Read A Dream to Cling To for Free Online Page B

smiled at the two of them as Brittany shrugged into her jacket and headed wordlessly for the door. Sam was only an inch or two behind. “It’s a great day, you know,” he philosophized to their backs. “The fusion of autumn and winter, a time to—”
    Brittany spun around and stared at him, a tiny smile pulling at the edges of her mouth. “Dr. Frank, what are you trying to say?”
    He smiled and lifted one shoulder, then looked at Sam, who had also turned. “Say, do you play chess, Sam?”
    “Sure do.”
    Dr. Frank nodded slowly, a pleasant, knowing grin spread across his wide face. “I thought so. We’ll have to play, you and I. Now, off with you both. And have agrand day.” He pushed his glasses back in place and leaned forward across his desk, shuffling papers.
    Brittany looked at him for a moment, then shook her head resignedly and walked out the door with Sam a heartbeat behind.
    Sam helped Brittany load her animals, then settled into the lumpy front seat of her van and checked over his shoulder for possible loose animals. All except Dunkin were confined in small cages, with rabbits and kittens sharing habitats, and multicolored puppies yelping from behind silver grids.
    “Fasten your seat belts, pals,” he cautioned them. “Looks like we’re ready to launch.”
    With a lurch Brittany pulled the van out of the gravel parking lot and out onto the main thoroughfare. She often had company on Petpals visits, she thought. A fair number of volunteers from the local community came on a regular basis. So shape up, she scolded herself silently, and stop acting as if this is unusual. Treat this for what it is: a rather unorthodox business meeting.
    “You’re going to have to ask me questions, I suppose,” she murmured, her eyes focusing on the road. “I’m not very good at coming up with things to talk about.”
    Sam examined her profile carefully, her soft words lingering between them. She tried to smile away the hesitancy in her voice, and when she did, he noticed the dimples that appeared on each side of her mouth. Something stirred inside him, and he fought the urge to touch those dimples, to trace the slight curve of her lips as they turned into a smile. Instead, he pulled a brown paper bag out of his briefcase and slipped it into her lap.
    “Don’t worry about talking, or questions,” he said. “It’ll all come when it should. Here, this is for you.”
    She looked down at the package for a second, then back at the road. “What’s this?”
    “A gift for letting me impose on your day like this.”
    When she stopped at a red light, she opened the bag and pulled out a large hardcover book. The fine glossy cover pictured a beautiful walnut door set against a pure white background. The title,
Come In
, was printed in beautiful script down the side. “Oh, Sam, this is the photo study you mentioned.”
    “Pure coffee table stuff, but fun.”
    “It’s beautiful! So you really are an author.”
    “I take pictures. The doors speak for themselves. They really didn’t need me to write much about them.”
    She ran her fingers over the smooth cover, admiring the purity of the photo. “A photographer,” she said softly. “And a game designer. And I wonder what else you are?”
    The words were spoken almost to herself, but Sam picked up on the question and sat back in the seat, his fingers laced behind his head, smiling as he mulled it over. “Hmmm, that’s a toughie. A dreamer, I guess, a romantic. Someone born in the wrong century my mother used to tell me.”
    “Oh? Were you too early or too late?”
    “Well, Madeline Lawrence, bless her, thought perhaps I would have been happier earlier in time.”
    “The ancient Greeks, perhaps?” Brittany could easily see him as a Grecian scholar, white robe draped dramatically over that wonderful body.…
    He laughed. “Well, Renaissance, actually, although I’ve also been accused by that same lady of living with one foot stuck in tomorrow.” He shrugged