Read Online Secrets of Ugly Creek by Cheryel Hutton - Free Book Online Page B

or whatever was listening.
    There was no answer, not that I really thought there would be. Sighing, I headed back to do my job.
    Mac didn’t look toward me the rest of the day. It would be hard to get information from a man who was ignoring me, that was all I was worried about. I will not admit to missing his smile. I will admit I felt a little bad about tackling him. Maybe more than a little.
    It was almost sundown when Mac called a halt to the filming. I went home, managed to talk to Mom for a while, then went out to the back porch to think. That damn Gibson McFain was about to make me crazy. I felt bad about knocking his glasses out of his hand. At least they were in a case and they didn’t seem to be hurt. I can’t figure out why he didn’t go for his phone. I’d seen him use it, and the thing looked top of the line. I’m quite sure it had a camera function. Why wasn’t that his first instinct? It would have been mine.
    I dropped my head to my hands and wondered if I was going crazy.
    Thirty minutes later, I was pulling up at Rosemary’s Bed & Breakfast to do the right thing. I hoped.
    Inside the B&B was a small sitting room, or at least that’s what Rosemary called it. I waited there for long enough that I was beginning to wonder if Mac would meet with me. I was considering how much longer to give him when he walked in the door.
    Arms crossed, face firmly in show-no-emotion mode, he stood looking at me. “Madison.”
    The best thing was to dive right in, kind of like taking off a sticky bandage. “I’m sorry.”
    “For what? Attacking me, or being wrong?”
    Irritation swirled through me. “That’s not fair.”
    He raised a single eyebrow.
    My irritation grew. “Look, my best friend really is a photographer. I’m used to her always reaching for her camera.”
    “So you didn’t want a photograph taken of what? An alien?”
    Irritation was becoming anger. This was ridiculous. “I have no idea what we saw.”
    He studied me, my face, my eyes. It was all I could do not to wiggle. “You’re hiding something.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I forced myself to look directly into his eyes.
    His small smile had my hands fisting.
    “So, there are secrets in this little town,” he said.
    “No, there aren’t.”
    His smile widened. “The lady protests too much, methinks.”
    I smiled back. “O, but she’ll keep her word.”
    He moved until he was so close I could smell his warm, spicy scent. “So you like Shakespeare?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good.” His hands grasped my shoulders and edged me toward him. His warm, firm lips touched mine. My body became molten lava.
    For the space of three heartbeats, I was totally lost. Reality swirled around us, but not touching us. It was wonderful. It was crazy.
    I shoved at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    He stepped back without letting go of me. “What we’ve both wanted since I yanked you out of that mud.”
    “You’ve lost it.”
    “Have I?”
    “Yes.”
    When he pulled me close again I didn’t fight him. Only a knock at the door separated us.
    Kate Stone shoved in and glared at me so hard she looked constipated. “What’s she doing here?” she asked.
    “Nothing,” I said. “I was just leaving.”
    I pushed past Stone and out the door.
    Back in my Aveo, I wondered if I wasn’t the one who had lost it.
    ****
    After dinner, I sat on Mom’s back steps and spent a good hour going over in my mind every minute I’d spent with Mac, and every word we’d said to each other. Then I called Liza to see what she had to say about the events. And to find out if she was, in fact, angry with me.
    “We saw this little creature,” I told her a few minutes later, “but he didn’t seem interested in taking a picture or getting it on film or anything.”
    “Is he a good kisser?” Liza asked.
    If she’d been physically present, I’d have strangled her. As it was, I could only grip my cell phone tighter and clinch my teeth.