Read Jaxson's Song for Free Online Page B

movement from above caught his
attention, and he raised his gaze to one of the two second-story
windows that faced the street. A light came on in the room, and
Miss Delaney stood silhouetted in the middle of the room. As he
watched, she crossed to the window and stood there, staring out. It
was too dark to make out her features, but he recognized her long,
blonde hair. A flash of lightning lit the sky, illuminating the
thick heavy cloud cover and, for an instant, the woman at the
window. Gabe started, certain that Miss Delaney had been wearing a
pink shirt, not a white one. He watched as her palm went flat
against the glass, then she waved. A moment later, she moved away
from the window, and the room went dark.
    “ Oh, yeah, you’re new around here,” Carl was saying. “The old
lady that lived at that house was always reporting break-ins, and
strange noises.” He grunted, shifting into Drive and pulling away
from the curb. “Toward the end, she swore the place was
haunted.”
    “ Haunted?” Gabe echoed, twisting around in his seat for one
last glimpse of the house before they rounded the corner. “That’s
crazy.”
    “ Yeah, tell me about it.”
     

Chapter Five
    Forget About It
     
     
    S tay at his place? Kate shifted her
head to the side, studying the man who stood, almost reluctantly,
in her foyer. He didn’t want her to stay. Not really. Kate knew
full well he wanted to be left alone. Whether that was the result
of a bad day at work, or if he was one of those people with a
natural inclination to be standoffish, she couldn’t say. And
speaking of rough days at work—what on Earth did Jaxson do for a
living? Kate took in the enormous pink fuzzy slippers he’d put on
before they’d left his house, and she suppressed the urge to
pry.
    She was almost afraid to
ask about his day job. Did he dress…like that? She couldn’t imagine
what kind of employer would allow a man to come to work dressed in
women’s clothing. Then again, maybe she did know of a place or two
that would allow, even encourage, her strange neighbor to show up
for work in such an outrageously flamboyant costume. Kate didn’t
dare ask him such a personal question, though, even if she found
herself increasingly, morbidly, curious about the oddity that her
neighbor presented.
    Did she want to stay with
him tonight? Better yet, did she trust him? The answer to the first
was, unequivocally, yes. The last thing she wanted to do was ramble
around, alone, in this empty house, especially right after a
break-in. And there had been a break in tonight, no matter what nonsense
the police had been spouting about the lock being damaged from the
inside out.
    She’d worry about the
specifics of all that later. Right now it was late and she was
tired, no, exhausted. The past forty-eight sleep deprived hours had
finally caught up with her and, coupled with the adrenaline rush
and subsequent crash, she was ready to drop. But the question
remained—did she trust Jaxson? She supposed that depended upon what
was at stake.
    “ Are you coming or not?”
    Did she believe he was
some sort of crazed person who would harm her? Not really, no. For
now, she figured, that had to be good enough. “I’m coming. Thank
you.”
    “ Yeah, sure.”
    The wind was howling when
they walked out the door. Kate took the time to lock up, pulling
tight on the knob to make sure the lock had properly
latched.
    Wind-whipped leaves
swirled around Jaxson and Kate’s feet, and fat, stinging raindrops
pelted them on their mad dash across the driveway.
    “ Wait!” Kate held her hands over her head and raised her voice
to be heard over the roaring of the full-out storm. “I forgot to
lock my car!” A bolt of lightning split the night sky close by,
behind Kate’s house. The boom that followed drowned out Jaxson’s
response.
    “ Tough shit!” he shouted, slamming the key into the lock and
shoving both himself and Kate into his kitchen. He steadied her
when she slid wetly across the