Read Online County Line Road by Marie Etzler - Free Book Online Page A

not from cold.
    “Tell me,” she said in between kisses.
    “I don’t know how,” he said.
    “Then show me,” she said in his ear.
    He started to kiss her but stopped. “Why do you like me? I don’t have anything – no money, nothing like this.”
    “This?” she said and swept her hand around the pool and patio. “It’s not a home; it’s a show place. Look. I didn’t tell you about running because, well, I just don’t want to talk about it now. I don’t run anymore. It makes me lonely when I do. I used to run with my – nevermind. Since I met you, I feel different. When I’m with you – and even when I’m not – I’m not alone. You make me feel like I’m part of you,” she said. “That’s never happened to me before. I wanted to come see you the next morning after the party, but I’m always rushing into things. I waited because I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision. And I am. I’ve seen you jogging. For the past few weeks.”
    “You have?”
    “When I saw you the first time, it was as if I recognized you, know what I mean?” Allison said. “Maybe that sounds odd.”
    “No,” he said. “I know exactly what you mean.”
    Jimmy wrapped his arms around her. The water became magical and he felt like it was seeping through his skin and into his being. He felt naked on the inside and pressed his stomach and chest against hers as if to cover up a hole where everything inside him lived but was starving, the core of who he was. The warmth of her skin spread into his. She was everything in the world to him now. Without really understanding it or questioning it, he felt a new sense of himself, something that could carry him through, no matter what happened in his life after this moment in the blue water.

CHAPTER 12
    The next day at her job, Linda was just about to get up when her desk phone rang.
    “Linda, let voice mail get it,” Corrine said. “We’ll be late for the meeting, and you know how Dr. Redeker is about that.”
    “I know, I know,” Linda said.
    She picked up the phone. “Hello? Oh, hi honey. Really? Okay. Me too. I have a meeting. See you tonight.”
    Linda hurried down the hall to catch up with Corrine. “Earl’s flying in tonight, 6 pm.”
    “I thought you said he wasn’t coming back for a few days.”
    “Yeah,” Linda said. “He was pretty steamed at the boys when he left. Maybe I should call them to warn them.”
    “Redeker will be steamed if we don’t hurry,” Corrine said. “I hear he’s already got a burr in his saddle about something anyway.”
    They reached the conference room and found the last two seats, except they weren’t together. Linda sat on her own at the far end of the long conference table.
    The meeting got started right away.
    “The first and most important thing in this meeting today is to announce that a full audit of the pharmacy department will begin immediately,” Dr. Redeker said and slammed his fist down on the table. “From the warehouse, to the shipping records, the freight company to our dispensary. Anyone not cooperating with the director’s office and the DEA will be fired. We will find the source of this problem, and we will prosecute.”
    Linda kept her eyes down and jabbed her fingernails through the loops of her sweater, unraveling the yarn as she felt her situation coming apart. Even though it was cold in the conference room, she was sweating. There was a silence, and she felt as if everyone was looking at her. She couldn’t stand the quiet. She felt as if her skin were beginning to crawl. She looked up, and Dr. Redeker stared at her until she met his gaze. She nodded in agreement like she’d seen his colleagues do when they concurred on a diagnosis.
    He moved on with the rest of the meeting, which Linda didn’t hear much of. She just nodded and smiled when everyone else did, and rose at the end, filing out with the others, with a genuinely concerned expression on her face.
    After her shift, Linda checked