Good Girl Seeks Bad Rider

One How strange it was to see a man in her garage, but if any man had a right to be there, it was Bryan Aster. "Are you sure, Lara?" he asked, with his head under the pickup's raised hood. "It's in great shape. And with that low mileage, you could get several thousand more than I can pay you." "I don't need it, and Spence wanted you to have it." Bryan's big, rough fingers continued to grip the top of the hood, but she doubted if he was still looking at the truck's inner workings. Being this close to her husband's best friend was disconcerting in ways she didn't want to hold up to the light. Part of her wanted him to leave, but she'd spent so much time alone since Spence's death -- and even before. It was time to rejoin the land of the living and who better with than a man she'd known at least ten years? "So you're going to move, are you?" He slammed the hood, rattling her nerves even more than they already were. "I have to. I didn't tell Spence this, but it's in foreclosure. With the medical bills and his not being able to work and my having to take so much time off -- What's that look about?" Bryan shrugged, the gesture taking her back to when they'd all been in college and he had held down the catcher's position on the school's baseball team during that incredible year when the team had won the state championship. "I wish you'd told me." "Why?" She tried a mischievous smile, something she hadn't felt like doing in too long. "You been robbing banks and are now giving away your ill-gotten gains? Even if you were rich, I wouldn't want anything. I don't want to live here anymore." Lifted eyebrows served as Bryan's response. How healthy he looked, tanned with a full head of dark hair, the faintest shadow of lines around his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. Funny, she'd never noticed that small dark mole on his right cheek, but maybe she'd never studied him like this before. Hadn't felt his energy before. "Do you think I should stay?" she asked. "I want you to do what you want to, Lara. You're the only one who knows what's right." Lara. Damn, why did the sound of her name coming from his lips make her nerves jump? "I'm still relearning what I want. Look, it's hot in here, and there's beer in the fridge." "There is? I didn't think Spence was doing any drinking near the end." "He wasn't. This is left over from one of the last times you came to see him. He asked me to pick up some." Again, Bryan let silence do its work. He led the way back into the house, his movements as familiar as if he lived here. He didn't of course because he and Carol had a condo some two miles away, but he'd been here countless times and probably knew the place's creaks and groans as well as she did. Taking two beers out of the refrigerator, he popped the lid on one and handed it to her. "I don't -- " she started, unable to take her eyes off his hand. "Today you do. Come on, you always said you'd stoop to a beer if the day was hot enough. It's hot." Yes, she acknowledged as they wandered into the air-conditioned living room and plunked themselves into adjacent recliners, summer had indeed arrived while she was too busy with the business of dying to pay attention. After briefly holding the can against her cheek, she took a sip. Wonderful! His form filled the chair, shoulders scrunched a little to accommodate the inadequate space. Although he hadn't crouched behind home plate for years, he still carried himself as if he belonged there protecting his turf, battling for a win, daring a runner to knock him down. "So," Bryan said, "do you know where you'll be moving to?" "Not really. There's a fairly new apartment complex near work but after having my own house -- so much adjustment." Once again Bryan didn't immediately respond. Had he always been like this around her, not quite comfortable? Or was she a painful reminder of the good friend he'd lost? "You look tired," he saiHarper, Vonna is the author of 'Good Girl Seeks Bad Rider', published 2008 under ISBN 9781416576693 and ISBN 141657669X.