Read Online Below Zero by C. J. Box - Free Book Online

you a drink later,” Robert pushed on.
    Patty Johnston dismissed him with an embarrassed smile and turned back to the front desk.
    Robert’s shoulders slumped and his neck turned red. He let a beat pass, then continued his way toward the bar. From her overstuffed chair in the lobby, she almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
    When he came back to his chair, the bride-to-be and her mother were gone.
    She said, “I guess that didn’t work out.”
    He shook his head as if harboring secret knowledge. “You didn’t see how she looked at me. She looked me over, girlie, and Patty liked what she saw. I could have pursued it, and she would have let me. If she wasn’t with her mother, it would be a whole different outcome, believe me.”
    He sipped his drink, trying to act nonchalant. “But I figure Stenko’s working the groom, so why bother?”
    Then he did something she was getting used to: he withdrew his laptop from his computer case and opened it on his thighs.
    “Stenko got all the numbers from the groom,” Robert said, as much to himself as to her. He handed her the spiral notebook opened to a page filled with scrawled words and numbers.
    “Read this to me so I can input the data,” he said.
    “It doesn’t make sense.”
    “It doesn’t have to make sense to you,” he said, annoyed. “It makes sense to me. Now just start at the top and read out each entry while I put it into the database.”
    She sighed. “Twenty international guests from Europe.”
    Tap-tap-tap.
    He said, “That’s eight thousand nine hundred fifty KM each. Seventeen hundred seventy-two KG of carbon per. Seventeen thousand nine hundred KM total, seventy tons of carbon total. Okay, next.”
    “One hundred sixty guests from Chicago.
    Tap-tap-tap. “Five thousand seven hundred KM. One point two tons carbon each. One hundred ninety-two tons total. Wow. Next.”
    “Eighty from NYC and LA.”
    Tap-tap-tap. “Ten thousand four hundred KM. Three hundred twenty tons of carbon total. Then the driving.”
    “What?” She asked.
    “See below where it says rental cars? What are the figures?”
    She flipped the page back and found more entries. “Two hundred sixty guests driving three hundred twenty miles Denver-Aspen.”
    Tap-tap-tap. Mumbled, “One hundred twenty-five tons of carbon.”
    He hit enter with a flourish, then whistled. “One society wedding produces seven hundred and seven tons of carbon into the atmosphere to further choke our planet to death. The offset cost is $7,815.88.”
    She thought about it for a moment. She was beginning to understand.
    “What about the honeymoon?” she asked. “Wouldn’t you count that, too?”
    He grinned.
    She got it, and she felt her scalp crawl. “There won’t be a honey-moon.”
    He waggled his eyebrows. “Our global honeymoon is over, girlie. All for the best,” he said.
    Then: “Stop looking at me like that. Carmen used to do that, too.”

6
    Aspen
     
     
    WHEN PATTY JOHNSTON HEARD A SCRATCH ON THE KEYCARD entry on the outside of her door and saw the tiny yellow dot of the peephole blink out indicating someone was outside in the hall, she propped up on her elbow in bed and shook her hair so it cascaded into place but not entirely. When a strap from her nightgown didn’t fall casually over her shoulder as intended, she squirmed so it did. She tried to imagine what she would look like to Alex when he opened the door, but she was pretty sure she’d look sleepy, soft, warm, inviting—but not too hungry for him. The bathroom lights were dimmed and the door slightly ajar, so there was a soft glow of gold reaching across the bedroom. But not too much. It annoyed her that Alex shut his eyes when the lights were on, that he’d only look at her furtively in casual asides while they made love. She hadn’t been working out and dieting until her belly was rock hard for their wedding for him not to look at her.
    She was still trying to get over the realization she’d had recently when they were