Whisper Cape Read Online Free

“I’m a grown woman and I can take care of myself. You needn’t get so worked up about things.”
    Addie knew Gerry to be a caring man. A bit over-protective, but caring none-the-less. Gerry Briden was a tall, handsome man of thirty-nine, thirteen years her senior—a detail he sometimes liked to affirm, thinking it gave him the right to treat her as though she were a child. He swept his hand through his short, dark, wavy hair, and bulging ridges protruded from under his rolled-up sleeves. Addie thought that Gerry proved her aunt had impeccable taste in men.
    He stood with his hands on his hips, his concern settling into impatience. His full-lipped mouth curved up on the right side when he spoke, accentuating his subtle Scottish accent, which Addie knew many women found irresistible. “Well then, if you’re okay, pull yourself together now and get to work. We have a bloody busy afternoon yet. Rob was in here earlier and said he saw a tour bus headed this way while he was on his morning patrol. Those people are going to be thirsty and hungry.”
    She heard the irritation in his voice and winced.
    Tour buses always brought in a couple dozen hungry and thirsty tourists. The last thing Addie needed was a bus full of people. God, why this morning of all mornings, when I have so much on my mind?
    She thought of Rob, the chief of police, then of the man she may have hit, and in her mind, saw him lying on the side of the road, dead. She wondered if the chief would soon discover a body somewhere along the highway while he was on patrol.
    “Rob ... Chief Thompson was here? When?” How could she have been so stupid? She really hadn’t checked the side of the road very well. Her breath caught in her throat as she thought of the man bleeding to death in a ditch somewhere, unable to answer when she called out to him. She just left him there, helpless. She froze, staring at Gerry, unable to hide the horror on her face.
    “Come on now, you’ve never let a bus full of tourists get to you before. What’s really going on?” Gerry threw a dirty bar rag into the bin, retrieved a clean one from the shelf behind him and looked at her with a bemused expression. “Have you had another nightmare then?”
    “ Yes! ” she wanted to scream but, “No,” she lied, considering that the whole morning had been one long, continual nightmare. She wanted to tell him about the man disappearing into thin air, but then thought it sounded too crazy. Maybe she did just imagine him, or maybe he had been part of her nightmare. Maybe.
    “Um ... nothing’s going on. I’m just tired and the idea of a full bus, well, I guess I’d better get busy.” Addie grabbed a wet rag, wiped up some beer spills from the bar and tried to shake the image of a dead man on the side of the road from her mind.
    “Good, we don’t have time for fucking around today.” Gerry turned to pick up a case of beer, then proceeded to stock the mini fridge in the bar area.
    It was all so ridiculous. The man must have been a figment of her imagination, a manifestation from her nightmare. No one could just disappear, and she convinced herself that if the man had been real, and in fact hurt, he would have been there when she got out of the truck.
    Addie tiptoed by the kitchen, located beside the back door and behind the bar. The room, newly outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, emitted a silvery shine. Jared poked his head out the door as she passed.
    “Hey Addie,” he chuckled, looking relieved to have Gerry pick on her for a while instead of him.
    “Morning, Jared,” she mumbled. God, please don’t make me have to talk to him. On top of everything else, dealing with Jared right now would just be too cruel.
    “Addie, wait,” Jared called after her. “There’s a bunch of us getting together for a campfire tomorrow night at the beach, would you like to come?”
    Jared had asked her out before, but she’d always managed to come up with an excuse. He stood there—bar