"Tina Wainscott - Dreams of You [rtf]" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wainscott Tina)

He laughed out loud, lighting up his whole face. She noticed slight dimples that disappeared beneath his brown beard. "No, not quite. I'm a construction worker. I came down here because a friend said there was plenty of work. When I got here, there was no work and no friend. I guess he went somewhere else looking for work. Right now I have nothing. I sold what little I had to come down here. I figured I could hang out with him until I found a job and a place of my own."
From his build and olive skin, she could believe he was a construction worker much more easily than she could imagine him a preacher. "You should go somewhere else. You don't want to live here like this." She gestured vaguely behind her. She'd seen some of them come and stay for years, living on nothing more than hope. "You don't seem like one of the usuals around here."
He looked thoughtful at that, tapping his long fingers on the table. The waves of his dark hair looked soft and shiny and made her think of an advertisement she'd seen in a magazine recently. She noticed the muscles at his wide, masculine jawbone tense.
"You don't seem like a usual around here either."
Nikki stood then, gently closing the Bible and placing it on the battered table. "I have to go." She really had to go. The way he made her feelЕ it was too eerie.
He stood, too, but didn't try to keep her there. "Don't you stay here?"
"No. Goodbye."
Every part of her wanted to go back, but she couldn't trust anyone, not even those who drew her to them. Besides, the feeling was probably because it had been a long time since she'd seen a gorgeous man up close. It couldn't be anything else. Without looking back, she left the Lord's Shelter and headed toward her own shelter parked behind the building.
The next morning Nikki foisted the plastic bag with her dirty clothes onto the dryer with a resounding thud. The laundromat was open-aired, with only a roof for protection from the elements. Still, the equipment was stained with rust, though whoever owned it kept it running and clean inside and out. The snack machines had been removed a year ago when vandals kept smashing the glass and making off with the goodies.inside. She longed for a good old Snickers bar.
After sorting the darks and whites, she put a dollar's worth of quarters into the slots and started the first machine. Four years ago, she'd never even smelled laundry detergent; the maid seemed like an elf, whisking away their dirty clothes and returning them in neat piles or on hangers.
When she heard the scuffling noise, Nikki whirled around. "Crackers!" She knelt down to the mutt and scratched his head, then pulled out the food for which he'd been named. Crackers was only a puppy, a lab mix, she guessed, the mix being some smaller dog. He lived somewhere in the area, though he wore no tag and always looked a little bony. She scratched his head as he slurped on another cracker.
"You sure make my laundry days nicer, sweetie." His tail whipped from side to side, carrying his whole back end with it. "I wish I could keep you, but it would be impossible."
She hugged him, despite the fact that he was dirty and probably riddled with fleas. That summer she'd give him a few impromptu baths beneath a faucet out back. He'd been so soft and clean afterward, and she swore he looked happier for it. Now it was too cold to get him wet.
After the food was gone, Crackers wandered around sniffing the area, and Nikki searched through the library of books that had been forming for the last year. Thank goodness thieves didn't consider books worth stealing. Nikki had started the library, installing a shelf and donating the first paperback. The following week, the book was gone, and she was disappointed that her idea wasn't going to make it. The next week, another book had appeared, and after that, the little library had built so that there was always a new book to read while she waited for her laundry to get done. She wrapped her coat around herself and settled in a plastic chair with a new Judith McNaught romance.
She was two chapters into the book when Crackers barked sharply and started running through the empty lot toward the road. A scruffy-looking cat on the other side sauntered toward the shopping center and jumped on a window ledge, but that didn't deter Crackers any. It was an overcast day, and the puppy's beige coat blended in with the dirt he was running over. When Nikki heard the car's engine, her heart jumped.
A white Mustang pulled around the corner. The car wasn't going very fast, and perhaps if he'd been going faster, Crackers would have made it across the street safely. Nikki screamed as she watched the car swerve. Crackers hit the bumper and was knocked across the street where he lay on the dirt. She ran crying across the empty lot, calling Crackers's name, and watching the car continue around the corner. She didn't have enough time for anger that the driver didn't stop. The dog lay still, his leg at an odd angle and bloodied. She cradled him in her arms, and he whimpered softly.
"Crackers, don't die. Please don't die." He was a mangy mutt to anyone else, but he was a friend to Nikki.
"Nikki, what happened?" She looked up to see Adrian running across the lot toward her, his face white.
"Someone hit Crackers," she said through her tears. "And then they just left." She stroked the dog's snout, her fingers trembling.
He moved her hand away. "He might bite you. Not on purpose, but because he's scared." Adrian reached down and grabbed hold of the shirt he wore beneath his blue sweater, ripping the bottom portion off. He wrapped it around Crackers's mouth, then knelt down and inspected him. "I don't see anything too serious. His leg might be broken. Let me get him to a vet. Do you know where the closest one is?"
She had already been thinking that, and quickly said, "The animal hospital is about ten blocks away. I can take you there."
He looked at her, and she didn't care if he thought she was silly. She didn't realize how much Crackers had come to mean to her. Taking her by surprise, he reached over and wiped away her tears with his thumb.
