Read Hope Breaks: A New Adult Romantic Comedy for Free Online

didn’t look right with makeup on.  I never had.  So I got out a moist towel and cleaned the mascara, eyeliner, and eye shadow off.
    I left the lip-gloss on.
    Then I took my hair and pulled it loosely into another ponytail, careful not to frizz out the straightened curls.
    I looked back in the mirror.  I looked more like me—a good version of me, one that cared about personal hygiene and whether her clothes matched.
    A refreshing change, truthfully.
    I was sure that Bette would not approve of my taking the makeup off, or pulling my hair back again, but she wasn’t the one who felt stupid all dolled up.
    I wasn’t sure when Jake got off work.  I hadn’t thought to ask him.  But if his workday was halfway through around noon, which was when we had lunch together, then he would probably be done at four or five.
    I decided to pour myself a fresh cup of coffee, nervously ate a Keebler Fudge Stripe, and then went and sat on my front porch.  The summer afternoon was starting to cool off, and the sun had moved behind my house, so it was almost comfortable on my porch.
    I saw Bette looking out her side bay window.  She waved.  I waved back, the first couple of times.  The last six I ignored her, even when she knocked on the window.
    About four-thirty I heard the familiar sound of my car coming.  It wasn’t that my Ford Taurus was loud, it’s just that after a few years you get to know the sound of your car: its engine, how the suspension groans when it hits a pothole.
    Jake pulled up and parked my car in front of my house.  I got up off the porch swing the same time he climbed out from behind the driver’s seat. 
    He stopped as he came around the car, and I stopped on the porch steps.  We both blinked.
    He’d changed his clothes too.
    He had on a bright green t-shirt and faded blue jeans.  They fit him in the most attractive way.  Not too tight, but snug enough that I enjoyed the hell out of giving him a head to toe ogle.
    Jake smiled and started toward me on the porch.  I took the last t wo steps and stared up at him as he came close enough to touch.
    I didn’t.  I was in complete control of myself.  Absolute, complete control…
    I licked my lips and closed my eyes, lost.  What was I going to say to him?  I’d made a list, right?  Where was it?  Oh, yeah, in my jumbled head.
    “Coffee smells good,” Jake said.  I noticed there was a small scar right over his left eye.  I suddenly wanted to go on tiptoe and lick it.
    I shuddered at the thought.  I wanted to lick his scar.  Hell, I wanted to lick more than just that.
    Focus!  Control!!!
    This wasn’t good.  This was…
    Right then and there, standing there in broad daylight, I felt the sudden fear of the dark that had been like second nature just a few years ago.
    I was feeling out of control, like I had back then, with him .
    No… this wasn’t then.  This guy wasn’t him.
    I forced my eyelids open and found the world awash in gorgeous yellow light, and it was spilling over the man before me as if it was lighting him from the inside out.
    He was beautiful. 
    I swallowed.  “Come inside and I’ll make a fresh pot.”
    “If it’s no trouble,” he said, looking as if he’d noticed my little mini panic attack.
    “No trouble at all,” I scoffed, waving my hand.
    I turned and went back onto my porch, grabbing my cold coffee and leading the way into my home.  It was set up like so many homes in my suburb.  You walked into a foyer that held the stairs leading to the second floor.  About halfway back through that hallway there was a door that led to the basement, and further back was the kitchen.  The living room and small dining area were off to the right.
    I lead the way to my kitchen and poured out the coffee Bette had made earlier.  A few moments later a fresh pot was being brewed.
    I turned around and found Jake standing just inside the doorway of the kitchen.  He had his arms crossed over his chest—such a nice chest—as he