Sparks the Matchmaker (Aaron Sparks Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

for being in my car, Bomber.”
    “You scream like a little girl when you’re startled,” Sparks said. “What are you gonna do? Beat me up? Call the cops?”
    “Something like that. Yeah.”
    “Nah. You won’t. I’m here to help you.”
    “I didn’t ask for your help and I don’t need it. Get out.”
    “Actually, you did. I distinctly remember you saying,” his voice ascended several octaves, “‘Help me!’ back there when your car was stalled in the middle of the road.”
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it. And I don’t talk like that.”
    Sparks looked at him. “Didn’t I tell ya you were gonna get booted?”
    Ollie stewed.
    “I’ll tell you what. Let me hang out with you for the next few hours. By the time we get home from your softball game, if you don’t ever want to see me again… you’ll never see me again. I’ll disappear forever.”
    Ollie sat and stared at him. He had a thousand questions in his brain, but wasn’t sure if he dared vocalize one. On the one hand, this guy seemed about as threatening as a guinea pig, but on the other hand he wasn’t sure if he could handle spending an evening with him. Especially since this was the day that everything in his life had fallen apart. His desire to be left alone in his misery pulled on one end of the rope and curiosity pulled on the other. In the end the two sides tugged themselves into a stalemate.
    “Tell ya what, Bomber—”Ollie said.
    “Sparks.”
    Ollie looked at him blankly.
    “Sparks. That’s my name.”
    “Okay, Sparks. Tell ya what. You can… ya know, like, continue to stalk me or whatever. For now.” Ollie looked at him bemusedly. “Until I make up my mind about you, anyway—”
    “I’m only here to help.”
    Ollie rolled his eyes. “You keep saying that, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. Whatever it is you want from me, get to it. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say at the softball field. When it comes time for me to warm up for my game though, you gotta leave.”
    “If you still want me to leave when that time comes, sure.”
    “Gone for good.”
    “Yep. I won’t be leaving, though. You’ll like what I have to say. I know you will.”
    “You assume a lot of things.”
    “I’m not assuming. I know.”
    “You’re odd. Ya know that? I’m not assuming that. I know it.”
    “So people tell me.”
    I can’t get a second alone. In a way it was a good thing. It kept him from wallowing in the muck of his own self-pity for now, but he knew he was going to have to mourn his loss of Anne eventually. Taking a weird stranger along for his evening ride was only delaying the inevitable.
    “Turn right here,” Sparks said. “It’ll be faster.”
    “Why?”
    “Trust me. It’ll be faster.”
    “Why would I trust you? I don’t even know you. I’ve driven to the ballpark a thousand times.”
    “We’ll get stuck waiting on a train to go by if we go this way.”
    “Whatever. This is the way I always go and I never get stuck at the railroad crossing.”
    “Alright. If watching a train pass by is more entertaining than watching people play ball, then let’s do it Ollie’s way.”
    Ollie was glad Sparks had suggested a new route. He didn’t take it, but he was more than happy to shoot the idea down. It gave him something he could control even while he felt like the world was pushing and pulling on him, taking away the things he really wanted. Besides, driving around on country roads can’t possibly be faster. The odds of getting stuck at the railroad crossing are slim to none.
    Ollie looked ahead. His heart sank as he applied the brakes and slowed the car: there was a freight train ambling along at the railroad crossing ahead. He stopped at the back end of a line of cars and listened to the clanging bells, watched the flashing red lights. “How’d you know?”
    “I just did.”
    “But how?”
    “Sometimes I just know things.”
    “You mean like you’re psychic or something?”
    Again, with