Read Online Mind Reader by Vicki Hinze - Free Book Online Page B

brushed their shoulders. “Megan had just started dating. Her first boyfriend came around to pick her up. They were going to the movies.”
    He paused for a second. Caron didn’t push.
    “Charley recognized the guy and refused to let Megan go. He was a hood, Caron. Charley wouldn’t have inter fered if he’d been a decent guy.”
    “He was protecting his daughter.”
    “Yes.” Parker put the carton on the dash. “Megan was angry and upset. Charley tried to calm her down. So did Mom. But she wasn’t ready to be calmed.”
    “At fifteen, a girl holds a lot of righteous indignation when people get into her love life.”
    “Exactly,” he said, sounding relieved. “Anyway, when Charley left for work, Megan still wasn’t speaking to him.
    And about four the next morning, the officers came to tell us that Charley had been shot.”
    Caron could only imagine the horrible shock and pain of that visit. She reached out and touched Parker’s sleeve. “It was Megan’s date, wasn’t it? He shot Charley.”
    Parker nodded, and for an instant she saw pain flash in his eyes. It was gone so quickly, at first she thought she’d imagined it. But she felt him tremble under her hand and she knew that she hadn’t. Parker had been very close to his father, and she would have bet her life that he hadn’t shared his grief or loss with many others.
    She’d been wrong about him, thinking he was cold and lacked compassion. He wasn’t. He was one of those men who lived close to the bone, kept things that mattered pri vate.   Boy, did she relate.
    A porch light across the street from Decker’s flicked on. Parker grunted. “That’s the third time.”
    “I haven’t seen it.”
    “You’ve been watching me and not seeing anything else. Tunnel vision.”
    Caron wished that weren’t true. Then she wouldn’t have glimpsed inside Parker Simms and become even more attracted to him. But she had. “Not guilty,” she lied. “I’ve been fixed on Decker’s.”
    “Right.”
    Knowing she’d never swallow another bite after telling that whopper and having it disputed, she wrapped the uneaten half of the burger and put it on the dash. “What have I missed?”
    “Two doors back, left side of the street. There’s a cou ple in the car, arguing.”
    Caron looked back. The car was parked directly under the streetlamp, and she could see the outlines of two peo ple inside.
    “That dog,” Parker went on, pointing half a block up the street, “is making hash of somebody’s garbage. He’s strewing it all over the place.”
    “What dog?”
    Parker leaned closer. “That one.”
    His body heat flowed to her, seeping deep inside her. She moved away. “Okay, so I’ve been fixed on Decker’s,” she said defensively, and not honestly. “But that’s why we’re here.”
    Parker gave her a look she couldn’t see well in the dim light, though she sure could feel it. “You’ve got to learn to expand, Caron. Not to fixate on one thing at a time.”
    “I have to focus,” she said, gripping the steering wheel. “Otherwise, I might miss something important.”
    The porch light flickered on a fourth time, and a woman peeked out through a curtained window. “She’s noticed us.”
    “Yes.” Parker dumped his empty carton into the sack, crunched it, and set it on the floorboard. “Her husband will be out in a minute.”
    As if on cue, the front door opened and a man stepped out onto the porch, wearing a yellow slicker and Mud Boots . The woman stood behind him, watching. He walked down the steps and headed toward them.
    Parker waited until the guy passed the end of the box hedge and turned onto the sidewalk. Then he pulled Caron into his arms and dipped his head to kiss her. Near her mouth, he paused and brushed her lips with his fingertip. Her eyes stretched wide. Very pretty, that. “Mustard,” he whispered, then covered her mouth with his.
    She let out a little gasp and pushed against his chest.
    “Shh, kiss me, Caron,” Parker