The Reasons to Stay (Harlequin Superromance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

revenue for the drugstore’s start-up, and later the rents had paid Adam’s tuition to UCSD.
    “I think it’s great. I’d like to rent it. Providing, of course, I meet your requirements.”
    “Okay, well, let me take you across the hall to meet my mother. My requirements take a backseat to hers.”
    “What does your mother have to do with this?”
    “You’d be living right across the hall from her. That means she gets first right of refusal.”
    He watched her throat move as she swallowed. She squared her shoulders and walked out ahead of him. He crossed the hall and knocked on his mom’s door.
    “Come in.”
    He opened the door. “Mom? Do you have a minute to meet a possible tenant?”
    “Certainly, bring them in.”
    “This is Priscilla Hart, an office manager, most recently from Colorado.”
    The girl—woman—walked past him to where his mother sat, reading a thick book. “Ms. Preston. It’s nice to meet you. Your son told me about your recent accident. I’m sorry.”
    His mom put aside the book. “To hear him talk, I’m a fragile invalid. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
    “You’re reading Atlas Shrugged! ”
    The delight in her voice brought his head up.
    “That’s one of my favorite books of all time.”
    His mother’s eyes lit up. “Oh? What is it you like about it?”
    Priss may not have recognized his mom’s “professor voice,” but Adam did.
    “Her theory of rational self-interest and belief in the power of an individual.” At his mother’s wave, the girl sank onto the sofa. “I’ve learned a lot from that book.”
    His mother had tried for years to get him interested in philosophy, but he’d fallen asleep ten pages into that doorstop of a book. Sports Illustrated was more his style. “You read that stuff?”
    Priss looked up, yet somehow managed to look down her nose at him. “Are you one of those men who think you have to have a college degree to be intelligent?”
    “I never said that. Did I say that?”
    With a smug smile, his mother watched him twist on the hook.
    “Priscilla, if you have some time, I’d love to discuss this book with you.”
    Priss nodded.
    “Would you mind making us some tea, Priscilla?” His mother gave a small head shake when he started to move.
    Priss popped up. His mother explained where to find things in the kitchen.
    Once she was in the other room, his mother said, “She’s the one.”
    “I haven’t run her background check. She could be a convicted felon for all I know. She might steal the silver—”
    “My silver is all at the house.”
    “Or murder you in your sleep. You just like her because she likes that Rand woman.”
    “You’re wrong. I like her because she ruffles your oh-so-neat feathers.” Her smile held secrets. “And frankly, son, your feathers could use a good ruffling.”
    * * *
    P RISS PUSHED THROUGH the door from the stairwell into Hollister Drugs, heading out for another day of job hunting. She loved her new digs. She enjoyed sitting in the overstuffed chair by the window, watching the town wake up, pedestrians shifting from a trickle to a stream as the shops opened. She liked the evenings, too. The lights winked out as the town settled in for sleep. Now if she could only get as lucky in the job market.
    At least she could show that do-gooder, Ms. Barnes, that she had a decent place for Nacho to live in. Her credit check and references had come back sterling, so the uptight druggist couldn’t find an excuse not to rent to her. But she had no doubt that he’d tried.
    She glanced to the prescription counter. Head down, Adam focused on something he was writing while speaking in an undertone to an ancient lady in a Sunday dress and orthopedic shoes. That first day, all Priss had seen was a double-breasted white coat and a wall of upper middle-class attitude. But the past few days she’d caught glimpses of more.
    His tanned profile looked chiseled from granite. A sable curl escaped his perfectly gelled hair,