Someone Like Her Read Online Free PDF

you just want to tell me the options and directions to the bed-and-breakfast.”
    “I have to stop by the café and see how they’re doing without me,” she explained. “I own it. Friday evening is one of our busiest times. I’m usually there. I may not have time to sit down with you.”
    He didn’t look thrilled to be going anywhere with her, but finally nodded. “Fine. Should I follow you?”
    “My car’s right out front. Yours, too, I assume?”
    He nodded again, the motion a little jerky. Maybe he wasn’t as cold as he seemed. Lucy tried to imagine how disoriented he must feel by now.
    Be charitable, she reminded herself. For the hat lady’s sake, if not his.
    Lisa Enger, the night nurse, greeted them. “I’ll keep a good eye on her,” she promised.
    They rode down in the elevator silently, both staring straight ahead like two strangers pretending the other wasn’t there. Lucy was usually able to chat with just about anybody, but she was pretty sure he wouldn’t welcome conversation right now. Not until they were out in the parking lot did she speak.
    “There’s my car.”
    He nodded and pointed out his, a gray Mercedes sedan.
    “I’ll come down your row.”
    “All right.”
    Her small Ford Escort felt shabbier when the Mercedes fell in behind it, and she sympathized. She felt plain and uninteresting in his presence, too. She and her car had a lot in common.
    He parked beyond her on Olympic Avenue half a block from the café, then joined her on the sidewalk.
    “I’m sorry you had to take the day off to drive all the way to Seattle.”
    “Would you have believed a word I said if I’d just called?”
    He was silent until they reached the door. “I don’t know.”
    Well, at least he was honest.
    He held open the door for her. Slipping past him, Lucy was more aware of him than she’d let herself be to this point. She’d known he was handsome, of course, and physically imposing. That his thick, dark hair was expensively cut, his charcoal suit probably cost more than she spent on clothes in a year and that his eyes were a chilly shade of gray. She refused to be intimidated by him. But just for a second, looking at his big, capable hand gripping the door and feeling the heat of his body as she brushed him, she felt her heart skip a beat.
    He’d definitely be sexy if only he were more likeable. If he didn’t look at her as if she were the janitor who’d quit scrubbing the floor long enough to try to tell him his business.
    She grimaced. Okay, that might be her own self-esteem issues talking. He probably looked down on everyone. It was probably an advantage in corporate law, turning every potential litigant into a stuttering idiot.
    Following her into the restaurant, he glanced around, apparently unimpressed by the casual interior and the half-dozen remaining diners.
    “Your mother ate here a couple of times a week,” she told him.
    His eyebrows rose. “She had money…?”
    Lucy shook her head. “She was my guest.”
    A muscle ticked in his cheek. “Oh.”
    For a moment Lucy thought he would feel compelled to thank her. A surprisingly fierce sense of repugnance filled her. Who was he to speak for the mother he didn’t even know?
    She hastily grabbed a menu and led him to the same table where his mother always sat, right in front of the window. “I’ll be back to take your order as soon as I check in the kitchen.”
    It was easy to pretend she was immersed in some crisis and send Melody out to take his order instead. Once his food was delivered, Lucy stole surreptitious looks as he ate. She was pleased to see that he actually looked startled after the first spoonful of curried lentil soup, one of her specialties and personal favorites. He’d probably expected something out of a can.
    Melody was prepared to close up for her, so once she saw him decline dessert, Lucy went back out to reclaim him. Without comment she took his money, then said, “I’m ready to go if you’d like to follow me