Free Touched by Lightning [Dreams of You] (Romantic Suspense) by Tina Wainscott Page B

here?” he asked. “Or have you, and that’s why you’re looking like that?”
    “No, I’ve never eaten here.”
    He looked up at the peeling paint of the sideboards and the jaunty sign over the door depicting a round black woman with fruit on her head. “I didn’t think I’d ever eat at a place like this either, but Seamus talked me into it. They have great Jamaican meat patties.” Adrian tied Crackers up to the black bars on the window in a shady spot.
    Her eyes widened. “Seamus? You and Seamus had lunch here?”
    “Sure. What’s so strange about that?”
    She shook her head, walking closer. “I can’t imagine you and him having lunch together. Does he talk to you?”
    “He told me about his wife and little girl, and how they died in a car accident.”
    “I didn’t know,” she said softly, walking inside as he held the door for her.
    Island music played in the background, and a large black lady waved them to sit wherever they wanted. Nikki wondered if the woman was a model for the sign, though she wasn’t wearing any fruit. Adrian led her to a small homemade table near the front window where they could see Crackers.
    Once the hot tea had been brought to the table, Nikki was glad to occupy herself with preparing it. Adrian dumped one packet of sugar in his and stirred it, but he was watching her. She could tell, even as she stared into her cup and watched the amber liquid make little whirlpools. He was leaned back in the simple wooden chair, one leg stretched out so that it extended to her side of the table. His presence seemed to overwhelm the tiny place. When she finally had to look up at him, he didn’t quickly look away. Instead, he smiled. The strange feeling in her stomach made her wish he would have glanced away.
    “I thought you’d be gone by now,” she said, trying hard not to make it sound like she cared one way or the other.
    “Not yet. I’m looking for work in the area. I like it here.”
    So, he wasn’t going away anytime soon. A tiny feeling of elation overruled her sense of security.
    “Where do you go at night?” She found herself asking. “To sleep.”
    He looked surprised at her question. For a second, she panicked. Damn, it had been so long since she had a conversation like this. She’d forgotten the rules. Then again, there were no rules on the streets.
    He shrugged. “Sometimes at the shelter. Sometimes they’re full, so I go elsewhere. Where do you go? You said you didn’t stay at the shelter.”
    “Here and there,” she said quickly. Too quickly, but she didn’t add anything else.
    “Tell me about your photography. How long have you been doing it?”
    It seemed so strange to be asked about herself, her hobby. With Maudine, she shared tidbits of her days. With Ulyssis, she was vague so he didn’t worry too much about her.
    “Since I was a teenager.” Like Adrian, she had used it as an escape.
    The woman brought plates of meat patties and red beans and rice to the table. The fried pastry and spicy beans smelled delicious, and she dug in. Aside from her occasional meals at the diner, the rest of her food she cooked on her portable burner.
    “Did you grow up around here?” Adrian asked her.
    “Yes.” She didn’t want to give him too much information
    “You don’t talk much,” he said, diffusing the words with a smile.
    “No.”
    That only made him smile more. He picked at his food while she ate, more out of nervousness than hunger. She wondered if he had a gun hidden beneath his sweatshirt. Like the little Davis thirty-two caliber hidden in the pocket of her coat, the one Ulyssis insisted she take after she’d been robbed early on.
    “Nikki, what’s wrong?”
    She blinked, wondering what expression had been on her face. “Nothing.” Are you here to kill me? Did Devlin send you here? She wanted to occupy her attention with food, but it was all gone.
    “Are you uncomfortable?”
    “Yes,” she answered honestly.
    He leaned forward, only a foot away