Read Online Sleight Of Hand by Kate Kelly - Free Book Online

eyes.
    He broke eye contact and shifted back up on
to the couch, startled by his lack of control. Okay, maybe he
couldn't check his physical response to Sarah, but he could lay it
on the line, tell her where he was with this.
    He rested his arms on his knees and stared at
his hands. "It's going to happen, you know."
    "How can you be so sure?"
    He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Because
we both want it to."
    "Don't push me, okay?" She blushed as she
glanced up at him. "I need more time."
    His tight knot of need softened as he watched
her. He surprised himself as he stood and planted a soft kiss on
the top of her head. "Don't worry about it, babe. These things have
a way of working out a whether you think about them or not."
    "Where did you learn how to do that?"
    "What?" He smiled, pleased to see her uncoil
from the tight ball she formed.
    "Flip someone down."
    "Don't remember. I picked it up along the
way."
    He started to limp back toward the kitchen
when her next comment stopped him cold. "I can't figure you
out."
    She knelt up and looked at him over the back
of the couch. "There's something...." She shook her head, a puzzled
look on her face. "People make a kind of sense. You know, like
she's a go-getter, and he's a shuffler, that kind of thing. But
you...." She leaned her elbows on the back of the couch and studied
him.
    He forced himself to laugh, to move past the
tight feeling in his chest. "Don't leave me hanging."
    "I don't know." Sarah laughed with him. "You
tell me."
    "You think too much. I'm a
what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy. There's no mystery
here."
    "But that's the problem. It doesn't add up
the way it should."
    "And you know all this after a few hours of
my company." He rolled his eyes. "You got a crystal ball tucked
away somewhere?"
    He'd intended to go in low and hard, but he
hadn't anticipated his sudden sense of loss when the lively
intelligence in her eyes dulled.
    "You're right." She sank back down on the
couch. "I'm being silly."
    He tried to think of something to say to make
her feel better, then cursed softly. What did he think he was he
doing? If he starting caring about how Sarah felt, he'd mess up big
time.
    "I'm going to catch a shower." He threw the
words over his shoulder and hobbled as fast as he could out of the
room.
    Fifteen minutes later, feeling warm and
relaxed from the hot shower, Chance pulled on a fresh pair of jeans
and made his way back out to the living room. He heard Sarah moving
around her room as he passed it. He breathed a sigh of relief. It
had been a long day, and he needed time to work things over in his
mind.
    Harvey must have dropped the cell phone off
while he was in the shower. Without stopping, he grabbed the phone
from where Sarah had placed it prominently on the counter and
escaped to his bedroom. He stripped down to his boxers and
stretched out on the bed as he listened to the phone ring.
    "Steve." He yelled, trying to make himself
heard over the background noise of Steve's bar.
    "Chance?"
    "Yeah. I can hardly hear you."
    "Give me a sec," Steve yelled back.
    Chance gripped the phone in his hand as he
listened to the din recede.
    "Okay, can you hear me now?"
    "Yeah, perfect. Sounds like a busy night at
the bar."
    "It's still raining down here. Listen Chance,
I think I've got bad news."
    Chance sat up, bracing himself to take
another blow. "What's up?"
    "It's Agent Gage. He was hanging around here
this afternoon acting kind of strange."
    "What do you mean? What did he say?"
    "Well, he wanted to know where you were. I
told him the story we worked out," Steve assured him. "You know,
that you knocked up a lady and had to get out from under."
    Chance pinched the bridge of his nose. The
idea had been Steve's, not his. He'd suspected Gage wouldn't buy
into it. "He didn't go for it, did he?"
    "I don't think so," Steve agreed glumly. "He
creeped me out."
    "What does that mean?"
    "I know you're going to have a hard time
believing this, but the guy acted almost happy.