Take Me Home Read Online Free PDF

braced himself before turning.
    But this time it had not been Anais standing in front of him.
    Today he’d seen a woman with glossy dark hair that fell sleekly to her elbows and a serene oval face lit by deep-brown eyes. Her outfit was straight from the streets of East Side Manhattan, with heavy gold jewelry, an off-white silk blouse, black skirt, and bright-pink shoes with very high heels. All the city fashion didn’t conceal the figure he had noticed yesterday, a figure with a lushness his wife would have considered professionally unacceptable.
    He realized her voice, too, was different from Anais’s. Now that he could listen without the overlay of a ghostly echo, he heard a whisper of the South in some of Claire’s words. Yet her phrasing was clipped and northern.
    What had made him react so strongly to her when they’d first met? He had encountered other dark-haired women since his wife died. None of them evoked nightmares.
    To get to the bottom of the problem, he had done what worked for him as a scientist: he kept asking questions and making observations.
    The request to look at the Castillo had started out as a way to keep probing. Then he’d seen the painting, and buying it became more than a ploy. He wanted it—no, he
coveted
it for the living room of the house he was building halfway up Flat Top Mountain.
    As he pulled into his parking slot at the Sanctuary Veterinary Hospital, he realized he was looking forward to an evening with Claire Parker.
    His receptionist, Estelle Wilson, greeted him at the back door with his white lab coat in her hand. “You’re late, and you’ve got two emergencies on top of your regular appointments.”
    Estelle was a retired first-grade teacher who believed in punctuality. She also knew everyone and everything about Sanctuary, so she was an invaluable resource.
    “Do you still have the private phone number for the Aerie?” Tim asked, washing his hands. “The one Adam Bosch gave me?”
    Estelle threw him one of her gimlet stares. “Of course I do. He’s the chef with the German shepherd. If you tell me when you want to eat there, I’ll call for you.”
    “This is personal, not business.”
    “I’ve never been one of those folks who is too uppity to do an occasional personal chore for their boss.”
    Tim reflected that he’d never had any personal chores for her to do before this. “Well then, I’d appreciate it if you could get a reservation for two at seven this Friday.”
    “
This
Friday?” Estelle looked daunted.
    “Adam said he’d get me a table anytime I wanted one.”
    “Yes, but even the rich people wait months to eat there. Still, you did save his dog’s life.”
    A couple of hours later, he had worked his way through the patients lining the walls of his waiting room and was making follow-up calls.
    Estelle poked her head into his office. “That Adam Bosch fellow really loves his dog. He swore it was no problem to get you in this Friday.”
    “You’re a marvel,” Tim said. He felt again that surprising lift of anticipation at the prospect of the dinner.
    As Estelle left his office, Tim dialed Claire’s cell phone. It went to voice mail, and his fizz of anticipation faded slightly. He’d wanted to hear her reaction to his choice of restaurant.
    “Claire, this is Tim Arbuckle. I’ve got reservations at the Aerie for Friday night. Looking forward to seeing you then.”
    Tim hung up the phone and scooped up the keys to his pickup truck. It was time for his farm visits. As he walked up front to get the appointments from Estelle, she looked at him strangely.
    “You’re humming,” she said. “I’ve never heard you hum before.”

    Claire found Holly in Brianna’s room, sitting on the bed with her shoulders hunched over, wearing a sheer pink baby-doll nightie. When her sister raised her head, Claire saw blotches of red on her skin and mascara smeared under her eyes.
    Claire crossed the purple rug with the unicorns dancing on it and sat down beside