Free The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense (Book One of the Dark Forces Series) by Don Sloan Page B

time.”
    Sarah’s body relaxed a bit. “I know you’re right. And it really doesn’t prove anything. It’s just―I wasn’t expecting this.”
    Nathan turned her toward him. She was so beautiful, but he also knew she was very vulnerable at that moment and he didn’t want to cross the line between friendship and something more. “Let’s take a break and have dinner. I know a little Greek place in town that will fix us both up.”
    Sarah sighed heavily and smiled. “Sounds good. Let’s get out of here.”
    They bundled up quickly and left the house, crossing Nathan’s front yard to the front gate and then turning right onto Beach Avenue, then another right on Howard. Nathan purposely changed the subject from crime research to questions about Sarah’s job in Philadelphia as they walked. The snow had now stopped entirely and the last streaks of sunlight were lighting up low-hanging clouds in the west. They took a right on Sewell and a right on Franklin Street and suddenly Nathan pulled up short before a nondescript little restaurant named Sophia’s. A red and green awning had been brushed free of snow and the entry door opened wide to admit them from the cold. Right away a lovely young woman with olive skin and large eyes greeted them and conducted them to a table near the front window. Surprisingly, they were the only ones in the restaurant. The time was not late, only about a quarter past five. Sarah squinted at the menu and admitted that it was all Greek to her.
    “Well, at least you give new meaning to an old joke,” Nathan said with a chuckle. He turned to the young woman. “We’ll have a bottle of red table wine and split a spinach salad―if that’s OK with you?” he asked Sarah.
    She raised her hand in a brief wave and Nathan gave the menus back to the waitress, who departed. “You know, this vacation of mine is turning out both better and worse than I expected,” she said.
    “How so?” Nathan asked. The waitress had reappeared with the wine and poured it into two large wineglasses. As she left, Nathan raised his glass and tinked hers. “To adventures.”
    “To adventures, indeed,” Sarah said. She took a long sip of the wine and felt the warmth from the fruity blend course down her throat and into the upper part of her stomach. “We’d better get some bread to go with this wine, or you’ll have to carry me home.”
    “I guess maybe bread would be a good idea,” he said and signaled the waitress once again. With that taken care of, he repeated his question. “Again, how is this trip both better and worse than you had expected? What were you expecting, anyway?”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, running a slim hand through her pixie haircut. “I guess you heard me mention Rob’s name earlier. He was a long-time friend with whom I had been involved and―well, we’re not involved anymore. So, this trip to the shore after all this time―I guess I was hoping to prove something to myself.”
    “What? That you can exist without him?” Nathan sipped his wine and looked into Sarah’s blue eyes. “You can, you know.”
    “I’ve been single a long time, Nathan,” Sarah said. “I really thought the relationship with Rob would be different and that I wouldn’t have to be single anymore. I guess I’m just a little tired of being alone and a little afraid of what lies ahead. Does that make any sense?” She had made the last statement with a surprising amount of heat, and she now wondered if she was talking too much.
    “Well, I think I know what you’re talking about. Being single is both good news and bad news as we get older. The good news is that when we work late and everyone at the office is calling their spouses to apologize for being late, we don’t have to do that. And the bad news is, nobody cares. Does that kind of sum it up? It’s aloneness that sometimes has its appeal, but it’s aloneness that can sometimes turn into loneliness. I go through that a lot, but I try not