Read Night Edge for Free Online Page B

before. Lola pulled her jacket closer around her and shivered.
    The magic of the moment was short-lived for the same reason her one-handed picture while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge had come out blurry. She was alone. Beau could’ve been standing by her side for her first snowfall if he hadn’t been so proud and childish. He was a grown man behaving like a boy who’d had his feelings hurt. Was that what he thought of Lola, that she’d taken her toys and disappeared in the middle of the night?
    They hurt themselves to hurt each other. It was almost as if Lola could look past the pain when she saw it that way—she just wasn’t sure she was ready to.
     

Chapter Seven
    Lola stood in front of the roadside bar in the Ozarks, snow falling a little faster now, dampening her denim jacket and hoodie.
    “Not much of a coat you got there.”
    Lola turned quickly at the gruff voice. The man in the leather boots was back. “I’m from California,” she said.
    He held out a paper cup. “Here.”
    She shuffled toward him a little, the soles of her sneakers scraping against the dusty-brush sidewalk. The drink instantly warmed her hand.
    “So, you lost, California?” he asked.
    She inhaled fresh coffee and took a sip. “No.”
    “Liar.”
    She almost spit out her drink, raising her eyebrows at him. “What?”
    He nodded at her pocket, where she’d stuffed the guidebook. She’d folded the corner of a page that had information about a nearby lodge.
    “What brings you around?” he asked. “Business? Pleasure?”
    She took another drink, too quickly this time, and burnt her tongue. She ran the tip of it over the roof of her mouth, her eyes watering. He didn’t strike her as anything other than curious, but she’d thought the same of Beau when she’d met him. “Mostly sightseeing.”
    “Anything good so far?”
    “Sure.” She angled her body a little more in his direction. “I stood in the geographic center of the continental United States.”
    He laughed. “Well, that’s something, isn’t it?”
    Lola nodded. It’d been more exciting than the twine, at least.
    “Where you headed?” he asked.
    She glanced upward. Information was precious. “I…”
    “Give me that.” He held out his hand for the guidebook, so she passed it to him. He flipped to the dog-eared page and grumbled, “Moose Lodge. It’s for tourists, you know.”
    She shrugged. “Aren’t all hotels?”
    “Got a point. Not much to see around here, though.”
    Lola frowned. She didn’t mind that. The open road and countryside had been good for her. The snow was magical. Kind of like Los Angeles from a distance when it was all lit up at night. Her heart thumped once when she thought of home.
    “This lodge isn’t far,” he said. “You by yourself?”
    Lola glanced at the lid of her coffee. She palmed the cup, welcoming its warmth. Yes, she was by herself. No, Beau was not waiting in the car for her. He was where she’d left him, where she’d spent twenty-nine years of her life—minus eight days.
    “Ah,” the man said. “I see what you got now, and it ain’t insomnia.”
    “What is it?” Lola asked, still looking down.
    “Lonely. I got that too, plus the insomnia, ever since my wife passed. Not a nice combo.”
    Lola nodded, swallowing. Things were rarely as bad as they seemed when she looked outside herself. “How long were you married?”
    “Almost twenty years.”
    “Long time,” Lola murmured. A long time to screw things up, to break each other’s hearts. A long time to put them back together.
    “She had cancer,” he continued. “But you know how she died? Hit by a car. Believe that?”
    “I’m sorry,” Lola said lamely.
    “So was I, until I realized all the ways Maxie makes me better, even from the grave. Just this morning, I drive a few towns over to Costco and someone’s pulling out of a front spot. Never happens, right? I wait a good couple minutes. Then this guy comes from the other direction, swipes it at the