturday. Can we go then, Daddy, and show Billie all the neat stuff inside?”
    â€œWe’ll see.”
    Alyssa thought that over while Billie shot him a half smile that said “thanks.” For sparing her from having to say no? Or for stalling the visit until she could walk around better?
    â€œOh! Daddy?”
    Noah glanced at his daughter in the rearview mirror again.
    â€œDo you mean we should wait until Billie’s ankle is okay?”
    He nodded. “That would be a good idea.”
    Alyssa leaned forward in her seat. “How long before it’s better,