Read The Love Square for Free Online Page B

to nap but watched Clare instead. His crankiness dissipated and he felt content. Like himself, for the first time in a long time.
    “I don’t think I can sleep with this in front of me,” Clare said, more to herself than Dylan.
    After watching the sunset through the cloudy sky, they left the beach. He took her to dinner, where they ate and compared their pre-California lives.
    “What about your parents?” Clare asked after Dylan told her about his three sisters scattered around the nation.
    “My mother died of breast cancer, and my dad died about three months after. My sisters think from a broken heart.”
    “They loved each other,” Clare said, looking up at the sky.
    “Very much.” Dylan knew no relationship he could dream up would live up to the love his parents had for each other.
    “My parents too,” Clare said. “It used to annoy me. Now I think I’m just jealous.”
    Dylan knew the feeling. “My parents are Jack and Diane.”
    “Like the eighties song? That’s perfect,” she said, and the conversation turned to music.
    When Dylan dropped Clare off that night, he felt good, mostly because he thought he’d shown her a nice time and that California wasn’t all evil. He also felt as if he had made a real friend for the first time since arriving in California. Dylan told her he had other places to show her, and they made a date to hang out on her next day off.
    During the week, Dylan and Clare texted and talked on the phone when they could. Dylan also came to the bookstore one night and drank coffee with Clare during her break. She gave him the picture she had taken of the two of them on the beach, and he stuck it on his dresser mirror at home. He looked annoyed in the picture, but she looked happy, so he liked it.
    Hanging around Clare also made Dylan miss New York and his family and friends, so late one night he grabbed his phone and searched his contacts. First, he spoke to his sisters. Then he called Alex.
    “D-Barnes!” Alex answered. “What’s up? How’s Cali?”
    “It’s great. You have to come visit me some time,” Dylan said. “How’s New York?”
    “I don’t know. I’m in Pittsburgh. Three-game series.”
    “Oh yeah? How you doing with everything?”
    Alex told Dylan about his stats, the team, his coach. They talked about Steve and Long Island, and their high school days. Alex asked him about the California girls and was disappointed when Dylan had no good stories for him. Dylan wasn’t into sleeping around like Alex. He was over that. Done with women for now. Well, except for Clare.
    “Listen,” Dylan said, “I’m going to a movie premiere this summer in the city. Middle of July, I think. Maybe we can hang out together? Steve too? I miss you idiots.”
    “The gladiator thing already?” Alex asked.
    “No. A small role I had in a rom-com, but the studio wants me to start hamming it up for the gladiator thing, so I kind of have to go.”
    “Oh, you poor thing,” Alex joked. “You seem so miserable about it.”
    “It’s not as fun as it looks.”
    “I have no sympathy. But yeah, of course. Let me know as it gets closer.”
    They hung up and Dylan went to sleep. The next morning he had an early meeting with his publicist and then headed out to buy Clare a gift.
    He couldn’t wait to see her again to give it to her.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
    Alex
     
    “Why are you being such a bitch?” Alex asked Jenna as she threw her work bag on the floor and pulled off her shoes.
    “Because, Alex, this isn’t a restaurant, and that was totally disrespectful.” She slammed her bedroom door and disappeared.
    “What was?” he asked through the door.
    “You text me you’re starving, and I tell you to come eat my leftovers. I get home, and you and some random chick are here feeding each other my food? Were you going to have sex on my bed too?” she yelled from her room.
    “We already had sex upstairs, and we were hungry. I asked you first,” he yelled