FAST RIDE by DEBBY CONRAD Page B

the day of his surgery, but he remembered thinking he could smell her presence.
    And then he’d looked up and seen her peering down at him, her big, brown eyes filled with tears. She’d touched his hand, leaving his flesh warm from the contact.
    When he’d come to later on that day, she was gone. And he hadn’t bothered asking Libby if it had all been a dream
    “How is your mom?”
    Jordan shrugged. “Okay. But she cries a lot sometimes.”
    Heaviness settled in his chest. “Has she told you why she’s been crying?”
    “She said it’s not my fault. She’s not mad at me. She can’t help it ‘cause her heart got broken.”
    A flash of wild grief ripped at his own heart. “Did she happen to mention who broke it?”
    The boy took his time answering. “Nope.”
    Kenny focused on the diagram once more when Jordan said, “My dad has a new girlfriend. Her name is Kitty. My mom said she was happy for him ‘cause he’s been lonely ever since him and Chloe broke up.”
    Holly was happy that her ex had a girlfriend? That didn’t make any sense.
    Kenny was getting stronger each day, and maybe it was time he ventured next door to see for himself if he was the one who’d broken her heart.
    * * *
    It was a blustery February day. Falcon Ridge and most of northwest Pennsylvania had gotten over six inches of snow overnight. There was no way Kenny would make it through those heavy mounds to Holly’s house. Even with his walker for support.
    So instead he decided to call her. He picked up the phone, punched in her number and waited. After three rings, the answering machine clicked on and he heard her soft voice echo through the receiver.
    He was about to leave a message when he heard someone knocking at the front door. Quickly, he replaced the receiver and made his way to the living room.
    Whoever was outside was impatient because they were now ringing the bell.
    “Hold on,” he called out, balancing his weight against the walker and trying to take slightly larger steps. By the time he got to the door, he was out of breath.
    He yanked it open and just about fell over when he saw Holly standing there. Her parka and boots were covered with snow.
    She looked up at him and smiled. “You’re taller than I expected.”
    “And you’re shorter than I remember.”
    She laughed. Her breath made a cloud of smoke against the frigid air. There was something different about her but he couldn’t decide what it was.
    He saw her shiver. “Do you want to come in out of the cold?”
    “I thought you’d never ask.” She ducked under his arm and went around him as he shut the door. Brushing the snow from her coat, she kicked off her boots and set them on the rug. “How are you doing?”
    “Better with each day.”
    “That’s good.” She held out a white envelope and he took it from her hand without looking at it. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “It was in my mailbox, but it’s addressed to you. Since it’s from the IRS I thought maybe it might be important.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Aren’t you going to open it?”
    “I’ll open it later,” he said, setting it on the hall table. His hand moved of its own volition to brush a snowflake from her hair. “Can you stay for a few minutes?”
    “Sure. I wanted to talk to you about something anyway.” She shrugged out of her coat, and draped it over the rack in the foyer.
    She was dressed in jeans and a gray, wool sweater with suede patches on the elbows. Her breasts and hips seemed larger than he remembered. Could it be they looked different from this angle? No. He knew everything there was to know about her body and both were definitely larger.
    “I wanted to thank you for helping Jordan study for his computer test. His teacher just called. Jordan got an A.”
    “That’s great.”
    He continued to stare at her, to check out her curves when he thought she wasn’t looking. “Do you want to sit down? I can’t stand for long periods of time yet.”
    “Oh, sure.” He let