Read Online Creighton's Hideaway by LoRee Peery - Free Book Online Page B

meant for a family.
    “This house is too big for one guy. Too quiet. Maybe I need a dog.”
    Memories of their evening together and her oh-so-feminine proximity mocked him from the very corners of the room. What am I doing, to almost kiss a woman I’ve known for mere days?
    Man, you’ve got to get her out of your head! She’s a career woman, made for an office in Lincoln, and she won’t be here much longer. He shut off pictures of her lovely, pale face along with the hall light.
    Good thing he hadn’t braved a kiss.
    She scoffed at God.
    What exactly was he doing grousing around? He needed to get on his knees.
    And thank the Lord for saving him.
     
    ****
     
    Creighton woke up in his pickup. Everything ached, even his teeth. “Where am I?” He groaned. Kinks traveled through his neck. He summoned up the courage to fight the nausea and pounding in his head. He stretched his eyes open to mere slits. “OK, the Bates place. How did I get here?” He slumped back so his head leaned against the head rest. Another blackout. His mouth tasted like a mouse nest.
    He used all his mental strength to go back to the night before. Yeah, he’d closed out Willy’s Bar. And that’s the last he could remember. His eyes opened wider, to half-mast. And freaked at the discovery of blood on his knuckles.
     
     
     
     

7
     
    “Oh, God, please. Not again.” Creighton moaned in half prayer, half groan, and opened his eyes all the way. His hands were scarred, but not bloody. He wasn’t in his pickup!
    Early morning sunlight peeked through the blinds of his bedroom.
    “Thank you, Lord. It was only a bad dream.”
    Why now? His unconscious mind hadn’t gone back there for a long time.
    Then it hit him.
    Shana.
    He needed to remember who he was: an ex-drunk not good enough for someone like Shana. She was too good for him, even if she miraculously came to share his faith.
     
    ****
     
    Shana leaned against the deck rail, cuddled again in Creighton’s sweatshirt, and warmed her hands on the coffee mug.
    Valerie’s voice carried across the tranquil morning, singing a melody Shana couldn’t place.
    A light misty fog hovered in low spots and in the distance. It was kind of eerie for the voice to be coming out of the grayness where neither breeze nor bird stirred.
    Then the tune came to Shana, Beethoven’s Ninth. She hummed the final measures in her light soprano, hadn’t known there were lyrics.
    When Valerie came into view, Shana waved and called out.
    “Where were you and your lullaby last night when I couldn’t sleep?”
    Valerie lifted her walking stick in answer to Shana’s greeting and neared. “How’re you doing, sweetie?”
    “I’m a bit down. Sleep evaded me again. Worked on ordering my chapters. It takes so much energy to not become angry over the injustice these patients endure. I kept trying to find solutions to prevent the kids at The Pines from the same fate as those in the rehab program at Hope Circle.” Shana shrugged her shoulders forward and back. “Even the night creatures were against my peace of mind. I’d settle down, totally relaxed, and then I’d hear a screech.”
    “Sorry about that. I should loan you a hymnal. When I have troubled thoughts, the great songwriters of old help switch my heart attitude right around.” Valerie leaned against her stick. “You do sing, don’t you?”
    “I have a passable voice. But I didn’t grow up going to church so I don’t know many hymns.”
    Valerie’s shirt matched the gray sky this morning. She was dressed as usual in her long denim skirt and boots. The fringe of her bright orange scarf lifted in the sudden breeze.
    Valerie smiled, “God’s breath is fanning my cheek.”
    Shana didn’t answer.
    Valerie climbed the steps up to the deck to lay an arm across Shana’s shoulders. “What’s wrong, Shana?”
    “Maybe I’m just homesick.”
    “Hello, the cabin.”
    “We’re back here,” Shana called, and turned towards Creighton’s voice coming from