"Don't worry. We're going to do everything we can to save him." Then that compassion she'd seen in his eyes turned to business as he scanned the area. УI need a board to put him on in case he has a back injury."
Nikki ran to the laundromat structure where the old sign still leaned against the back wall. With supreme gentleness, Adrian slid the pup onto the board, then hefted both. His muscles strained the material of the bulky sweater he was wearing.
"Do you want me to help carry him?" she asked as they headed in the direction she'd indicated.
"No, I've got him. JustЕ hold his paw or something."
She kept stroking Crackers's head and whispering sweetly as they hurriedly walked the ten blocks to the hospital. Adrian felt like the biggest goon on earth. That dog had come out of nowhere, and he'd tried so hard to miss him. His heart had sunk when he'd heard the thump. But he'd also heard Nikki's scream, and when he saw her running toward the puppy, he had to keep going. How could he explain driving a rental car like that if he didn't have a job? So he did the next best thing, which was pull into a back alley behind some brown van and pretend that he'd just been walking by. Her crying nearly crushed him inside.
"He didn't even stop," she was saying, shaking her head. "It wasn't his fault, but he could have stopped."
Adrian stepped up their pace, feeling guilt press down on him. Was this foreshadowing the risk he would bring to her? "Maybe he was in a hurry or didn't really know he'd hit him. You said he swerved."
She let out a sigh, continuing to pet the puppy. "Yeah, maybe. But if I ever see that car again, I'm going to throttle the driver."
"Did you see who was driving? Was it a man or a woman?"
"I'm not sure. All I could see was dark hair-like yours. It was sort of long, so maybe it was a woman."
Adrian sniffed; his hair was only just past his shoulder. "Well, you know those women drivers." She eyed him, but didn't respond. Her attention was fully absorbed by the pup.
"It doesn't matter what gender they were," she said, still looking at the dog. Her lower lip trembled. "Why couldn't they have stopped? What is wrong with people? Why are they so cruel? People just don't care about anything anymore! A human life, or the life of an innocent animal, is nothing to them!" Her eyes narrowed, and she was staring into the distance. "Especially if they gain something from it."
Adrian knew her anger went far deeper than some uncaring heel not stopping after hitting a dog. He paused, but it took her several moments to realize he had. She turned around, seeming to focus in on the present.
"Nikki, are you all right? No one hit this dog to gain anything by it."
She wrapped her arms around herself and glanced down. "I know that."
Nikki started walking again, very slowly. After a minute Adrian picked up his pace. When they reached the hospital, the doctor took the puppy in right away. Nikki paced like a worried parent, and Adrian stood at the window cursing himself for not swerving fast enough, and for the charade Х that wouldn't let him just drive them to the hospital. He wanted a cigarette badly, and was almost desperate enough for something in his mouth that the dog biscuits on the counter looked tempting.
"You don't have to wait here with me," she said, breaking him out of his trance of guilt. "I mean, I appreciate your help. I'm not sure I could have carried him all this way without collapsing."
He was sure she couldn't; Crackers was a big puppy, especially when he was dead weight. Unconscious weight, he quickly corrected.
"I don't mind. I know you're worried."
She was worried sick, he could tell. She twisted her hands and paced, glancing at the door Crackers had been taken through. He wanted to make sure the puppy was all right so he could see relief replace the grief on her expression. Red tear tracks marred her lovely skin, and red rimmed her green eyes. Her wavy hair was braided in the back; she'd had it tucked beneath her coat earlier. He noticed then that she had blood on her hands.
He took her hand, but she jerked away from him. The mistrust in her eyes nailed a spike through his heart, though he couldn't blame her. He just wanted to help her; nothing more.
"You've got blood on your hands," he said, and she lifted them. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"I should wash them," she said, her voice an unnatural pitch. She asked an employee where the bathroom was and disappeared inside.
Adrian quickly walked up to the counter. "I want to pay for the bill, but I don't want her to know." He nodded toward the bathroom. Handing the receptionist a hundred-dollar bill, he said, "Put this toward the bill. If it's more, I'll come back in tomorrow and pay the rest."
The pretty blond eyed him as she took his money. "Is the dog yours? Or hers?"
"Neither. But she cares about that dog, and I don't want her to feel responsible for the bill. Just tell her there's no charge since the dog's not hers, or whatever you want."
The woman smiled, but he didn't miss the appraisal she gave his attire. He didn't care, as long as that dog was all right.
It had been a long time since Nikki had experienced this kind of agonized wait in a sterile place. Last time it was in a courthouse, two years ago, with reporters clamoring for a juicy tidbit and everyone else looking at her with pity. She forced herself to sit down on the black leather couch, but watching Adrian pace near the desk didn't settle her nerves at all. His hands were jammed in his pockets, stretching the faded linen of his blue pants tightly across his buttocks. He had taken his sweater off and rolled the sleeves up on his too-large white shirt, showing strong forearms. He glanced at her every few minutes, and she quickly averted her gaze, pretending for the umpteenth time to study the chart of dog breeds on the wall.