Read Online Suspended by Taryn Elliott - Free Book Online Page B

in the freezer.”
    “Ah.” She opened the bottom drawer of the huge refrigerator
and spotted the blue pack, pulled it out, and slapped it on his swelling hand.
    “Ow.”
    “Don’t be a baby.”
    He winced. “You’re something else.”
    “That’s what they tell me.” She turned back to the freezer
and took out the pint of ice cream she’d seen.
    “Hey. Crappy Florence Nightingale routine I can forgive.
Stealing my Cherry Garcia? That’s a no.”
    “Spoons?”
    He sighed. “Drawer behind you.”
    “Got it.” She hip-checked the drawer shut, then popped the
lid on the pint and handed him a spoon. “I just said no to money. I deserve ice
cream.”
    “You don’t have to say no.”
    “Yeah.” She dug in and carved out a dense spoonful of the pink
confection of perfection. “I do.”
    He plunged his spoon into the hole she’d made. “What is it
with you two?”
    She shrugged. “Did you take a handout to get where you are?”
    He met her gaze and squinted. “I see what you did there.”
    Kendall grinned around a mouthful of cherry goodness.
    “I just want to help.”
    “I know, and I’m sure Shane appreciates it when he’s not
being grouchy. So he’s really not this bitchy all the time?”
    “Oh, no, he’s plenty bitchy.”
    Laughing, she sat back, then swallowed another bite. “Good
to know.”
    “But he’s a good guy. Just too serious sometimes. And now if
you guys move to New York, who’s going to be around to keep him in beer and
pretzels? Who’s going to drag him out of his workshop and make him watch a ball
game?”
    She twisted the spoon in her mouth and licked the bowl of
the spoon clean. “You’re going to miss him.”
    He made a production of scraping the inside of the carton.
“Yeah, I’m going to miss the grouch.”
    “And I gather from earlier that Shane doesn’t want you to be
a backer for a shop of his own?”
    “Yep.”
    So he was going to be her problem. And somehow she had to
convince Shane that selling the Heron wasn’t an option. Oh, and figure out what
to do with the overwhelming attraction between them at the same time.
    No big deal.
    “All we have is each other right now,” she said quietly.
    “That’s true. Are you sure you want to add sex into the mix?
Never mind. By the look on your face, I just answered my own question.”
    What? Was she wearing an “I had sex” T-shirt or something?
“Look, I appreciate that Shane’s got someone like you in his corner, but in the
end we’ve only got each other to figure this out.”
    “Tomorrow is soon enough for that. It’s nearly ten, and
you’re on East Coast time.”
    One a.m. was well past her bedtime. “I’m sorry we ended up
crashing here.”
    “That’s fine. You can crash in my sister’s room.”
    She nodded. Maybe with some sleep she could actually make an
intelligent decision in the morning. “Let me help you clean up.”
    He shook his head. “Go on up. I have a few more hours of
work to do, and I can do that down here.”
    She sighed and climbed the stairs. The house was silent. The
carpeting muffled her footfalls as she reached the landing. The first room’s
door was cracked open, but the lights were off. The dull scrape of glass over
wood made her pause. She could hear the low crash of surf from an open window.
    She pushed the door a little wider. “Shane?”
    Her eyes adjusted to the dim light. An ivory panel fluttered
around the sliding door. There was just enough moonlight to show the half-empty
bottle and heavy tumbler with a shot’s worth of amber liquor inside sitting on
the desk. She moved into the room, then closed the door behind her.
    “Sure you want to do that, babe?”
    The husky tone of his voice didn’t sound slurred, but the
insolent babe brought that firefly
back to life in her chest. She followed his voice out the door and gripped the
doorjamb, stepping back into the room. The balcony was glass and steel like the
rest of the house. The ocean roared beneath them as the tide