Read Online The Christmas Child by Linda Goodnight - Free Book Online Page A

naturally, given the time of morning, and a scruffy shadow of whiskers outlined his jaw and mouth. The bottom lip was fuller than the top and held ina grim line, as tightly controlled as his emotions. Everything about Kade McKendrick was close to the vest. His hair stuck up here and there, too, a messy look she found deliciously appealing. He looked like the kind of man with a holster under his shirt and a gun in the back of his jeans, the kind of man who’d fight for those he loved.
    Be careful, Sophie.
    She thrust a carton of yogurt at him. “Breakfast.”
    Kade lifted an eyebrow but didn’t accept her offer. “You said coffee.”
    His male grumpiness tickled her. She sniffed the air, certain she whiffed fresh coffee already brewing. “Not a morning person?”
    Eyes, dark as her favorite chocolate and more secret than the CIA, mocked her.
    â€œ You obviously are,” he said.
    â€œI am.” She couldn’t help waking up full of energy and happiness. Life was good. Mornings brought a clean slate, an empty new twenty-four hours to enjoy. “I’m also a woman of my word. Try this while yours is brewing.” She handed over the thermos. “If it’s any consolation, my dad hates yogurt, too.”
    â€œMan thing. You could have brought cookies instead.” His tone was somewhere between a grouse because she hadn’t and a tease. She liked when Kade teased. It was as if having fun was buried somewhere inside and on occasion bubbled to the surface like lava too long compressed. She’d have to work on unearthing his happy side more often.
    â€œWe can make cookies later,” she said, and suddenly the idea of bumping around in a spice-scented kitchen with Kade sounded like a great way to spend a Saturday.
    â€œDavey might like that.”
    She wanted to ask if Kade liked the idea, too, but shefigured now was a good time to get her runaway brain under control.
    â€œIs he still asleep?” They were standing in the entry, her view into the living area blocked by Kade’s lithe, jean-clad body.
    Kade nudged his chin to one side. “Back there. He needed a real bed for a change.”
    The reminder that Davey had likely slept out in the open for some time took her mind off the deadly handsome lawman. “May I look in on him?”
    He set the thermos on the table—a sacrifice she knew—and led the way down a short hall to a bedroom. The door was open and Davey lay on his back covered to the chin. A furry dog snout was propped on his chest.
    â€œSheba won’t let him out of her sight,” Kade said in an undertone.
    Sophie nodded. “As if she knows he needs her.”
    â€œShe knows.”
    They watched the sleeping boy and dog for another minute. Sophie grew more aware of the room, of the masculine trappings. A jacket here, a pair of boots there, the faint, lingering scent of male grooming. In one corner leaned a battered guitar. This was Kade’s bedroom, although the covers on the bed were ruffled only where Davey slept. Had Kade not been to bed last night?
    Davey squirmed in his sleep, and a frown passed over the small face. Sheba nuzzled his cheek, and Davey, eyes still closed, wrapped both arms around the dog’s neck and settled.
    Kade tugged Sophie’s elbow. Even though she wanted to stay and watch the sweetness that was dog and Davey at rest, she trailed Kade back down the short hall to Ida June’s blue-and-yellow kitchen. Colors of the sun and the sky, she thought, as though Kade’s aunt wanted the beautyand freshness of a June day year-round. Sophie got that, although Christmas colors were her favorite.
    â€œHave you notified the sheriff and the Cunninghams that Davey is here?” she asked, and then answered just as quickly. “Of course you have. Dumb question. You were a cop.”
    â€œAm.” Kade poured himself a cup of coffee from her thermos.
    â€œPardon?”
    â€œI am a cop. On R