Breaker's Reef Read Online Free

think she’d ever noticed him.
    “Singer,” he said. “S-I-N-G—”
    “I got it.” She flipped her notebook shut. “Well, thanks, guys. I have to go now. I have a story to write.”
    She left them standing there and headed back to Blair’s car.
    Matt Frazier had pulled up behind the car in his father’s florist van and called out to her.
    Sadie smiled at him. “Hey, Matt.”
    He’d been her very first friend on Cape Refuge. The day she’d been dropped off at the door of Hanover House, and no one had been home, he had come up to bring a floral wreath for the door. They had gotten to know each other better over the last year and a half.
    “Sadie, have Emily’s parents come out to make a statement?”
    She shook her head. “No. Just the police.”
    He looked up at the door. Some of the press still milled around in the yard, unwilling to leave. “My dad wanted me to bring them a wreath. I’m just numb. How could this happen?”
    Sadie shook her head. “Poor Emily.”
    They both stood there, quiet, and Sadie saw the look of helpless anger in his eyes. Finally, he looked down at her. “You okay?”
    She smiled up at him through unshed tears. “Yeah, thanks.”
    “I know she was in your class. She was a cool kid. I used to see her at the ballpark, working the concession stand. She was always so happy and bubbly. She never hurt anybody.”
    Sadie was afraid she might cry, so she reached for the car door. “I have to go.”
    He took the door, opened it for her, and watched as she got in. “Call me if you need to talk, okay? I have classes later this morning, but I’ll have my cell phone with me.”
    “I might do that.”
    He closed her door, and she drove off. A tear rolled down her face, and she wiped it away. Leave it to Matt to treat her as the wounded one, when he’d probably known Emily longer than she. But that was the way he was.
    Blair had suggested several times that the college sophomore had a crush on Sadie, but she couldn’t say for sure. He’d never asked her out, not on a real date, anyway, but he’d recently started coming to her church and always sought her out to sit with her. She enjoyed being around him, but she wasn’t sure it would ever be more than friendship.
    Still, it was nice to have a guy care about her feelings. It was like sunlight breaking through a thick canopy of gray.
    She wondered what her mother would say.

CHAPTER 5
    S o, Miss Sheila Caruso, tell me why you’re right for this job.” The famous Marcus Gibson stood like an accuser in front of Sheila, his hands splayed on the two clean spots on his desktop.
    She hardly knew what to say. The truth was, she probably
wasn’t
right for the job of assistant to the author, and if he knew she had a felony drug conviction and had spent a year in prison, he’d send her on her way. But Sadie, her daughter, had encouraged her to try, and she couldn’t let her down. “Well, your ad called for someone who could type, and I’m a fast typist. I just finished a secretarial course at the community college. I also know how to use a computer.”
    She glanced at the laptop on his desk and hoped she knew how to use that one. It didn’t look anything like the computer she’d learned on in school.
    “I also need help with filing.” He rose to a less accusatory position and waved a hand over his desk. It was cluttered with ragged stacks of papers and magazines andbooks. “But I don’t want someone coming in here and throwing things around helter-skelter. I have a system, so whoever comes has to be teachable. Do you have any experience with this kind of thing?”
    As he waited for her answer, he picked up a Panama hat off of one of the stacks, lightly punched his fist into it, and seemed to consider the result.
    “Uh …” She hesitated. Should she wait until he’d finished with the hat? “Well, not really. I’ve never worked for a writer before.”
    “Good.” He flung the hat across the room, and it landed on an old wooden