Free Taking Faith by Shelby Fallon Page A

knock. He jumped. "Oh, sorry. I was coming to… I'm sorry."
    She nodded and tried to smile. "It's ok. I'm fine."
    His brow bunched. "Were you crying?" he whispered. "Amy…" He cleared his throat. "Listen, I'm a jerk, ok? Just…whatever."
    "Yeah, whatever. It's fine." She moved passed him, having to brush against him to do so. She ignored the small noise he made as she did so. It sounded entirely too sensual for someone who had admitted that he wanted nothing to do with her and didn't even want her there.
    She went back into the living room and stopped, unsure of what to do. She wanted to keep herself busy with something, but the man literally had nothing to do at all. For a woman, anyway. He followed her back in and watched her. So she improvised. "So, your convertible…what is it?"
    "You were in the garage?" he asked quickly.
    "Yeah," she answered nonchalantly. "I gave myself a tour." She smiled at him coyly. "You kind of skipped that part."
    He chuckled reluctantly, as if taken aback. "Yeah. Uh, it's a ' 79 Cadillac Eldorado . The only thing I ever bought for myself purely for pleasure."
    "Why's that?"
    He grimaced. "Well, I never had anything that belonged just to me ," he said defensively, gruffly. "I work hard and I don’t think there's anything wrong with me getting myself something-"
    "No, no, no, " she stopped him. "I meant why was this the only thing you'd ever bought yourself?"
    "Oh," he said in surprise. "Uh…well the law is that a man has to have a certain amount of money saved up on top of the cost of the bride when he takes a wife. So, my father kind of exploded when I bought this. Said I set myself back."
    "How old are you?" she asked, but noticed that the question might seem derogatory with the topic so she continued, "You look pretty young to have…accomplished so much."
    "I'm twenty six. How old are you?"
    She swallowed. Twenty six… "Nineteen."
    "What?" he said and cringed. "Really?"
    She nodded. "Mmhmm."
    He blew out a 'whew'. "Most of the wome n are young, but I thought you were at least twenty one, two maybe." She shook her head, though it wasn't needed. "That sucks," he groaned and pulled on his lip with his fingers. "My God, you are so young. They took your whole life away."
    "I'm very independent, always have been." She straightened her back. "I was already living on my own, so…"
    "Nineteen," he mused with raised eyebrows. "Wow."
    "So what do you do on days off?" she asked to steer the conversation.
    "This is it," he laughed. "I usually just sit around and catch up on CSI, mow the grass, work out, take a drive."
    " Could we…take a drive?"
    He cracked a sideways smile. "You want to take a drive me with me?"
    She nodded, thinking about how the dance she'd went to with Lionel was wasted. He'd rented some fancy car to impress her and hadn't even driven his convertible the night of the dance.
    Roger shrugged. "Sure. My baby hasn’t been out in a while. Let's go."
    Amy was teeming with excitement. Not only was she getting to ride in her first convertible, but she could also get a good layout of the town. But mostly, the beautiful convertible. And when she followed him out to the garage , and he yanked the cover off, she saw how beautiful it was. Cherry red and white leather. She sighed and made a quick path to her side.
    He chuckled at her, but didn’t say anything as he got in. It started the first time. The engine purred just for her, Amy thought as she relaxed against the warm leather. She was pretty pasty and the white of the leather seemed to give her skin a glow. She smiled as she buckled her seat belt.
    He drove down passed his sho p and around through downtown. The wind brushed her face as h e waved to a few people whose eyes seemed too interested and nosey. After about fifteen minutes, he pulled into a broken down drive-in theater. The screen had branches skewing the view and a long split down the middle. There were vines and broken speaker poles scattering the area.
    He parked it in