Read Online Inseparable Strangers by Jill Patten - Free Book Online Page A

Gainesville?” I asked while taking out orange juice and milk from
the fridge. I held each one up allowing him to pick. He pointed at the milk, so
I put the juice back.
    “Just a few days.
I grew up here, but moved away several years ago.”
    “Coffee?”
    He nodded.
    “Oh, did you go
off to college or did a job take you away?” From his appearance alone, I knew
he’d never stepped foot on a college campus, but I was throwing questions left
and right in an attempt to get him to fulfill my curiosity.
    With a mournful
chuckle, he replied, “No, I wish. It was more of an opportunity to start over.
Things weren’t going well here. A fresh new start was needed so I decided to
leave.”
    There was
something about his words I found unsettling. I was usually good at reading
people and knowing when they were feeding me a line of bullshit. Some of his
story might’ve been legit, but the other part I wasn’t buying.
    When I turned back
around, he had already gobbled up his breakfast before his coffee finished
brewing. The way he inhaled his food told me I was right about him not eating
in possibly days. “I can make more if you’d like. The bacon is actually turkey
bacon. I prefer the ready to eat kind rather than the fattening stuff that
shrinks up to hardly anything after it has been fried to death,” I said,
handing him his fresh cup of coffee. I wasn’t sure if he preferred cream or
sugar, so I placed both in front of him in case. Nonchalantly, I watched him as
he picked up the mug to take a sip. Steam swirled around his face as his lips
pressed against the ceramic cup. I imagined what my reaction would be to him if
I’d met him in different circumstances. There was no lying about it; he was
attractive in an unusual way. Unusual for me anyway. He wasn’t exactly my type,
but there was this strange pull I had toward him. He carried this mysterious
aura around him. He interested me.  
    “Do you want to
ask me something else?” he asked, breaking my train of thought.
    My brows stitched
together in confusion. “No, why do you ask?” Actually, I had many other
questions for him but I wasn’t prepared.
    He sat his cup
down, but didn’t remove his hands from the warmth. “You were looking at me like
you had something hanging on the tip of your tongue.”
    Oh shit! I’m so
busted.
    As he wiped the
hair around his mouth with a napkin, a wave of nausea hit me when a small piece
of egg crumbled further into his beard.
    “You…um…,” a dry
heave hit me, “some…egg,” another heave, “in your…beard,” I heaved again,
pointing to his face. I ran to the bathroom and doubled over the sink as my
stomach wretched again. My mouth flooded with saliva. Spitting repeatedly in
the sink, my tummy started to settle as I focused on the new boots I’d
purchased the other day.
    Luckily, I was
able to keep my breakfast down. There was no question about it, his beard was
going to have to go. The thoughts of pubic hair on a face with food in it
nearly sent me to the sink again.
    A knock came at
the door. “Lennox, are you okay?” His voice was soft with concern.
    The water rinsed
away the remnants of my near miss. “Yeah, I think I’ll survive. Sorry to inform
you but, if you’re planning on staying here until your wounds heal, that beard
is going to have to go,” I instructed from the other side of the door. “You
don’t have to shave it completely, but it has to be cleaned up.” There were two
benefits from my ultimatum: one, I would be able to keep my food down; the
other, I would finally get to see the man hidden behind that hairy mask.
    When I opened the
door, he was leaning against the wall. His vibrant green eyes warmed over me as
I walked out. It was odd, but strangely pleasant. Everything about him was
peculiar, indifferent, but it didn’t send warning signals to my brain like it
should. His presence almost seemed to immobilize my brainwaves.
     
    ~~~
     
    Now that Aaron was
clean, I allowed him to sit in