Read An (Almost) Perfect Love Story (Love Story Book Three) for Free Online

and T-shirts. He wore his sandy hair longish and seemed to have a permanent tan, even in the winter, from spending so much time outdoors. He was cute, though, I had to admit that. In a sexy, almost bad-boy kind of way.
    Paul reached out a flannel-clad arm to shake hands with Elliot and Chris, then hugged Emily. “Good to see you, Donovan,” he said, smiling at her almost flirtatiously. I knew he had gone to school with Emily, Chris, and Brooke as well. The four of them had known each other for more than a decade. I felt the familiar twist of my stomach at the sight of them; it was hard not to feel like an outsider in the face of so much shared history. But then Brooke was slipping her arm through mine, rather uncharacteristically for her, and pulling me forward into the living room.
    “I can’t wait for you to see everything,” she said happily. I marveled at the change in her. Brooke was acting downright girly; I didn’t think I had ever seen her like this. I wondered if it was a consequence of her new relationship with Paul or the success of the inn, or maybe a combination of both. At any rate, she had lowered her head toward mine and was telling me, somewhat conspiratorially, that she had booked Chris and me in her best room.
    She led us through the lower level. There were several guests in the living room, clustered around the huge fireplace on comfortable-looking couches and chairs, reading, or talking softly. A uniformed young woman circulated with a tray of champagne. From there, we headed to the dining room, which was breathtaking with floor to ceiling windows revealing an unbelievable view of Hubbard Lake. It looked magical in the moonlight.
    “You should have seen this place before,” Brooke said, a smile of obvious pride on her face as we all stood before the windows. “It was a dump.”
    “You’ve done an amazing job,” I said, feeling awed. I sometimes found it hard to believe that Brooke was the same age as me. She was so driven, so successful. In addition to that, she was probably the most gorgeous woman I had ever seen. She literally turned heads wherever she went. I couldn’t blame the men and women who stared after her when she was in public; with her riot of long, black curls and ridiculously curvy body, she exuded sex appeal. Her attitude of not giving a crap what anyone thought of her only added to her appeal. To tell the truth, I was usually very intimidated by her, though I was trying my best lately not to be.
    In the years that I had known her, she’d flitted from relationship to relationship, never managing to find a guy who could keep up with her. I caught Paul looking at her, as she looked out over the lake, the expression on his face clearly belying the fact that he was crazy about her. It was sweet, really. I suddenly felt like I might just understand how they had ended up together after all.
    “Okay,” Brooke said, her voice turning more business like. “Let’s get you guys settled upstairs, then we can grab dinner.”
    We walked back to the entryway to find that our bags had already been brought upstairs. As we ascended the huge staircase, Chris grabbed my hand. “Was it a good surprise?”
    “A great surprise,” I said, smiling at him. “One question: why did I need my swimsuit for a weekend out in the woods? I’m pretty sure that lake is frozen.”
    Chris laughed. “There’s a hot tub.”
    “Not bad, mister.”
    “We’ll have fun,” he assured me. “And I might even have one more surprise up my sleeve.”
    I was distracted by his teasing promise when Brooke opened the door to our room. “Here you go,” she said, handing a key to Chris. “Best room in the house.”
    I couldn’t help but sigh with happiness as we stepped inside. The room, unsurprisingly, was beautiful. A huge, four-poster bed was in the center of the room, a fireplace crackling happily in front of it. A bay window looked out over the lake below, and a loveseat and coffee table created a cozy