Free Devin-2 by Kathi S. Barton Page A

she was reasonably sure she didn’t care either.
    “These two are complete. I put all the references on the front for him. I tried not to scribble so that you could read my notes, but sometimes my mind gets ahead of my fingers. The more obscure references, I marked the page, paragraph and line for you as well. I’ll finish the other two and whatever else he needs done on Monday. That is, if it’s okay. If not, then would you mind leaving me a detailed list of things he does want and does not?”
    “Of course, my dear. But I’m sure these will be fine. And your handwriting is very neat and readable. You hurry now or you’ll miss your class.” Dragging her coat behind her, Ronnie moved out of the office and to the stairwell quickly. Taking the stairs for the exercise, she ran down them as quickly as she could. By the time she burst out of the front of the building, the bus to take her to the university was just pulling up.

    Glancing around, she thought she saw Devin, but turned back and stepped into the bus. Sitting down, she did not look up again until the bus was a good three blocks from the building. Settling down in the seat, she closed her eyes against the glare off the snow and thought about her class today. She loved her classes and was slightly nervous about finishing up so soon.
    Class had let out early and she returned home exhausted and sore. She had not slept well the night before and the dream had returned, making sleep impossible after she woke. This time, she had screamed awake and had awakened Austin too. She felt bad about that all day.
    Going into the kitchen for a much needed glass of iced tea, she found a box with her name on it and an envelope. A note from Ben said that it had been delivered for her at around one o’clock. Deciding to read the message in the envelope first, she sat down and opened it.
    “Unlimited everything so don’t be afraid to use whatever you need. It’s already been programmed with the following numbers. Let me know if you have any problems. Devin.”
    There was a list of names and the corresponding key to push to call them.
    Devin’s was first, of course. She just glanced at the other names, none of which she really knew. She didn’t even try to guess why he would feel she needed Margaret Parker’s name.
    She opened the package next and a state of the art cell phone slipped out and into her palm. Without even playing around with it, she stuck it into her jeans pocket and cleaned up the mess she had made on the table.
    Ronnie knew she would never use the phone for anything other than answering his calls. So what did she care how the camera worked or it the ring tones were set up? As far as she could care, if it never rang she would be just fine with it.
    Tomorrow was Thanksgiving and there were nineteen coming to dinner to eat at the house. They were mostly friends of Ben’s and Austin’s, but she knew them and liked most of them. She had promised to bake some pies for the annual event and began pulling out the ingredients for the first batch. She loved to make pumpkin pie even though she couldn’t eat it.
    The sound of sirens startled her at first and it took her several seconds to realize that it was the phone. When she pulled the phone out, there was a picture of the law firm’s logo and Devin’s name. She thought about letting it go to voice mail and then realized that she would not know how to retrieve it, so she answered it.
    “Ronnie Frey,” she said in way of greeting. She knew she was clipped, but didn’t care if he got mad or not.

    “I thought you’d call and say thank you, or to at least say you got the phone at some point.” His voice was soft and his tone held humor that she tried hard to ignore.
    “Why would I thank you for a device that means you can call me and talk to me? And you knew it was received; one of my roommates signed for it at one-thirty six this afternoon.”
    He was quiet for so long, she nearly hung up. She really didn’t