Read Online Look For Me By Moonlight by Mary Downing Hahn - Free Book Online Page A

disturbed.
    I’d looked forward to dinner all day long, but in just a few minutes Todd had ruined everything. Sniffling and snuffling, kicking, pouting, spilling milk—why hadn’t Dad taught him some manners? He let Todd get away with the most outrageous behavior just because he was little and cute. It wasn’t fair. Todd should have been fed in the kitchen and put to bed before we sat down at the table.
    Â 
    True to his promise, Vincent came downstairs an hour or so later. Sinking into the same chair he’d chosen the night before, he accepted a glass of red wine and sipped it slowly.
    Encouraged by a question from Vincent, Dad began talking about his novel. Despite five revisions, he was still bogged down in the second chapter.
    â€œEvery time I start a new book, I wonder if I’ll be able to finish it,” he admitted. “Beginnings are so damned hard. And then you get to the middle. After that, you have to face the end. Lord, sometimes I think I should have kept my teaching job.”
    Vincent twirled his glass slowly, nodding in agreement. “Writing’s a long, slow process. It affords me so little pleasure I often wonder why I make the effort.” One corner of his mouth rose sardonically. “Possibly because I can’t do anything else.”
    Todd chose that moment to start screaming for Dad and Susan. “Come quick, there’s a wolf under my bed,” he yelled from the upstairs hall. “Oh, for God’s sake, not another bad dream,” Dad muttered, earning an angry look from Susan, who was already hurrying toward the stairs.
    Dad got to his feet. “Excuse us, we’ll be back in a few minutes.” Glancing at me, he added, “Keep Vincent company, Cynda.”
    All day I’d dreamed of being alone with Vincent, but now that I was, my mouth was too dry to speak. I wanted to ask him about his car, I wanted to know where he’d been going in the snow, where he’d come from, but the silence grew, expanded, threatened to swallow me. I felt hot, then cold. I couldn’t say a word.
    Vincent looked at me inquiringly. “You seem uncomfortable, Cynda. Is something bothering you?”
    Slowly, hesitantly, I said, “I saw your Porsche in the parking lot. It looks just like a car I saw the night it snowed. It slowed down at our driveway, flashed its lights, then drove on by . . .”
    â€œSo it was you I glimpsed at the window.” Vincent leaned back in the chair and stretched his long legs toward the hearth. Firelight danced on the buckles of his boots. A ring on his right hand sparkled, a diamond stud in his ear glittered. “I sensed I’d be welcome here. That’s why I returned. I hope I wasn’t mistaken.”
    â€œOf course you’re welcome,” I said quickly. “Very welcome. I’m glad you’re here. So’s Dad. Susan too. We’re all glad.” I stopped, afraid of saying too much.
    â€œEveryone but Todd,” Vincent said wryly. “He certainly isn’t enjoying my visit.”
    â€œI don’t know what’s wrong with him,” I said. “It must be his cold or something. I hope he didn’t hurt your feelings.”
    Vincent smiled. “Children are such funny little creatures, more like pets than human beings, as unpredictable as cats in their likes and dislikes.”
    I glanced at Ebony. He sat on the windowsill, as tall and aloof as an Egyptian cat statue I’d seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalog. No friendlier than Todd, he refused to have anything to do with our guest.
    Vincent raised his glass. The red wine glowed in the firelight. “Just so you don’t share your brother’s feelings, Cynda.”
    â€œI don’t share anything with Todd except my father,” I said, eager to clarify things. “I’m staying here while my mother’s in Italy with my stepfather.”
    â€œI thought as much,” Vincent