The Still of Night Read Online Free PDF

she’d conceived.
    Morgan was the first to know. It hurt to remember the urgency in his face as he promised to stick by her, a promise he had no way to keep once her parents learned of their circumstances. She turned away from the mirror. Maybe it was time for a change. She had an appointment at the salon Sunday with Crystal for a trim, but maybe something more daring was in order.
    Jill walked back to the kitchen and flipped through the mail. Nothing important. She remembered the utilities bill from Wednesday’s mail and glanced over to the corner table. The stack was still there. She crossed the room, lifted the half-dozen envelopes and the fund-raiser reunion reminder. Haven’t heard from you. Wilson High needs your help. Come share the alum fun . Good grief.
    She slipped the utilities bill free and dropped the rest back to the table. She opened the bill and read the damage, then carried it to her small oak desk and laid it there to be paid tomorrow when she balanced the checkbook. She yawned, scooped up Rascal, and headed for bed.
    The phone rang, and Jill rolled over to grab it. 6:32 on the clock. Who would call so early on a Saturday? She lifted the receiver and tried to sound as though she hadn’t just been jarred from sleep. “Hello?”
    “Can I interest you in breakfast and a bike ride?” Dan’s voice sounded chipper, and for a moment she was confused. Had she not …
    Jill pressed a palm to her forehead. “Dan?”
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d confuse me with someone else already.”
    She cleared her throat. “Hold on just a second.” She covered the receiver and yawned, then shook her head and sat up. “Sorry. Shelly had me out late last night.”
    “I know.”
    She felt a pang. “Dan …”
    “We’ve put almost a year into this, Jill. It’s a shame to let it go over …”
    “Sex?”
    He laughed low. “Yeah.”
    She closed her eyes and rubbed the sleep from them. “I can’t expect you to change what you want just because I won’t cross that line.”
    “Sex is really hard on a bicycle.”
    She laughed, then sobered. “I think the other night showed us both what we needed to know.”
    “Maybe. But Shelly’s concerned that she’ll lose one of her close friends here.”
    Poor Shelly . “I’m not going anywhere.”
    “Why don’t we have a bagel and hash out some sort of friendship agreement?”
    Jill dropped her head back to the headboard and smiled at the ceiling. “You are definitely headed for captain, Dan.”
    He laughed. “I’ll be over in thirty.”
    She hung up the phone. Great. Just what she needed after a late night. Well, Dan had seen her looking worse, and she actually managed to look better than she’d expected in thirty minutes’ time. She had dressed in a periwinkle tank with a gray-blue plaid overshirt, sleeves rolled. Her waist-tie cotton khakis were loose enough to ride in if she and Dan decided to after all.
    Dan rang the bell at seven o’clock sharp. Punctual to a fault. That was Dan. Reliable and disciplined. She pulled the door open and met his bearish smile. He was burly and compact for a cyclist, but that was from the weight training he did, as well.
    “Einstein’s?”
    “Sure.” She locked the door behind her.
    “Let’s walk.” He had locked his bike to her maple tree.
    “Okay.” The morning was warm and a little humid and smelled of dew.
    “So the way I see it, you’re set on a platonic relationship, no matter where it might go.”
    Jill rolled her eyes. “You know, Dan, sometimes prevarication is a good thing.”
    “Pre …what?”
    “Beat around the bush a little, and not with your nightstick.” She nudged him with her elbow.
    “Sorry.”
    “That’s all right.”
    Idle conversation seemed to stump him, and they walked quietly for a while. Then he turned his blunt face to her, and the breeze caught the brown hair, thinning a little at the top. “Is it just a religious thing?”
    She leaned over and sniffed the flowering