Twice in a Lifetime (Love Found) Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    “Ben called yesterday.”
    The palm that slapped against her chest would have knocked the breath from her if she hadn’t just let it all out in a scream.
    Reese had barely cleared the entrance to the kitchen when she threw back her head and laughed. “Jeez, anybody ever tell you, you shriek like a girl?”
    “And I’ll cuss like a sailor if you scare me like that again.” Her heart was ready to jump out of her chest. From the fright—probably.
    And just how long did Reese plan to chortle?
    Holding her midsection with one hand, Reese waved the note with the other. “I forgot to tell you about this. He said he’d call back.”
    “I told you I wasn’t interested. And quit chuckling”
    To her credit, she toned it down to a grin. “That was when you missed his call on Tuesday. Today’s Thursday. I thought maybe you’d reconsidered.” Reese waved a dismissing hand. “You know what they say about absence and the heart and all that.”
    With deliberate motions, Allie shook her head no, and hoped it was true. Her eye caught the flashing green light of the answering machine. “Who called while I was at the library?”
    “Dunno.” In no hurry, Reese pressed the button to check the message. “Maybe it was Jake. I was studying.”
    Ben again. Call you later .
    Reese smirked. “He’s either in love or he wants in your pants.”
    Trust Reese to call a spade a spade. “I told you a blind date was a bad idea.” And yet, laughing blue eyes had invaded her dreams for the past several nights. She dropped into a chair.
     

     
    Monday morning she awoke to the insistent clamoring of the telephone. Through bleary eyes she checked the time before dragging the receiver to her ear.
    “It’s six o’clock in the freaking morning. What do you want?”
    “Oh, I’ll hear that raspy voice in my dreams tonight.”
    Like a rocket Allie shot out of bed, untangling herself from the sheet, tripping over her slippers in the dark. She slapped at the switch and the room flooded with light. “Ben?” Oh, God, that loud squeak was not her voice.
    “You’ve been hard to get hold of.”
    Oh, she remembered that voice—low and throaty. Sexy Ben. The mattress caught her when she sat. She was fully awake now. And curious. “How did you get me? You didn’t ask for my number.” And where have you been since Thursday, by the way?
    “From Jake, who got it from Reese.”
    A regular Sherlock Holmes, wasn’t he?
    “Sorry about the weekend. We played a double header in Texas.”
    “Oh?” Did he mention they’d be out of town? Did Reese? With her brain so fuddled, it was all she could think to say. Hopefully he didn’t notice.
    “We got in late last night—early this morning, actually.”
    She opened her mouth, but he cut her off.
    “Let’s do something.”
    “Now? It’s the middle of the night.”
    “Not quite. What’s your schedule?”
    She needed to shower, do her hair, iron a blouse… Stop! Her shoulders slumped as reality set in. “My first class is at nine twenty. Then I have student teaching this afternoon. I don’t get home until after four, but I need to study.” Her schedule was a killer—hence, the no-dating policy. And if she needed another reminder why, here it was.
    “Okay then, get dressed. I’ll pick you up. We’ll have breakfast. You’ve got ten minutes.”
    And the line went dead.
    The phone was heavy in her hand. What just happened? A call. Ben. She replaced the handset. Did she want this? Meet the hot guy for eggs. Maybe she could get him out of her head. She raced for the closet.
    “Oh, hell, why not?”
     

     
    With books and notes strewn from one end of the couch to the other Allie groaned beneath the weight a half-finished research paper. With a glass of wine at her lips she let her eyelids drift shut as she sipped. She missed sleep. She missed her girlfriends. She missed… Ben.
    “They’re in Oregon? It’s probably snowing in Oregon, for crying out loud.” And she should kick