Wish of the Heart Read Online Free PDF

us,” Rylan stated.
    “There is no us,” Macie corrected.
    “There could be.” Rylan let the possibility hang in the air.
    Macie waved her hand as if to sweep his words away. “No.”
    “Macie, I know you feel it, too. It’s not just about working toward a goal. It’s something more and you know it.”
    “Rylan, you know we can’t go there.” Macie held up her palm as if physically pushed away the prospect.
    “Why not? If Karen had lived, we would have been broken up ages ago. There would be no reason.”
    Macie couldn’t dismiss the complications so easily. “I don’t date my sister’s old boyfriends.” It wasn’t as simple as that, but it was reason enough.
    “Boyfriend overstates what we had and you know it. We dated. For a few weeks. We didn’t even …” He trailed off, shaking his head.
    “You didn’t even what?” Macie asked.
    “We never slept together.” His foot rubbed the deep pile of the area rug.
    “Never?” While Karen shared with Macie, she never went into intimate details. Macie wasn’t sure she wanted Rylan to remove any of the barriers between them.
    “No. We liked each other. A lot. I’m not going to deny it. We talked about it. We hoped the attraction would grow, but it didn’t.”
    “You kissed her.” Macie knew it was true without asking, but she wanted to hear him admit it.
    “Yes, I kissed her,” Rylan confirmed.
    Macie turned away. She didn’t know how to resolve her confusion.
    “Macie, I know Karen is between us, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” His fingers gripped the back of the dining chair until his knuckles turned white.
    “Rylan—” The rejection was in her voice.
    “Think about it. Don’t shut out the possibility. You know something is there. I haven’t found that so often that I’m willing to throw it away without even seeing where it might go.”
    Macie nodded.
     
    ~ * ~ * ~
     
    Macie glanced at the clock. The minutes passed with agonizing slowness. She couldn’t focus her mind on anything except the idea of Karen’s computer. She and Rylan looked for hours but found nothing unusual.
    When her agitation finally got the best of her, Macie poked her head into her boss’s office. “Sir? I’m not feeling well. I need to go home early.”
    He frowned. “All right. I hope to see you in the morning.”
    Macie didn’t offer any further explanation, just grabbed her things and left. It wasn’t long before she was back in her apartment, debating a shower. She paced the living room, grimy and out of sorts.
    Macie pulled her phone from her purse and saw a white paper inside her bag. For a moment, she thought it was one of the receipts she habitually stuffed inside, but the paper was thicker and neatly folded.
    Her forehead creased as she picked it up and opened it. Handwritten block letters in black pen stood out starkly against the bleached white paper.
    Nothing will bring your sister back.
    Don’t make the same mistake.
    Fear stabbed Macie’s heart and her breath hitched. Her questions had come to someone’s attention. Maybe they even knew about Karen’s computer. How could they know? How could anyone know? Her eyes traced the letters of the note again and her shoulder blades itched. The little that she and Rylan had done was making someone nervous.
    On the heels of that came the realization that someone had been close enough to harm her. She had no idea when the note had been left. Macie wasn’t in the habit of leaving her purse unattended.
    Had someone unzipped it while she was in the copy room at work? Had someone followed her on the train?
    Macie’s sense of unease grew until she placed the note in a plastic bag and put it out of sight.
     
    ~ * ~ * ~
     
    The next morning, Macie searched the area around her desk at work, looking for any sign someone had been there, but she saw nothing awry. She poked her head over the wall into the next office cube. “Good morning, Susan. Did you see anyone at my desk yesterday?”
    “I