Read Clearer in the Night for Free Online Page B

thought.
    “Sure,” I said. “I’d love to say thank you.”
    “I’ll send him in after you eat.” She smiled approvingly at me. She looked like my mother for a minute. Or the older sister I’d never really had.
    I recognized him as soon as he walked into the room. He had flowers and a gift bag with him, and he was wearing jeans and a flannel button-down shirt. His red hair was messy and wavy around his face, but what I really recognized was the soft, kind look in his eyes. They were such a deep blue that they seemed surreal, and on another face they would have been cold. On his, they were exquisite.
    “You look better than you did the last time I saw you,” he said.
    “I feel better, too.”
    He handed me the flowers—wildflowers, I thought, but nothing I could name off the top of my head, although I hadn’t really been swimming in occasions to identify cut flowers—and then held out his hand to shake. “Eli,” he said. “Elijah Wright, actually.”
    “Nice to meet you, Eli. Caitlyn Murphy. But you probably know that already.” Was it my imagination, or did his hand linger over mine for a moment longer than it had to? Did his thumb pass over my wrist on purpose as he drew his hand away? Did the left corner of his mouth quirk up just a bit at the way my breathing deepened?
    Jeez, girl, settle down. Guys who rescue damsels in distress and then turn up with flowers and presents are worlds—universes—out of your league. Save the memory to conjure up some time with my fingers in my panties, and wipe up the drool. “Thank you. For the rescue the other day.” I excelled at awkward. Way to go, Cait. Excellent job.
    He nodded seriously, though. “I was in the right place at the right time. I’m just glad I got the chance to be of use.”
    Was he for real? And I thought I was an epic doofus.
    We were awkwardly silent for a long moment, and then we both did the wow-is-this-awkward laugh, which did nothing to relieve the tension. I pulled my legs up under the blanket and crossed them, and gestured at the foot of the bed. He sat down. Hovered was really a more accurate description. I laid the flowers down on the tray next to my bed. With my hands empty, he held the gift bag out to me.
    “You really didn’t have to,” I said. “You saved my life. I should be bringing you presents.”
    “It’s nothing fancy,” he said. “But I figured you’d have a lot of time to rest ahead of you and—well, open it.”
    I pulled a layer of tissue paper out of the bag and found a book. A really thick book, paperback. Cryptonomicon was the title. It sounded familiar, but I hadn’t read it before. “Well, this will definitely fill a few days,” I said, and then winced at how utterly ungrateful that sounded.
    “It’s sci-fi for sure, but it’s accessible,” he said. “Sorry, all high school teachers like to believe that everyone in the world reads as obsessively as we do.” A high school teacher, then? Good to know. He looked young for it, not much older than me, but maybe he knew what he wanted to do before he went to college. Unlike me, still holding down a couple of part-time jobs and relying on Mommy to pay my bills when I didn’t quite make ends meet.
    “I read,” I said. “I love to read. I’ve just been more of an e-ink girl these past few years.” He made a face like he’d taken a sip of overbrewed Lapsang Souchong when he was expecting Earl Grey. “Not a fan, huh?”
    He shrugged. “I’ve yet to understand how a bunch of pixels can replace the creak of the spine the first time you open a hardcover, or the weight of a book in your hands.”
    “Alternatively,” I said, “when I want to pack up my library for storage, I drop a gadget that weighs less than a pound into my purse and presto! More than a thousand books packed.”
    “That is a plus,” he said. His hand lifted like it was going to reach for mine, and my heartbeat fluttered, but his eyes flickered, and his hand settled back down into