I'd Know You Anywhere: A Novel

Read Online I'd Know You Anywhere: A Novel by Laura Lippman - Free Book Online Page A

Book: I'd Know You Anywhere: A Novel by Laura Lippman Read Free Book Online
Authors: Laura Lippman
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
Ads: Link
sure she gave precise directions. Only she kept getting a little mixed up over the street names, trying to give him directions according to landmarks he couldn’t know—the Baileys’ house, the nursery school where her little sister went, the High’s store.
    â€œI admit, I just can’t follow all these directions,” he said with an aw-shucks grin. “Are you going that way? Maybe you could show me.”
    Oh, no, she wasn’t going that far. She just had to catch a bus to Route 40.
    Maybe he could take her as far as she was going?
    The sun was strong, so powerful that everything looked white, unreal. This was a pale girl, one who didn’t get to spend her afternoons at the pool. She was heading to work. He could take her to work, Walter said, and then she could draw him a map on—where did she work?
    â€œAn ice-cream parlor.”
    â€œFriendly’s? Swensen’s? Baskin-Robbins?”
    â€œJust a local place. It’s kind of old-fashioned.”
    She could draw him a map on a napkin, then, once he dropped her off. How would that be?
    He waited until she was in the cab of the truck and they had driven a little ways before pointing out that she would be early for her shift. Right? She had been walking to a bus stop, and the bus would take so much longer than a direct shot in the truck. He was hungry. Was she hungry? Would she like to stop for something?
    She got to eat free at work, she said.
    Well, gosh, that was great, but he sure didn’t expect her to give him the same deal.
    â€œNo,” she said. “The manager is really strict, always looking out for girls who gave freebies to their…friends.”
    â€œBoyfriends?” he asked, and she blushed. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    She considered the question, which struck him as odd. Seemed a clear yes-or-no proposition to him. Maybe she had a boyfriend who didn’t satisfy her. Maybe she was thinking about breaking up with him but was tenderhearted, didn’t want to hurt his feelings. What a nice girl she was.
    â€œAnyway,” she said, not answering him either way, “it’s only ice cream, no burgers or hot dogs or even pizza. We had hot pretzels for a while, but no one wanted them and—”
    Then maybe they could stop at this little place he knew, by a stream? There was a metal stand, kind of like an old-fashioned trailer, and it made the best steak sandwiches. There was no such place, not nearby, but Walter had heard a gentleman at the shop describe the steak sandwiches he had eaten in his youth, back in Wisconsin.
    Walter got lost, looking for the steak shack that wasn’t, driving deeper and deeper into what turned out to be a state park. He made conversation, asked again if she had a boyfriend. She hemmed and hawed but finally said no. Good, he wouldn’t like a girl who would cheat on her boyfriend. She was getting nervous, her eyes skating back and forth, but he promised her that she would be on time for work. He told her he was surprised that a girl as pretty as she was didn’t have a boyfriend. He could tell she liked hearing that, yet she continued to hug the door a little. The road ran out and he parked, told her that he had screwed up, the steak place was on the other side of the creek, but they could cross it and be there in five minutes, if she would just take his hand. Once he had his hand in hers, he tickled the palm with his middle finger, a trick he had heard from Earl, before Earl ran off and joined the Marines. It was a signal and, if the girl liked you, she tickled back. Or maybe if she just didn’t jerk her hand away, he decided, that was proof enough that she was up for things.
    He tried to take it slow, but she kept talking about work, fretting about being late, and then she started to cry. She cried harder when he kissed her, and he was pretty sure he was a good kisser. She cried so hard that snot ran out of her nose, which was gross, and

Similar Books

Death in the Air

Shane Peacock

Fatal Headwind

Leena Lehtolainen

Widow Town

Joe Hart

Reach Me

J. L. Mac, Erin Roth

Graveyard Games

Sheri Leigh