Read Hope Entangles: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (Book 2 of 3) for Free Online Page B

to do
it again…
    I had to wipe the sweat from
my brow more than a couple times. Even with my air conditioning
cranked up on high. Central air my
ass . I felt like I was trying to take
pictures in a pizza oven.
    Okay, either I was having sexy hot
flashes over AAA tow-truck guy Billy, or I was suffering from low
blood sugar. Because I couldn’t figure out if my mouth was watering
because of the well-built wolf-in-smoking-hot men’s clothing… or
because I was starving?
    I’d eaten with Billy, hadn’t
I?
    I excused myself, used my downstairs
restroom and then snagged a powdered donut on my way back up
stairs.
    The world had changed in that short
span of time.
    Georgia had arrived, and stood before
Billy with her head down. Billy’s swagger and cockiness were gone,
and in their place was this sad, lost little boy.
    His eyes were glistening, and his
breathing was rapid. A thin sheen of sweat shone on his skin, and
his arms were slowly dropping to his sides, defeated.
    Georgia raised her hand and touched the
side of his face. “I’m really sorry, Billy. I truly am.”
    She turned and started toward me and
the door. She stopped and gave me a long, beseeching
look.
    Oh, hell...
    I hadn’t even thought she’d wait and
spring this on him here. She’d hoodwinked me, and crushed him. And
now I was stuck with what could be a pretty messy young-man-in-love
breakdown.
    Shit…
    That’ll teach me to give any more “good
advice.”
    That’s what you get for sticking your
nose in other people’s problems.
    Georgia left, and Billy stood there,
looking down at what was in his hands: the red hooded cloak Georgia
was supposed to wear.
    He looked down upon it like it was his
own torn out, broken heart. Or possibly what was left of a dead
loved one.
    It was one of the most poignant images
I’d ever seen, and part of me wanted to grab my camera and capture
it on film.
    But I couldn’t.
    It was too personal; too real; too damn
painful.
    And hadn’t I caused enough pain by
taking portraits that were too intimate already?
    I grabbed Billy’s button down cotton
shirt and helped him on with it. I took the red cloak out of his
hands and led him downstairs to the kitchen. There I made him a
cold-cut sandwich—thinly sliced ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese on
wheat bread with Hellman’s, and poured him a
sarsaparilla.
    It had looked good last night at the
Piggly Wiggly, the sarsaparilla, and when Billy absently took a
drink, and then smiled with surprise, it had been worth the trip to
the store.
    “ I haven’t had one of these
since I was a kid.”
    I smiled and touched his hand. “I’m so
sorry.”
    He coughed uncomfortably and blinked
away the shine from his eyes. Then he shrugged and gave me a pale
impersonation of one of his old, devil-may-care smiles.
    “ I’ll find another
girl—probably prettier, with better teeth and bigger
implants.”
    A roar of laughter erupted from
me.
    The handsome letch would be just fine…
eventually.
    But God help the female population as
he did his rebound thing. He’d set them up and knock ’em down like
bowling pins.
     
    ***

    Bette invited herself over that night,
and we ordered in pizza. My half had extra cheese and pepperoni;
hers had ham and pineapple. I cringed at the thought.
    I was beginning to wonder if our food
tastes would ever find a place to converge.
    But we’d both loved the gyros Darla had
brought, so there was at least one place we could stand
together.
    She’d brought a Meryl Streep
movie I’d missed: It’s
Complicated . I wasn’t a big Streep fan. I’d
liked The Bridges of Madison
County , and her ice queen turn in The Devil Wears Prada , but
mostly her movies were depressing as hell. So I just didn’t get
her.
    But as I sat down and chomped on my
pizza, I just fell right into the movie. I laughed my ass off as
her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) got her drunk, got her dancing, and
then unceremoniously got her into bed. He was irresistible… for an
old guy.
    Not only did