Waiting for You Read Online Free PDF Page A

tense. He didn’t want Erin to ask him what he’d gone through. He was afraid he’d snap at her the way he snapped at anyone who asked him that question.
    “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “It’s none of my business what you decide to do.”
    Jake felt himself relax, but only slightly. It had been a mistake to let himself feel at ease around Erin, even briefly. He needed to keep his guard up—around her, around his family, around everyone. Even casual conversations could be full of unseen landmines, which is why he usually avoided them.
    He exited off the highway and drove through Willow Springs. Once they were past the town center the roads weren’t well plowed, and he slowed down. After a while he turned onto Maple Hill Road. “How far?”
    “A mile on the right.”
    They drove the mile in silence, while his wipers tried to keep up with the snowfall. There was something hypnotic in the rush of flakes coming towards them, as if they were speeding through a galaxy of stars.
    “This is it,” she said after a few minutes, pointing at a small white house with a front porch. Out back, misted by the falling snow, he could see woods and rolling hills.
    “It’s nice,” he said, turning off the engine.
    Erin nodded. “I love living here.” She glanced at her house and then back at him. “Do you want to come in for a minute? There’s actually someone inside you might remember.”
    He stared at her. “Someone inside? I thought you said you lived alone.”
    She smiled. “I do.”
    She’d made him curious, but he should still say no. Going inside with Erin was a very bad idea. She looked so beautiful smiling up at him like that, with her creamy skin and big gray eyes and fair hair starting to come out of its complicated knot.
    In spite of himself, his eyes went to her lips.
    If he went inside, he wasn’t sure he could resist the temptation to kiss her. But if he did that… if he bent his head to cover that soft, generous mouth with his…he’d be using her.
    He’d be losing himself in Erin’s sweetness to fill the emptiness inside him. He’d be using her to forget everything that had happened this last year, even if it was just for a little while.
    And there was nothing he could give her in return. He wouldn’t even be able to stay the night, if things went that far. He never knew what he was in for when he fell asleep. Until the nightmares stopped coming he wouldn’t risk sharing a bed with someone, no matter how much he wanted to.
    He shook his head. “I should really be getting home.”
    “Just for a minute,” she said, her sweet smile coaxing him, and he opened his mouth to say no.
    “Okay,” he said instead, even as he kicked himself for the third time that night. “But only for a minute,” he added, more to himself than to her.
    He’d find out what she meant by someone who might remember him, and then he’d clear out. He had the weather as an excuse, after all.
    He followed Erin up her snowy steps and waited while she unlocked the front door. Once they were inside he stood for a moment, looking around, conscious that the snow that had fallen on him would soon be dripping onto the beautiful wood floors of Erin’s little house.
    “There he is,” Erin said, taking his coat and hanging it on a hook beside the door, along with hers. He was distracted by her bare shoulders and didn’t look where she was pointing.
    “Who?” he asked, finally registering what she’d said.
    “An old friend,” she answered, nodding towards the staircase.
    He looked, and saw a black cat on the bottom step, gazing up at them. He was sitting back on his haunches, his tail wrapped neatly around his front paws, and something about the tilt of his head…
    “My God,” he said stupidly. “Is that Pepper?”
    Erin nodded, crouching down to scratch the cat under his chin. “When I moved here a few years ago your mother gave him to me. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of me living alone, and she said Pepper would