Free The Awakening (Entangled Series Book 1) by Jill Sanders Page B

me when I’m going to settle down right back.”
    “Well?” She was beginning to sound impatient. He could just see her, standing in their kitchen, her arms crossed over her chest, glaring across the room at the back of his dad’s head as he watched the game.
    “As soon as I find someone who can cook like you, I’ll marry her on the spot.” He knew that would soften her up.
    “Well…” He could hear her smile. “Don’t wait too long, dear. Almost all of the good fish have already left the sea.”
    He chuckled. “All it takes is one.” His mind snapped to Xtina and his eyes moved towards the large windows in his living room. It was too dark out to see if her car sat in the driveway, but he did notice that the house was dark, which meant she was either asleep or not home yet.
    He’d watched her come and go, yesterday, when she’d gone to visit her grandmother. He wondered how the short trip had gone. He also spent a few hours today wondering if he should stop by later tonight, but ended up telling himself that if she wanted to see him, she knew where he lived, too.
    “You aren’t listening to a word I’m saying.” His mother’s tone broke into his thoughts.
    “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve been working on putting the hardwood floor in for the past few hours.”
    “Oh? How’s that going?”
    “So far, so good. Actually, I should be done sometime tomorrow.”
    “That’s wonderful dear, send us some pictures when you’re done. When are you going to get the kitchen done so I can come down there and cook you a proper meal?”
    “After the floor and the baseboards are in, that’s the next on my list.”
    “Good. Maybe we’ll head your way when Ethan gets back,” she said worriedly.
    “Don’t worry about him too much. He is a big boy.”
    “I worry about you both, all of the time. It’s my job.”
    He smiled and shifted the phone. “Well, at least don’t worry too much. After all, his squad is one of the best around.”
    “Yes, that’s true. I’m so very proud of both of you. How’s your business going?”
    For the next twenty minutes, he filled his mother in on his latest client. When he happened to mention his neighbors dying in a car crash and their sexy, mysterious daughter returning home, his mother flooded him with a million questions.
    What was she like? Was she married or single? What did she do for a living?
    He realized that was something he’d yet to ask her himself. He knew what her profile said online. For the past two years, she’d run a little shop on the outskirts of Idaho Springs as a psychic, where tourists stopped to get pizza and ice cream and have their palms read. Before that, she’d lived in Arizona in what appeared to be a Humanist Society. The community boasted that free thinkers of all types were welcome and that education was given freely by experts in various fields. They discuss the arts, books, social events, politics, technology, religion, and more. The one statement by the leader, William Ray, that had caught his eye was about supernatural beliefs and how the society had a progressive philosophy on the supernatural. The man looked to be a few years older than him and he wondered what gave the man so much knowledge in the area, since he couldn’t find anything more on him.
    He’d researched as much as he could about the society and still questioned what Xtina had been doing there. She didn’t have an online presence tied to them, which meant that she’d broken the ties as soon as she’d moved on. He wondered if she’d found what she needed there or if it had just been some big joke, like he assumed the place was. Still, she’d spent almost an entire year living there.
    Before that, she had moved around so much, he’d lost track of her several times. He knew she’d been in Seattle, L.A., and even Houston. But, everything in between was just a blank.
    He’d planned on asking her more when he saw her next and asking some of the questions his mother had asked