Read Sweet Little Lies for Free Online Page A

goes.You can keep your bat sheathed for now, thanks.” Everyone but Brandon laughed. He shot an irritated glance in my direction.
    “And on that note…meeting adjourned,” Jennifer said.
    Thank God. I could not wait to get to the hotel room, spin twice in the shower and dive face-first into the bed. It seemed like forever and a day since I catnapped against Steven’s shoulder. Smiling slightly thinking about it, I walked into the visitors’ office to get my suitcase. Carey was right behind me and closed the door.
    “Okay, spill.What the hell happened with Jay, and who istonight’s rebound date? When did you find time to pick up a date in New York? And most importantly …how are you?” She flung her arms out in a come-to-mama gesture.
    Laughing, I leaned into her and we shared a squeeze. I backed up and perched on the edge of the desk with a sigh. “Girl, I don’t have the energy to explain the Jay /David debacle to you right now.”
    “Jay/ David?”
    “Um-hmm. Seems he’s either one or the other. Maybe neither—who knows? Oh, I know who knows—his wife and his two kids: Dina and Daisy!”
    “The
hell?
”
    “Again, I’ll have to catch you up at brunch on Sunday. But I think I’ll be taking some time off from men.”
    “Another of the famed Christina man-hiatus thingies?”
    Okay, I might have sworn to take man breaks before…and they never seemed to work out.“This time I mean it.”
    “I hear you talking. How is the family taking it?”
    “Joanna has gone all high-strung matriarch on me. Collin and Clarke threatened to kick his ass.”
    “I can’t see Clarke kicking anyone’s ass. It might wrinkle his Italian silk.”
    I had to snort out a laugh. Her description was dead-on accurate. Clarke Brinsley did not rumble.And for some reason, he and Carey had never gotten along. “Okay—well, he would’ve hired the best in the business to kick his ass, then.”
    “There you go.What’s the story on tonight’s date?”
    “Oh, it’s not a date. It’s dinner with my delivery guy.”
    “I’m sorry, did you just say deliveryman? What is Christina Bougie Brinsley doing dating the deliveryman? Is it that bad out there?”
    Pursing my lips, I shot her my patented you-are-so-not-funny look.“There’s nothing wrong with dating the delivery-man, snob. But he’s not my delivery guy anymore. He’s agraduate student at Columbia. Anyway, it’s just dinner. No date. I really just said that to quell the poor-Christina looks I was getting.”
    “Grad student? Go cougar, get your prowl on. How old is he?”
    “He’s twenty-six.”
    She treated me to her I-don’t-believe-a-word-you-are-saying look.“What is grad student’s name?”
    “Steven.”Twinkly, sparkly Steven.
    “Um-hmm. If you could see what your face just did when you said his name.”
    “What did it do?”
    “It went all soft.This is a date.”
    “It’s not a date! I’m just getting out of a doozy of a relationship, if you recall.”
    “Oh, I recall.”
    “All right then. It’s just dinner.”
    “Got it.This makes sense.You’re having dinner on a Friday night with a young man who makes your face go fuzzy and it’s not a date. How long have you known this guy?”
    “Seriously—he was my package-delivery guy for close to a year.”
    “And all he was delivering was boxes and envelopes, right? He wasn’t slipping you an afternoon express every once in a while?”
    I laughed. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Carey Elizabeth Jaymes.Yes, he delivered mail-sanctioned packages.That is all. He happened to be on the same red-eye last night.We were gonna go grab breakfast, but the meeting was called so we rain-checked for dinner.”
    “Dinner on a Friday night in Manhattan with a young man? Less than ten days after what was apparently a disastrous implosion of your engagement to Dina and Daisy’s daddy? Christina Violet Tempest Brinsley:This is a date.”
    I threw my hands up. I clearly wasn’t going to convince her.“Think what