Read Online Cupid, Texas [1] Love at First Sight by Lori Wilde - Free Book Online Page A

didn’t push it. Although he’d appreciate the opportunity to stay in Red’s room while he searched for his buddy, he didn’t want to arouse her suspicion. Considering the way he was feeling about her, it was probably better if he didn’t stay here. “Do you know who else in town might be willing to rent out a room?”
    “How long do you need it for?”
    “Can’t say for sure.”
    She made a face, reached up to stroke her chin with her thumb and index finger. Assessing.
    “I’ve got a thousand dollars to put down for a deposit and first month’s rent,” he enticed.
    “Cash up front?” She looked hungry, but conflicted.
    “Cash up front.”
    A long moment of silence passed between them. He could see the tension in her body, felt a corresponding tension tighten in his own.
    “I have an ethical dilemma,” she said. “I need the money, but what if I rent the room to you and Red comes back?”
    “You give me a partial refund and I move out.”
    She chewed her bottom lip in a gesture that made him want to nibble that lush piece of flesh too. Hell, he wanted to nibble her from head to toe.
    He couldn’t forget why he was here. Red. He had to keep his mind on Red. His buddy was in trouble and needed his help.
    Still, he couldn’t stop staring at the mesmerizing mermaid in yellow with a green streamer of seaweed caught in her hair. He stepped closer.
    “I don’t know about that.”
    “This Red character, he just took off without a word to anyone?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Did he leave his car behind?”
    “He didn’t own a vehicle. He walked everywhere he went or hitchhiked.”
    “Hitchhiked?”
    “It’s a small town. People don’t mind giving their neighbors a ride.”
    “A regular Mayberry, huh?” he drawled, but Dade knew danger resided as easily in a small town as it did in a big metropolis. They didn’t breathe rarefied air in Cupid. Beneath the pretty surface lurked problems and troubles, secrets and lies.
    “We look after our own,” she said.
    “When was the last time you saw him?” He was pushing it, he knew, walking a thin line, risking giving himself away.
    She frowned.
    “Trying to gauge when he might come back,” Dade hastened to add.
    “Red comes and goes as he pleases, so I can’t be one hundred percent certain, but I think the last time I saw him was the morning of the nineteenth.”
    Four days ago. The day before Dade had received the Mayday text. “You didn’t think it strange that he disappeared without a trace?”
    “He did that occasionally. Took off without notice.”
    “Did?”
    “Yes. Several times.”
    “You said ‘did . ’ In the past tense. Not ‘does.’ ”
    “Oh.” Her eyes rounded. “Well, I suppose it’s because this time it feels different.”
    “Different how?”
    “For one thing, he’s never been gone this long.”
    “No?” Dade took a step closer. His gaze trained on the pond weeds clinging to her hair. It distracted him. Apparently, she had no idea it was there. “Did you report his disappearance to law enforcement?”
    “I did.”
    “What did they say?”
    “Red has some mental health issues.”
    Dade curled his hands into fists. “If he’s got mental health issues, you’d think that would be a stronger motivation to search for him.”
    She studied him a long moment. “Why do you care?”
    “If I rent the room, I’d be disappointed if he shows up to boot me out of it.”
    “I never said I was going to rent the room to you.”
    “You need to make up the income for the boarder you just lost.”
    She bit her bottom lip again, those pearly white teeth sinking into the plump pink flesh. He saw the truth in her eyes. She needed every penny she could scrape together. That intrigued him. What was her story?
    “I don’t rent long term to just anyone.”
    “And yet you took in a mental case.” Sorry, Red. No disrespect.
    “I never said he was a mental case.” Natalie drew herself up tall, tossed her head. “He served in the