"Kate Wilhelm - The Girl Who Fell into the Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

and forgot the rush of guilt.
тАЬI wasnтАЩt expecting company or anything.тАЭ
тАЬI suppose not. I wasnтАЩt expecting to find anyone here.тАЭ
She wanted him to go away, John realized uncomfortably. She
looked very young, wearing shorts, a tank top, barefooted, too
young to be out here alone at night. Her skin was deeply tanned all
over, as far as he could tell, but her high cheekbones, her nose, the
tops of her shoulders all glowed redder than the rest of her. She
must not understand about the prairie sun, he thought, must not
know how dangerous it could be. He looked past her toward the
refrigerator.
тАЬMay I have a drink of water?тАЭ
Now her whole face glowed with embarrassment. тАЬSorry,тАЭ she
said. тАЬSure. WaterтАЩs about it. Or coffee, or apple juice.тАЭ
тАЬIтАЩve got some cold beer in the truck. Would you like one?тАЭ
She nodded and he turned and left the kitchen. As soon as he was
off the back porch, she raced through the room, into the living room
where she picked up a stack of papers from the sofa and looked
around for a place to deposit them. There was no good place. She
went into the smaller of the two bedrooms and dumped the papers
on her sleeping bag on the floor, folded the bag over to hide them,
and returned to the kitchen.
 She had started to read the stuff that afternoon and then put it
off until night, but one of the names she had found in the early
papers was MacLaren. Surely not this MacLaren, but she did not
want him leafing through the material, and she did not want him to
think she had been snooping.
He brought in the beer and they sat at the kitchen table drinking
it. She told him briefly about her project, amused that he had
thought the conversation was in real time.
тАЬThatтАЩs the problem with taping,тАЭ she said. тАЬYou have to listen to
it in real time, and transcribe it in real time before you can do a
thing about editing. ItтАЩs going to be a bitch to get on paper.тАЭ
He realized how closely she was watching him when he finished
his beer and she stood up, her own can still virtually untouched.
Reluctantly he rose also. He offered her another beer and she
refused, politely and firmly. When he asked if he could look around
she shook her head.
тАЬYouтАЩd better wait for Ross, donтАЩt you think? I mean, I donтАЩt have
the authority to give permission or anything.тАЭ
Still he hesitated, and then, surprising himself, he asked her to
have dinner with him.
Her eyes widened as they had done before in startlement. She
shook her head.
тАЬI really do have work to get to. I guess Ross and Elly will be here
tomorrow by this time. Why donтАЩt you drop in then?тАЭ
He could find no other excuse to stay. He went to the truck,
turned it, and started back up the dirt road, and he began to
chuckle. He was acting like a damn schoolboy, a lovesick,
love-stricken junior-high-school boy. At the highway, he stopped