Read Online A Better Reason to Fall in Love by Marcia Lynn McClure - Free Book Online

and somehow tense. The incident kept playing over and over in her mind: the way they’d been talking about Jagger—Emmy, Naomi, and Jocelyn egging her on, encouraging her to ask Jagger out, or at least talk to him more often. And then, almost as if he’d been listening and some unseen stage manager had cued him to appear, he did! It was weird, the way he seemed to show up every time she and her friends were talking about him lately—almost freaky. The same thing had happened at the Acapulco the week before. It didn’t help that the weirdness seemed to spill over from lunch and into the office.
    The very day following the Jagger sighting at the aquarium, another incident occurred to rattle Tabby. Feeling uptight and agitated, she’d decided to turn to her old friend chocolate for comfort. She dug around in the bottom of her purse, scrounged up four quarters, and headed for the break room, hoping the F5 slot in the vending machine wasn’t already empty. She needed a Baby Ruth bar, and she needed it quickly!
    Tabby sighed with relief, smiling as she saw there were still several Baby Ruth bars in the vending machine. She inserted the quarters one at a time, making sure each one clicked and clinked. When she’d put in a whole dollar, she pushed F5 and watched as the release mechanism pushed the candy bar forward to drop into the slot below.
    Retrieving the candy bar from the vending machine slot, Tabby had torn into it like a ravenous dog. She sighed as she chewed the first bite of chocolate, peanuts, and nougat confection, wondering how it was that sugar and chocolate could calm a soul so instantaneously. Taking another bite, she turned around to head back to her desk.
    She’d nearly choked to death as she saw Jagger Brodie standing behind her. He smiled as she continued to chew.
    “Hi,” he’d said, grinning at her. He was amused. It was sorely obvious by the way a full-fledged smile threatened to spread across his face as he looked at her.
    “Hi,” Tabby had managed to mumble. She was mortified! Why had she taken such an enormous-sized bite of the candy bar?
    “Baby Ruth, huh?” Jagger asked as she stepped aside so he could approach the vending machine.
    “Mm hm,” Tabby confirmed. Her mouth was still too full of candy to properly respond.
    “I’m a Twix man myself,” he said, pulling a handful of change from his pocket and inserting various coins into the vending machine.
    Tabby chewed like a mad woman as she watched the Derrière-inator retrieve his candy bar from the machine.
    He turned, grinned at her again, and said, “See ya.”
    “Mm hm,” Tabby mumbled, forcing a friendly grin in return. She wondered how red her face was. From the humiliation coursing through her veins, she was sure it was at least as red as a baboon’s behind!
    She watched him saunter out of the break room—watched him nod a greeting to Emmy as Emmy entered.
    Emmy’s eyes widened, and so did her smile, as she stepped into the break room and spied Tabby.
    “Are you serious?” Emmy whispered. “Have you finally been making out with Jagger Brodie in the break room?”
    By this time, Tabby had managed to swallow the bite of Baby Ruth bar she’d been chewing so voraciously that her jaws now hurt.
    “Oh, yeah…sure,” Tabby said, nodding to emphasize her sarcasm. “He only came in here and found me wolfing down a candy bar like a starving dog!”
    Emmy laughed, and eventually her amusement spilled over onto Tabby. Nothing could be done about it. She’d looked like a fool in front of His Royal Hineyness, the Derrière inator. There was nothing to do but go back to her desk and get to work.
    The incident haunted Tabby, however. She could only imagine how stupid she must’ve looked, standing there in front of the vending machine chowing down like a pig. She only hoped she hadn’t moaned out loud as she sometimes did when something delicious first touched her tongue. She couldn’t remember moaning but couldn’t be certain