Read Waiting for You for Free Online Page A

glance through the window. “The storm’s worse. You’re still welcome to stay on my couch if you want.”
    He shook his head. “I’ll be fine.”
    “Okay,” she said again. She thought about tomorrow, and knew she wouldn’t be able to face him. “You don’t need to pick me up in the morning.”
    “How will you get back to your car?”
    “I’ll call a friend to take me.”
    “I thought I was a friend.”
    She just looked at him. “I’ll call a different friend.”
    He winced a little at that. “All right. I get it. But if you ever need anything—”
    She couldn’t stand to let him finish. “Right, sure. If I ever need anything I’ll call. Good night, Jake.”
    “Good night,” he said after a moment. He pulled on his overcoat while Erin prayed she could hold it together just a little longer. Then, finally, he opened the door and left.
    She didn’t watch him drive away. She put her back against the door and slid down, slowly, until she was sitting on the floor with her knees bent.
    Only then did she allow herself to cry.
     

 
    Chapter Four
    Erin dragged herself out of bed at six the next morning, determined that her humiliating encounter with Jake wouldn’t impact her work. She went downstairs in her pajamas and logged on to the computer in her living room, opening up her email before starting on the prep work for her client meeting.
    It was a good thing she did, because the first email she saw was from the client, hoping they might be able to reschedule.
    Thank God for small favors. Even with all the preparation in the world she wouldn’t have been at her best for this particular meeting. She wrote back to the client, assuring him it would be no problem at all and giving him a list of possible dates and times.
    Then she sat back in her chair and ran both hands through her hair, already sticking up in all directions. This meant, too, that instead of calling Beth at the ungodly hour of eight to ask for a ride, she could wait until the more civilized hour of ten. The universe had thrown her a bone. She could even go back to bed if she wanted.
    No, she was awake now. She’d grab the newspaper from the porch (assuming the paper boy had made it through the snow), make herself a double espresso with the machine she’d given herself for Christmas, and curl up on the couch with Pepper for a lazy Saturday morning.
    She was feeling almost cheerful as she went towards the front door to fetch the paper. Then she saw a button—no, two buttons—lying on the floor of the entryway.
    Her eyes closed as it all came flooding back. The heat—the wild hunger—Jake’s mouth on hers.
    The memory made her knees weak.
    She’d never thought of herself as a passionate person. Not like Allison or Beth, for instance. She’d resigned herself to this fact a long time ago, figuring that while she might never experience the intense highs of emotion that some of her friends did, she’d never experience the intense lows, either. And wasn’t that better in the long run?
    She would never have dreamed she had such primitive urges inside her, just waiting for the right match to ignite them into flame. Even her feelings for Jake so many years ago hadn’t prepared her for it. What she’d felt then was a schoolgirl’s crush; what she’d felt last night was a woman’s desire.
    Pepper came out of the living room to curve around her ankles, meowing to go out.
    “Maybe we never really know ourselves,” she said softly, reaching down to pet the black cat. “Maybe we just think we do.”
    “You, for instance,” she told Pepper as his requests to be let outside grew more insistent. “You think you want to go out, but when I open the door”—which she did—“you take one look at the snow and change your mind.”
    Pepper looked at her with the deep reproach cats reserve for their owners when the weather doesn’t meet with their liking.
    “Told you so,” she said, grabbing the paper from the porch and then leading the way