Heartless Read Online Free Page A

the block and saw Josh jogging toward me. My emotions jumped all over the place: relief, irritation, nervousness, and my body did some weird stuff, too. My heart started pounding again, for one thing, and my knees felt a little weak. Without realizing it, I was holding my breath, so when he had jogged right up to me I had to let out a big sigh so I didn’t turn a funny shade of purple—a combination of blue from not breathing and red from nervous embarrassment.
    “Sorry, sorry,” said Josh, breathing heavily. He had a light sheen of sweat on his forehead, which he rubbed off and into his hair so that it stood up at rakish angles. He carried his leather jacket under the arm holding his helmet so I could clearly see his tanned muscles flexing under his white T-shirt. I stared up at him, still trying to catch up to the fact that he was here, standing in front of me, and I had to teach myself to breath all over again.
    “Hi,” I said, working hard to even out my breathing and my heartbeats. “I almost gave up.”
    He was still catching his breath when he pulled off his sunglasses and branded me with his hot blue gaze. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
    I had to look away from those eyes. I caught sight of his helmet as my eyes dropped to the pavement.
    “Where’s your bike?”
    “That’s why I’m out of breath,” he explained. “I parked it over on Melrose and jogged over here.”
    I looked up at him with a question in my eyes.
    He shrugged. “I thought you’d feel more comfortable walking together first.”
    He’d already been thinking about my comfort? I smiled. “Thanks. I do.”
    We headed back to the corner and turned down one of the side streets starting a zig zag path toward Melrose.
    “How was work?” said Josh.
    “Nothing special.” Except for you coming in, I wanted to say, but didn’t.
    “Was that guy Brian your boss?”
    “Yeah, sorry he was a bit brusque. He’s pretty protective of me.”
    “Why? You seem like you can take care of yourself.”
    “I do?” That’s not at all how I felt and it’s certainly not how anyone had treated me for the last three years. Not since the Tragedy, but I wasn’t about to bring that up with a stranger. In fact, I was never going to bring it up ever again, except with Miranda.
    “Maybe it’s just that ‘fake it till you make it thing’, but you seem pretty strong to me,” he said.
    I looked up at Josh’s profile. He was the epitome of strong. I felt safer just walking next to him. Though the unfamiliar feelings he was arousing in me felt dangerous. I was looking forward to the cooling effects of the frozen yogurt.
    “You still haven’t told me what you do for work,” I said.
    He tossed his head back. “Ah, the first of the twenty questions. Why is that so important to girls? Does it really matter?”
    “Within certain parameters, yes. Like what if you were a pimp or a hit man?”
    “Or a professional stalker?”
    “Well, you know. What a person does kind of defines who they are, don’t you think?”
    He shook his head. “Not at all. I think why a person does what he—or she—does define them. You work at a paint store, for an overly protective boss, and I’m more interested in the why than the what.”
    “That’s just because you already know the what. Do you even have a job? I mean, it’s Monday and you were scoping out paint stores.”
    He shrugged. “Sometimes I have Mondays off, sometimes I work weekends. Each week’s a bit different.”
    “The unpredictability sounds exciting, and mysterious.”
    “Seriously, not exciting .” Sighing, he said, “I work in construction right now. That should dispel your sense of mystery.” Was it my imagination or did he seem kind of embarrassed by his job? It made me wonder if I should feel stupid working at a paint store, but honestly, it’s the most I could handle. So far.
    “So you build things, that’s cool.” That explained the tan and the muscles.
    “Aren’t you going to ask