Read Broken Heart 05 Over My Dead Body for Free Online Page A

date.”
    “Good.” What the hell was I doing? Having fun. Yeah. Fun. Anxiety skittered through me. I liked Brady a little too much to attempt casual and lighthearted. Besides, I’d never been the just-have-fun kind of girl. The only man I’d ever slept with was my husband. And before Jacob, I had rarely dated.
    Brady slapped the visor down, then gave me a little salute. The Vulcan’s engine revved, and that sexy roar vibrated right through me. Woo-hoo! I watched him take off, admiring both him and the bike. After he zoomed out of sight, I turned around and headed into the garage.
    I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to date Brady. I felt discombobulated. Okay. Wait. No need to feel that way. I pressed a hand against my chest and tried to suck in a steadying breath. Ouch.
    Okay, so I couldn’t steady my nerves. I’d learned my lesson about trusting too easily. I wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. All I had to do was guard my heart.
    While I waited for Damian to deliver the damaged pole, I tinkered on an old toaster. I thought the heating element was the problem, but it still didn’t operate after I replaced the Nichrome wire coils. There had to be another reason the electrical circuit wasn’t working. Hmm. Maybe something with the bread carriage or the spring—
    “Simone?”
    “Ahhh!” I jumped a foot (literally!) at the sound of a female’s hesitant voice. I whirled around, wide-eyed. Sheesh! Had my vampire senses turned off? This was the second time in the same day I hadn’t heard someone approach.
    Darlene Clark stood behind me.
    “Sorry, hon. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    She smiled at me, but since her fangs were showing, I wasn’t exactly comforted. She was my height, though she tended to wear ankle busters that made her three inches taller. She had blue eyes, curly black hair, and even before she was a vampire, skin like cream. I’d never seen her in anything but dresses—and none of those were Wal-Mart specials. Darlene was a blood- sucking Snow White.
    “Can I help you with something, Darlene?”
    “It’s my water,” she said. She looked embarrassed. “The pipes are busted in the kitchen.”
    “Again?” I grabbed a wet wipe from the tub I kept on the worktable and cleaned my hands. In December, Darlene’s kitchen pipes had frozen over and then burst. Her home was one of the oldest in town, right along with the LeRoy house, which had been relocated to the compound, the Silverstone mansion (the queen’s digs), and the McCree farm. I helped plug the leak, fix the pipes, and then clean up the mess. Like I said before, the ol’ water woo-woo came in handy now and again.
    “I fitted you with new copper pipes. What in the world could’ve happened?”
    Darlene nibbled her lip. “I don’t really know.”
    Everyone in Broken Heart had the Oklahoma drawl, but Darlene’s was thicker than most. Mine had been diluted by living in Nevada, but every now and then it crept into my words.
    “All right,” I said. “I’ll meet you over there.”
    “Oh. Well, I have the car. You could just hop in.” She smiled again, but her gaze skittered away.
    Unease wiggled through me. “Why didn’t you just call?”
    “I guess I wasn’t thinking straight. Marissa’s playing with Jenny over at Jessica’s house. I wanted to get it fixed before she got home.”
    Marissa had just turned seven; she was a year older than Glory. Her hair was a darker blond and her face more oval-shaped, but they looked a lot alike. Marissa must’ve taken after her father, whom Darlene had divorced a couple years ago, because I couldn’t see anything of the mother in the little girl. Except maybe the propensity for fancy dresses and shiny accessories.
    “I’m sorry, Simone.” Her hands fluttered around her face. “I just get so scatterbrained.”
    “Looks like you skipped eating, too.” I eyed her fangs. I always met my donor before I headed in to work. His name was Rick. He was twenty, working his way through