"Mary Rosenblum - Afterimage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenblum Mary)

amp of his. "Keri, hang on." I push her gently away. "Take it easy, okay?"

"Yeah. Sure, Ian." She sniffs and wipes her face on her sleeve.

She's wearing a too-large T-shirt over sweatpants, and I guess she just did get
out of bed. Raindrops sparkle like diamonds in her dark auburn hair but she's
barely damp, although rain is still pounding on Daniel's window. Even the rain
is nice to her, I think. "Who told you I was here?" I ask her.

"Dicey called me. Ian..." She reaches for my hand. "Thank you," she whispers. "I
couldn't...live with myself after. Because it was my fault. Why...how are you
here?"

Her fingers are twined with mine and I catch a whiff of her scent, and I get
dizzy. And the car is roaring down the street like an attacking shark, and she
stands there, just beyond the parked cars that hide her, frozen in place, like a
deer caught in the headlights of a midnight truck, frozen even when I scream at
her to watch out... "I ran into you at the store." I swallow, remembering that
terrible impact. "You bought eggs." They had fallen in slow motion -- bright
white grenades spilling out of the carton, exploding into flowers of yellow yolk
on the gray pavement as I dove for her... "You and Hammer...?" My tongue feels
thick and clumsy. "You moved out?"

"He was a jerk." She flushes and looks away. "He said.... He was wrong! And you
saved my life." She trembles briefly. "Ian, how can you be...back?"

"We were just asking ourselves that question." Daniel's tone is flip and bitter.
"Got any suggestions?"

"No," she whispers.

She won't let go of my hand. I feel really strange, because Keri is one of those
people who are kind of larger than life, you know? Like Hammer. Only with her
it's not music. It's not beauty either. It's like everything works when you're
around Keri -- like the rain wouldn't have soaked me either, if I'd been out
there with her. And there's no way ever that this lady could be interested in
me. She and Hammer were perfect, man. A pair.

"You know who might know about this?" She's looking at Daniel now. "Dicey."

"That weirdo?" I laugh.

"Yeah, he might." Daniel is frowning. "I don't know, though." He shakes his
head. "He bothers me."

"I know. I wish Hammer hadn't let him into the band." She's got this stubborn
look on her face. "But you want to know, right?" She looks up into my face,
still pale and worried.

"Yeah." I want to know what I'm supposed to do. This time I reach for her hand,