Read Darkling I Listen for Free Online Page B

He pointed out the window. "That's his doctor's office right there. Doc Simpson. Been doctor in these parts for forty years. I don't see Henry's truck yet. They may have stopped off somewhere. Feed store or something."
    Alyson bit into the sandwich. Cornwall was right. Sure as heck beat the package of Twinkies and Dr Pepper she'd had for breakfast.
    Cornwall slid his fingertips into his back pockets. "I'll try and talk to him if you want. Brandon , I mean. I think I can convince him not to press trespassing charges against you if you promise to leave him alone and go back where you came from. And promise not to tell anyone you saw him here, of course."
    Alyson smiled and reached for a jalapeno-flavored potato chip. "I appreciate your thoughtfulness, but I'm perfectly capable of talking to Carlyle myself. Unlike a lot of people, I'm not intimidated by him or his tantrums."
    "Naw, you don't look like the sort who'd be intimidated by much."
    She smiled and made her voice a little sultry. "Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?"
    He shrugged and grinned. "You got an air of confidence about you, is all. " He leaned back against the wall. "You married?"
    "Not anymore." She bit the end off the pickle spear and regarded the flushed officer. He was working up the courage to flirt, she could tell. "Are you married, Officer Cornwall?"
    "Nope. Never met the right girl, I guess. Course there's not a lot to choose from in Ticky Creek. Most girls graduate high school and leave for Dallas or Houston. You know, they got aspirations of going to college or landing them a well-off husband. Can't say as I blame them. This town's idea of excitement is Friday nights at the high school football games and Saturday nights at the River Road Saloon—that's a honky-tonk 'bout ten miles out of town. Between here and White Sands. I suppose a woman like you wouldn't like a place like that."
    "I grew up in a two-room apartment over a truck stop out by Seven Pines, near Longview . I've seen a honky-tonk or two in my time. My mother waitressed at the Pussy Cat Bar outside of Kilgore."
    "Yeah?" His eyes brightened and his grin widened. "You don't sound like an East Texas gal. Don't look like one either."
    "An East Texas gal gotta walk around wearing an old tow sack and have hay in her hair?"
    "Naw." He shook his head and laughed. "That's not what I meant… Anybody ever tell you you look like that actress … now don't tell me. Let me think a minute." He snapped his fingers. "Charlize Theron. Maybe it's the big eyes. And your mouth. You got a … nice mouth."
    "Yeah?" She winked and slid her tongue along the pickle spear. "Your's isn't so bad either."
    His jaw dropped, and he sank a little harder against the wall.
    "I take it people 'round here don't give much thought to a movie star like Brandon Carlyle living among them."
    He shook his head, attention still focused on the pickle.
    "Does he behave himself?"
    "Who?"
    "Carlyle."
    "Oh." Cornwall took a deep breath and slowly released it. "He stays to himself. Comes into town now and again and eats at Dime A Cup. Mostly when he brings his uncle in to the doctor. Henry and Bernice took care of Brandon and his daddy after Cara up and left Ticky Creek for Hollywood . When Brandon 's daddy was killed down at the mill, Cara come back and took Brandon . Said no way in hell was she gonna let her little boy be brought up by a lot of backwoods hicks. Brandon was four, I think. 'Bout killed Bernice and Henry. Broke their hearts. They could never have kids, and looked at Brandon like he was their own."
    "Obviously Brandon stayed close to Bernice and Henry."
    "Real close. He come back to Ticky Creek ever' chance he got. At least Cara gave him that. Brandon was always a nice guy. Fit right in with the rest of us while he was here—or tried to. After a while it got pretty tough to treat him like he was just one of the fellas. Girls got all spoony over him, and that pissed the guys off. Then the guys didn't want him coming