Read Online Tymber Dalton by Out of the Darkness - Free Book Online Page A

He’d been six, and after his mom told him that, he’d had the mental image of looking like a small Elsie the Cow, a huge brass bell dangling from a collar around his neck.
    Sleepwalking. He drove his poor parents crazy until around age ten when he finally grew out of it. Then, as now, he never remembered his nightly excursions.
    “I’m sorry, Sami. I don’t remember anything. I must have been sleepwalking.”
    “Sleepwalking?” She yanked the shower curtain open, unmindful of the water splashing onto the floor. “You go out in the middle of the night and give me a severe case of the creeps and you were sleepwalking? Since when do you sleepwalk?” She turned away, leaving the shower curtain open.
    He drew it closed again. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand it. I haven’t done it in years, since I was a kid. My parents considered tying me to my bed for a while.”
    “Well, you better quit doing it, or you’ll find yourself locked out of the house. That ought to wake you up. I’ve put up with enough shit from you over the years, I certainly don’t need you adding ‘scaring the crap out of Sami’ to the list.”
    She walked into the bedroom and left him alone with his thoughts. He vaguely remembered a dream about the woods, something about a woman, perhaps. It was too vague and disjointed for him to remember anything of substance.
    He shook his head and finished showering.
     
    * * * *
     
    Sami was having coffee and a bagel when Steve made his way downstairs a few minutes later. He walked up behind her and kissed her on the back of the neck. She stiffened, but didn’t pull away.
    That was a good sign.
    “Honey, I’m sorry. Tell you what, I’ll make it up to you.”
    “How?”
    “I’m yours all day. Whatever you want, it’s done.”
    She turned to him, doubt in her eyes. “You mean it?”
    He crossed his heart. “I promise.”
    “I just don’t understand you, Steve.”
    He didn’t have time to answer, because a large box truck rumbled up the dirt driveway, bouncing and swaying on its overtaxed springs. Sami finished her bagel and went out the kitchen door to meet them. Steve longingly eyed the coffeepot, then unlocked the living room door and propped it open.
    Two hours later, the furniture had been unloaded and dispersed to the proper rooms, some of it to be rearranged later when Sami could put her full energy into it. The truck rumbled down the driveway, riding much higher than it had on arrival.
    “That’s pretty nice,” Steve said, looking over the new furnishings.
    “Thank you.” She still moved things around, trying to find an arrangement she liked.
    “What’d you spend?”
    She glared at him. “Do you really want to have this conversation with me right now, after what you’ve put me through the past few weeks?”
    He held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry—you’re right.” He tried to make amends. “It looks nice. You did a good job picking it out.”
    His words softened her. “Thank you.”
    Normally he would have teased her by complaining about the expense, but he knew better than to push her buttons today.
    Especially after last night.
    Besides, if they had a house full of furniture she liked, it would be easier to talk her into buying the house, which he’d already decided to do.
    She wasn’t a shopaholic, but a houseful of new furniture improved her mood, and she even offered to make him lunch. He ate in the kitchen, trying to rest his back, while she stood in the living room, jockeying around the lighter pieces of furniture between bites. When he finished and felt it safe to emerge, he went to the living room and asked her about the next chore.
    “We’re buying a lawn mower. I need you to hook up the trailer while I offload the rest of the feed. We also need a pressure washer.”
    “I’m sorry I asked.” Inside he smiled. She was planning, which meant she might want to stay.
     
    * * * *
     
    They returned home with a new lawn tractor and a large pressure washer