Read Online Rainsinger by Barbara Samuel, Ruth Wind - Free Book Online

She did a little victory dance under her basket.
    “Gloating is a singularly unattractive trait in a female,” he said, wiping his brow with the back of his wrist.
    She tossed him the ball. “I’ll give you another chance.”
    “You’re on. Tomorrow, same place, same time.” He tossed Joleen the ball. “Thanks for the warning, kid. She would have killed me.”
    The girl beamed at him. In that blazing second, Winona realized her little sister was quite helplessly smitten with the handsome, athletic man. Even as the knowledge sank in, Joleen jumped to her feet and hurried to match her steps to Daniel’s as they headed for the house in the cricket-shot evening.
    Winona trailed behind, a tiny worry in her heart. Joleen was very fragile, and easily wounded right now. Winona didn’t want her to get so attached to Daniel that the end of the summer—and its resultant separation from him—would cause more pain. She would have to keep an eye on the situation.
    Absently she rubbed her aching elbow and smiled. He sure could play a mean game of basketball, though. She anticipated their next game with no small measure of excitement.
    * * *
     
    His knee was bleeding, and once they were safely in the house, Daniel used that excuse to take himself off to the bathroom to doctor it.
    Safely out of sight behind the door, he sank down on the side of the bathtub with a quiet groan. The knee alone would have been punishment enough, but every muscle and joint in his whole body hurt. His arms. His rear end. His hip where he’d landed against the concrete, his shoulder where she’d slammed into him.
    As much as he ached now, he knew it was nothing to what tomorrow morning would bring. And she wanted to play again tomorrow night!
    If he lived that long.
    But even as he poured hydrogen peroxide over the pebble-infested cut on his knee, Daniel felt good. She had been a star in college. Good enough, everyone said, that she could have gone pro. With men. That he could hold his own against her made him feel pretty damned proud. He wasn’t over the hill yet.
    When he returned to the kitchen, a baggy pair of sweats concealing his torn-up knee, a tall glass of tea awaited him. Winona leaned on the counter, her curls springing out from below the sweatband in wild wisps, her arms glowing with sweat. Her simple cotton tank had a smear of dirt at the hem, and her knees looked a little beat up, too.
    “I thought I was the only one,” he said with a chuckle, pointing out the marks on her knees.
    “Nope.” She lifted her elbow to show him the scrape there. “I’m going to go to town for roller skating pads before I play you again. You’re crazy.”
    The brilliant gleam in her eye told him she meant it as a compliment.
    “Thanks.” He lifted his glass in a toast. “So are you. Where’s Joleen?”
    “Watching movies downstairs.” Winona drank deeply and sighed. “Great game, Daniel, really. I don’t meet many people who can play me that hard.”
    He laughed, and was surprised at the sound of it rolling out of his chest, so free and natural. “I can imagine.” He settled in a chair gently and grunted. “Who taught you?”
    “My uncle. Right out there.” She gestured with her glass of tea in the general direction of the court. “Jericho was crazy about basketball, and when I started getting so tall, he had that slab poured so he could teach me.” She brushed at dirt on her tank top. “Did you play in college?”
    “No. Didn’t go until a lot later.”
    “Really? Why not?”
    He shrugged. “I just didn’t really understand that it was possible, not then. So I joined the army.”
    “And discovered computers.”
    He chuckled. “Yes.”
    “I’ve been out of the country so long it’s a little bewildering to see all this computer stuff that’s taken off in the past few years. I don’t understand any of it.”
    He’d never given it much thought, but now that he considered it, he realized that for all its complexity, the