One More Dance by Roxanne Rustand (best ebook reader for pc txt) 📗

in front of a little boy with tear-streaked cheeks not more than three or four years old.

Behind them, a middle-aged man in a white apron bent over a broom and dustpan, sweeping up shards of broken glass.

A surly woman with a tangle of long, brassy hair gripped the boy’s hand and fixed Jared with a challenging glare. “So what are you gonna do about it, college boy? You got thirty dollars?”

The little boy twisted within her iron grasp to look up at her, his cheeks streaked with tears and his mouth trembling. The fear in his eyes made Kate want to gather him up in her arms and run for the nearest child protection agency.

“It was my fault, not the boy’s,” Jared said evenly. Only his white-knuckled grip on his car keys betrayed his tension. “I’ll be responsible for the cost.” His gaze flicked to the boldly lettered sign above an open display case of horse and dog figurines that read, YOU BREAK IT, IT’S YOURS!

“You heard the college kid,” the woman snarled, yanking on the child’s arm as she started for the door. “He’s the one who broke it, and he’s the one paying.”

Kate stepped aside so the woman could sweep past her. “Just take it easy on your son, ma’am,” Jared said. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”

The woman glanced back over her shoulder, her expression stormy and her mouth opening for another retort. When her eyes met Jared’s, she snapped her mouth shut and her stride faltered, then she disappeared out into the night.

Kate did a double take at the lethal expression in Jared’s eyes. He was angry on behalf of the defenseless child, and she suddenly knew that it had been curious small hands that had dropped the figurine. Jared had jumped to the boy’s defense to save him from his mother’s wrath.

And right there, in the doorway of Mel’s Grocery, Kate felt her heart tumble out and land at her feet.

Jared stood up in one fluid motion, nodded to acknowledge her and turned to the storekeeper. “I’ve got a ten on me right now. Can I sign an IOU for the balance?”

“And I’d see you again when?” The older man gave him a knowing look. “I’ll take a credit card for the rest.”

“Can I work it off? Just tell me what to do, and I’ll be here.”

If he’d said that he had purple elephants waiting outside, Kate couldn’t have been more surprised. Surely he carried a handful of credit cards with sky-high limits and had an endless flow of family money.

Jared’s cheeks turned ruddy. He stepped closer to the man and lowered his voice to say something, then he slipped off his watch and handed it over. “I’ll be back, just as I said. Tomorrow evening and the night after that. This is for security.”

He gave Kate a quick, embarrassed glance as he turned on his heel and headed for the door. Only after he was gone did she remember to snap her mouth shut. Jared Mathers, son of a state senator, was going to work off his debt in a dreary little corner grocery?

She grabbed a frozen pizza from the case and took it to the front of the store, fished a five-dollar bill from her pocket, and cleared her throat to catch the attention of the clerk.

He set aside his broom and rounded the counter wearing the watch Jared had given him, a smirk on his beefy face. “Dumb kid,” he muttered, glancing at his wrist. “You know him?”

“A—a little.”

“He thinks I fell for it, but what would some college kid be doing with a Rolex? It’s gotta be a street corner knockoff. If he doesn’t come back, I’ll call the cops. I never forget a face and name.”

She stared at the gleaming watch. Expensive watches had never been a part of her world, but if this was a knockoff, it had to be an incredible copy. “Jared is an honorable guy. He’ll do whatever he promised to do.”

The man snorted as he rang up the pizza. “Well, you tell pretty boy that he’d better, if he knows what’s good for him. I won’t hesitate to press charges. Hear?”

A shiver of worry crawled through her. What would that do to Jared’s goal to enter law?

She’d misplaced the small scrap of paper with his phone number, and he was probably unlisted. He likely had a private condo in some exclusive area near the campus...unreachable by the likes of her.

“I—I don’t know where he lives, honest.” Scooping up her change and the pizza, she hurried to the door. “I’ll tell him if I see him, though.”

Outside, she scanned the darkened street. Could he still be close by? Her heart lifted at the possibility. She’d have a chance to relay the message, then maybe they’d talk awhile. Though a small, inner voice reminded her that they couldn’t be more different, the thought of his smoky silver gaze and deep laughter warmed her clear to her toes despite the crisp October chill in the air.

A half-dozen college girls ambled down the sidewalk together, each with a backpack slung over one shoulder, laughing. Across the street, a young couple walked hand in hand through a drift of autumn leaves.

But Jared was nowhere to be seen.

KATE LOOKED FOR HIM on campus the following day, then asked Deanna and several friends if they knew where he lived. No one seemed to know anything about him, the college refused to release contact information, and there were no phone book listings that were even close.

Finally—as a last resort—she crossed the commons in front of the Student Union and intercepted two of the girls she’d seen at the party where she’d first met him. Oblivious, they swept past her, deep in conversation over some gaffe by a fellow sorority member.

“Wait—please,” Kate called after them.

They turned as one and stared at her faded jeans and medical pullover smock emblazoned with the vet school logo, each with a single eyebrow raised in elegant