Read Online I Run to You by Eve Asbury - Free Book Online Page A

Walking
round to stand beside him, as Max jogged off, she added, “I’m fine.
Really.”
    “Miss Fine Thang. I know you are. High
though,” he teased with a white smile. Buckling the case next, and
hefting it to rest on the tabletop.
    “Yep.” She grinned, and wished, if only that
were true, and waved toward the house. “See you later.” Brook’s
intention was to leave.
    The sun was going to set soon.
    She had some pre-set excuses.
    She needed to call Sunny about taking that
job—3 days a week hopefully. She needed to unpack some boxes. Oh,
yeah. She could come up with a dozen things. None of them would
make everyone guess the obvious.
    However, fate— was real bitch sometimes.
    Several people coming down, needing to get to
the cars as they were carrying empty pots and plates, boxes,
blocked her from going up the steps.
    What made her look toward the back, she did
not know, but the timing was—shit.
    Coy was walking toward a cooler, opening it,
extracting water. He drank one down and got another, having not
looked forward yet.
    It just was not fair. Dammit.
    He was a grown man. More of— everything. A
sweat-damp white T-shirt enhanced those broad shoulders. A torso
obviously rigid, ribbed—and honed. The jeans molded to his long
powerful legs and lean hips. Television imagery was nothing
compared to Coy in the flesh. A skintight football uniform had
nothing over his casual yet sexy laid-back style.
    That face… virile, potent. His hair was wind
tossed, streaked naturally by sun. His skin looked a toasted
almond. The handsome eighteen-year she had last seen… now had a
man’s rugged visage. Lips—she that remembered against her will—that
were soft, sensual. He smiled, laughed, at something someone called
out behind him and glanced that way. Those strong white teeth
flashed, causing her stomach to flutter inside.
    Brook felt breath shuddering uneven past her
lips. She had not expected this. She thought she would be cold in
her response. That is what she’d felt, at a distance, time, being
far away. This feeling—was not supposed to be possible. She should
detached, able to view his handsomeness—without feelings—
    Coy finally looked forward.
    He stilled and blinked. His eyes were
intensely jasper, made more tawny by his dark skin.
    In the process of taking a drink from the
bottle, he lowered it.
    Brook swallowed and looked away, moving,
turning and jostling people, getting back up the steps.
    “Are you okay?”
    She swung her gaze toward Renee who had
spoken, just before going through the door. “Yeah, sure.” Brook’s
smile felt strained. “I’m beat. Ready to head home.”
    Searching her gaze, Renee nodded. “I’ve made
progress getting a band together. I’ll call you. I’ve talked to
Jordan—the girl who works at Rafe's, about it before. She’s
in—”
    “Sure.” Brook was not together, and was not
able to fake it at the moment.
    Renee must have sensed it because she let her
go inside.
    ~*~
    Coy was still staring ahead—as if Brook’s
image would reappear in that spot, instead of the blur of family
who passed by.
    He’d quit the backyard game, and had Max take
his place, because his knee was still healing inside. He could feel
the strain on the tendons.
    He wondered how long she had stood there.
    He wondered—if people could see his legs were
shaking.
    He finally turned and half leaned against the
house, his leather athletic shoes digging into the grass. After
peeling up the T-shirt, using the hem to wipe his face, he rubbed
the cold sweat from the bottle over his brow.
    Shit. Shit. He arched his chin, finished the
drink, and tossed the plastic in a bin at the corner of the yard.
Hands falling lax, his head slightly back, and pressing on the
cedar planks, he let loose a string of curses that did nothing to
help his chaotic insides.
    Why was it, that pictures were different?
They were flat and un-animated. In the flesh, in the rays of
sunset…Brook Logan took his breath away as