Bumpy Roads - A Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery (Book 11) (The Mary O'Reilly Paranormal Mystery Series) Read Online Free Page A

argued.
    “Good thing I gave her that tiny chest or you would have
wanted to put a bike under her pillow,” she teased.
    He pulled her backward into his arms and kissed her on the
mouth. “Come on,” he said. “We can shower together.”
    She shook her head innocently. “Oh, that’s not necessary, we
have plenty of time for each of us to have our own showers,” she insisted.
    Grabbing her hand and pulling her off the bed, he shook his
head. “Not the way I was planning it.”
    Sometime later, dressed in a big white towel, Mary leaned
against the bathroom doorframe. She looked at her towel-clad husband through
the mirror, his face white with shaving cream and smiled. “That was the best
shower I’ve ever taken,” she admitted.
    He grinned back at her. “Me too,” he replied and then he
shook his head. “Mary, I’m really not ready to get back to the real world. Let’s
run away to Hawaii.”
    She came up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist
and laid her head against his back. “So, what part of today are you not looking
forward to?” she asked, placing a kiss on his back.
    “Oh, let’s see, there’s the meetings and the paperwork,” he
said. “And then there’s the paperwork and the meetings.”
    “It’s tough having a glamorous job like Chief of Police,”
she said. “But someone has to do it.”
    He turned in her arms and put his hand under her chin
lifting her head slightly. “I really wish we didn’t have to go back into the real
world,” he said, placing a kiss on her lips. “Should we run away to a tropical
paradise?”
    “Bugs,” Mary said. “Big ones.”
    “That’s true,” he agreed. “Okay, I’ll guess we’ll stay
here.”
    Reaching up and kissing him back, she grinned. “Good
choice.”

Chapter Five

 
    “Good morning, Clarissa,” Mary said, opening her daughter’s
bedroom door and peeking inside. “Your dad has to leave early this morning, but
he didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye to you.   Are you ready to get up?”
    Stretching and wiping the sleep out of her eyes, Clarissa
nodded, slipped out her bed, and started padding down the hall toward the
stairs. “Don’t you want to see what the tooth fairy left you?” Mary reminded
her.
    Eyes widening instantly, Clarissa hurried back to her room
and stuck her hand underneath her pillow.   She pulled out the little chest, excited to open it. In her hurry, the
delicate piece slipped from her hands and fell onto the wooden floor. They both
heard the crack at the same time. Clarissa froze and Mary hurried forward,
picking up the pieces of chest from the floor.
    “Don’t move,” she said, more sharply than she meant, because
Clarissa was barefoot and she didn’t want her to cut her feet. “I’ll be right
back.”
    As Mary hurried into the bathroom for a damp washcloth, Bradley
came into the room. “What happened?” he asked.
    A tear stole down Clarissa’s cheek. “I accidently broke Mom’s
chest,” she said.
    “Oh, Clarissa,” Bradley said, distress in his voice. “How
did it happen?”
    Coming back into the room, Mary shook her head. “It was just
an accident,” she said. “It slipped, that’s all.”
    Bradley saw the sheen in Mary’s eyes as she wiped the wood
floor and knew this was upsetting her more than she letting on. “Mary, we’re a
family now,” he said. “We need to be honest with each other.”
    Shrugging, she sat up and shook her head, wiping away a
stray tear. “My grandmother gave it to me before she died,” she admitted. “So,
I’m a little sad. But this is not Clarissa’s fault. It truly was just an
accident.”
    Clarissa’s heart dropped “I’m so sorry, Mom,” Clarissa
sobbed. “Please don’t be hate me.”
    “Oh, darling, I don’t hate you,” she said, hugging her
daughter. “Don’t worry about it.”
    “I guess we’ll have to get something with reinforced steel
or rubber for the rest of the baby teeth in the Alden household,” Bradley
teased.