Whisper Falls Read Online Free PDF

attractive. But usually he was drawn to girls he had more in common with. And he knew what good, upstanding people like Tessa Sheridan thought of guys like him. Even if they didn’t know everything about him. Hell, maybe some of the shit in his past shone in his eyes or something.
    “Um . . . fine.” She sounded nervous again. And hell, could he really blame her? Once upon a time, he’d have been nervous having a neighbor like him, too. Or maybe it had to do with him seeing her in that untied bikini—maybe it made her even more uncomfortable. And he couldn’t deny that the bulge in his blue jeans was a little heftier than it had been twenty minutes ago.
    With that, he dropped the can in the garbage bin on his back porch, then headed back to the garage. While he could easily enjoy looking at his neighbor’s ass all afternoon, he had work to do, a business to rebuild.
    And still, as he walked away, he let out a sigh—one definitely tinged with arousal. Thanks for making the view from my deck a little nicer , babe.
    “I ’ve been thinking about skydiving.” Tessa stood behind the counter at Under the Covers, watering the plants Amy kept on the windowsill.
    “Thinking what about it?” Amy asked from where she sat on the floor unpacking a carton of books.
    “About doing it,” Tessa said. “What do you think?”
    Amy just blinked up at her. “Um—that you’re out of your mind? You don’t even like climbing the ladders to reach the high shelves.”
    It was true—the bookstore possessed a few of the old-fashioned ladders reminiscent of antique libraries and though Tessa admired their aesthetics, she’d never been a fan of actually using them. But her sudden urge to throw her body out of an airplane wasn’t about anything like . . . practicality. “I just feel . . . like life is passing me by.”
    “Well, this is sudden,” Amy mused, clearly taken aback.
    “Kind of,” Tessa agreed. And she supposed it had started with Lucky Romo watching her sunbathe yesterday and making her feel so . . . aware. Of herself. Of possibilities. Then she’d seen someone skydiving on TV last night and she’d thought, Wow , that’s somebody who’s really living their life , grabbing it by the horns. “But not really. For the past few years, I’ve missed out on a lot, and I’ve . . . lost a lot.” The sense of defeat she’d suffered upon leaving her job and moving home still stung. Every day. She’d accepted it, but she’d not gotten over it. “And I’ve just realized that when I’m feeling good, I need to get out there and . . . just do something.” Even though she’d had less flare-ups the last year or so, the unpredictability remained daunting, and she wanted very badly to overcome that worry.
    “Skydiving is pretty extreme,” Amy said. “If you want to do something, how about feeding Brontë?”
    Tessa glanced at the black-and-white cat who’d just peeked cautiously around the corner of a bookshelf. They’d just gotten rid of one stray—Shakespeare, who Rachel and Mike had adopted—when another had shown up. Amy had started feeding it at the back door, and then winter had come and the cat had turned into a resident. After Amy had found the kitty draped over an old copy of Jane Eyre one day, she’d started calling her Brontë. “That’s a lot less excitement than I was going for,” Tessa informed Amy dryly.
    After putting some Meow Mix in the little bowl Amy kept behind the counter, Tessa moistened it with a splash from the bottled water she was currently drinking, then lowered it to the floor. “Come here, kitty,” she said softly, stooping down, but Brontë just stared at her with big, distrusting, blue marble eyes. The cat was lanky, thin—and pretty skittish. When Tessa reached gently toward her, Brontë pulled back nervously—but at least she didn’t run away, which was an improvement. “Time for lunch,” she said softly, jiggling the bowl. “Mmm, yummy.”
    As the cat stood