The Still of Night Read Online Free PDF Page A

hand-decorated silk ties, the costume of the consummate professional. The thought left him hollow. He must need this break more than he realized.
    Rick paused at the door and turned slightly. “I think you ought to go, Morgan.”
    Morgan climbed the steps behind him. Rick did not push, especially in personal matters. Why was he making so much of a stupid reunion? Morgan could send them a check for every computer they needed and remodel the ancient computer lab and add classroom connections to boot.
    “What’s the big deal, Rick?”
    “Just a feeling.”
    Morgan half smiled. A feeling from God, he meant. Rick the prophet, mouthpiece of the Almighty. Go down, Moses. To a high school reunion where he might see Jill? With Rick blocking the door and expecting an answer, Morgan shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
    Unfortunately, he would. He had been ever since the first packet arrived.
    After the final three days of school, Jill had agreed to a Friday night movie fest with Shelly, whose intention was to help her over the heartache. Shelly was making more of it than it was. Yes, it hurt to have the void in her life that Dan had filled, and especially to know she’d disappointed him.
    As Shelly’s best friend, dating Shelly’s husband Brett’s partner, and forming a comfortable foursome, had been natural. Add to that their similar interests in fitness and outdoor activities, their service-minded jobs—hers to the struggling kids, his to the rest of society … on the outside it seemed like a fit. But emotionally, and especially spiritually, they’d missed somehow. Her fault, she knew. Her inability to risk much of herself.
    Truth be told, if Dan had an operational faith, she might still resist a next step. Maybe she was the slow one in the personal commitment department. Maybe that’s what Shelly interpreted as ice queen, the preserving of self that in essence precluded giving and receiving fully. But love wasn’t a game. It wasn’t the warm aching inside that had kept her awake the first night Morgan had kissed her. It wasn’t anything she could get a handle on.
    The pastor at her church talked about love, but it was always in such nebulous terms she wondered if he knew any more than she did. God’s love was above hers, self-love a pitfall, and physical love the trapdoor to hell. Maybe a loveless life was best after all.
    It was late now as she inserted her key into the townhouse door. A light flicked on across the lot as Mr. Deerborne noted her return from his bedroom window and made sure she realized she had disturbed him. She ignored him and walked into her dark townhouse. Rascal wrapped himself around her legs, arching up to rub his mouth behind her calf as he passed sideways, trailing his tail, then circled back.
    Loveless? How could anyone be loveless with a cat? His purr sounded like the Honda’s engine on a cold day. She bent and scratched behind his ears, bringing him to his hind legs, front paws curling around her wrist. He licked her fingers. Now if that wasn’t devotion, what was?
    She dropped the mail on the counter and went to the bedroom to change. Slipping off her sandals, shorts, and sleeveless sweater, she pulled on a nightshirt. She tossed her hair back and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She hadn’t changed much in fifteen years. A little thinner in the cheeks, more defined in her features, but not much changed … on the outside.
    She still looked like the head of the cheerleading squad, the front-page photo of her senior yearbook. She shot the mirror her Miss America smile and almost captured the same expression she’d worn for the camera. Good thing the picture was taken early in the school year and not in the spring, when she was losing her breakfast in the girl’s rest room every morning before her first class. She hadn’t missed a single day of classes, but she’d been sick enough to hide the pregnancy until the sixth month. She actually weighed less by then than when