Struck by Lightning. Christa Maurice

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ urge to kiss her? And why had he laid all those corny lines on her? Maybe you could teach me? Why not just invite himself up to her place to see her etchings? Something about those eyes, that voice. No way was he not going to try again.

      Now, he had to think of the next move. Would he be able to wait for her to stop at the station? Would she stop at the station? Should he try dropping in at the gallery in a couple of days?

      Women never made it this difficult for him, but he did love a challenge.

      * * * *

      Rebecca stood at the corner of Washington and Worchester with her hand on the post office box, staring down the street at the fire station. From this vantage point she could only see half the open bay door and part of the paramedic truck. The truck was in, but she had no idea if the hero was. Just about every day for the last week, she’d found a reason to wander up to the letter box. She’d sent letters to friends she hadn’t seen for years and snail mail to people she usually emailed. Stooping to sending a card to her high school art teacher was just pathetic and she’d done it anyway. Miss Schuler would want to know she was successful.

      She had not seen the hero.

      By her calculations, he should have caved to her allure at least four days ago. No male resisted her for more than a week. Max cracked inside three days way back when they were in Orientation together. The hero seemed to be made of sterner stuff.

      Which made him very annoying. By this time she should have had time to reel him in and play him out again.

      She turned and walked back to her apartment. Bess had suddenly taken an interest in working in the gallery. In the original deal, she had taken three days a week, while Bess, Edie and Max split the other three days. Over the summer, Rebecca had taken on more and more days as the others went on vacation or just lost interest. She hadn’t minded because for the moment the gallery was the only thing going on in her life. Now Bess was taking an interest again. She kept showing up in the middle of the day on days Rebecca was supposed to be on her own and driving her out.

      For a week now there’d been no place to go and nothing to do.

      Except for today. Today she’d had a valid reason to go to the mailbox before pick up. Today was the due date of her first loan payment. Yesterday, she’d listened as her father left an unsubtle message on her machine reminding her of the due date and the terms of the agreement. She’d spent the night scraping together both this payment and the next and carefully wording an acid letter telling them how well she was doing and enclosing a clipping from the paper. Sending them both payments now meant living on ramen for a few days, but it would be worth it. This particular deal with her parents had strained their relationship in ways that Rebecca hadn’t imagined.

      The gallery strained every relationship she had. Turning away from the fire station, she started back toward her apartment. She had no desire to work on new pieces, and no need to since the gallery was already overstocked and out of storage. She also didn’t feel like sitting around waiting until time to go to the gallery in the morning.

      Last week she’d promised Billy she would stop in and draw stories again. Maybe she should gamble some of her dwindling cash supply on the hope of getting enough tips to cover lunch. At least it would get her out and it would make Billy happy. Even if she didn’t cover her lunch, making Billy happy would be a good payment.

      * * * *

      Dan pushed through the doors of the bookstore. He’d confidently told Lew last Thursday that he’d found her and she’d be showing up at the station any day. Well, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday had passed, but any day hadn’t arrived. He’d even meandered nonchalantly over to the gallery yesterday, but the crabby woman had been there so he hadn’t bothered to go inside. He’d tried to call Bobbie for advice on women and she’d told him brusquely that she didn’t know any before hanging up on him. Jack’s advice had been to find out where she lived and move in. Dan hadn’t tried Kevin because he valued his head being attached to his neck. Mark was too annoyed by Dan detouring down Market every time they came back to the station to be helpful. If it didn’t have an engine, Lew didn’t understand it, so asking him was useless. Dan had entertained asking Lew’s sister, but dismissed the idea out of hand. She was all of sixteen, not a fount of feminine knowledge yet. Asking an old girlfriend just seemed wrong too. If he called Daisy, she’d have a honey-do list for him and he wasn’t her honey. That left him Jack’s sister and Jessica. Which left him Jessica. He could only hope that her anger at Kevin wouldn’t spill over onto him.

      He spotted her at the information desk scowling at a sheaf of papers. The scowl looked like it had been carved on her face. She’d also chopped off her hair. If Kevin would just apologize already, everybody’s life would be easier. Maybe she wouldn’t be a good source, considering her and Kevin’s track record.

      He leaned on the counter, smiling. “Hi Jessica. How did the written exam go?”

      She looked up and somehow, the scowl deepened. “What do you want?”

      “Just to say hi. I haven’t seen you since the wedding and you just had the written yesterday. I wondered if you’d gotten your score from HQ yet.”

      “No,” she growled.

      “When do you find out?”

      “Later today.”

      Small talk was not thawing her out at all. So much for plan A. “Well, since I’m here. I had a question for you.”

      She sighed and raised one eyebrow at him.

      “You know Rebecca down at the gallery on Market?”

      “Who?”

      “The artist with the blue eyes? The one I asked you about at Jack and Kate’s wedding?”

      “No, I don’t. Is that all? Because I have work to do.”

      Dan blanched. No wonder Kevin didn’t want to apologize to her. This woman was downright scary when she was mad. “No, that was it. I just wondered if you knew her. That’s all.”

      “Well, I don’t.” Jessica turned around and walked away from the desk, leaving Dan leaning against it bewildered.

      “Can I help you?” another employee, walking toward the desk, asked.

      “No, I’m not sure anyone can.” Dan sighed and walked out.

      He roasted in his car considering the options. Go to the gym. Go home. Go beat his head against a wall. All of those had about the same appeal. Why hadn’t she shown up at the station? Normally the allure of visiting a firehouse was too much for any woman. But this woman sat down on the push bumper of the engine with an almost audible “so what” all over her face the one time she’d been there. Obviously, he wasn’t going to be able to impress her with his job. Of course, if he didn’t see her he wouldn’t have any opportunities to impress her. He could just amble into the gallery one day, after driving by to make sure she was in there alone, but that seemed too desperate. He should let her come to him.

      And failing that, he needed to arrange to bump into her.

      He started the car. Meechan’s had worked once, maybe it would work again. She’d eaten there before, she would eat there again, right?

      He had to park around the corner from the theater. One of the owners was up on a ladder putting СКАЧАТЬ