Read Online Bolted by Meg Benjamin - Free Book Online Page A

cooking too.”
    “Yes, I might.” Greta managed to keep her expression bland. The woman had a garden full of herbs and she still cooked canned spaghetti and meatballs?
    Nadia gave her a dry smile. “I know what you’re thinking, dear, but it really was a matter of principle. Alice was trying to force me to accept her point of view, and I was resisting. It’s nothing more than family politics, you see.”
    “I do see. I’ve been involved in a few family battles myself.” Most of them stemming from her folks’ fervent wish that she be more like Josh the Perfect. And her own insistence on being herself, flawed and screwed up though that self might have been. And possibly still was. More than possibly as a matter of fact.
    “Really?” Nadia leaned forward. “What kind of family battles?”
    “Oh, you know…” Greta shrugged, trying desperately to backpedal.
    “Where are you from, dear?” Nadia narrowed her eyes slightly. “And how did you come to be here in a bridesmaid dress you didn’t like? And why have you decided to stay here instead of going back home? Is this all part of one of those family battles?”
    Greta blew out a breath. Alice hadn’t bothered to ask anything beyond the basic question of why she was on the run, but apparently Nadia was more persistent. “I’m from Promise Harbor. Which is where the wedding was. Or wasn’t, actually. And I’m staying here because I’m just not ready to walk back into the crap that’s going on back home quite yet.”
    Nadia frowned. “Does your family know where you are and what you’re doing?”
    Greta shook her head. “I’ll tell them. Maybe today. They probably haven’t even realized I’m gone yet.”
    “I doubt that,” Nadia said gently. “What is it you’re trying to avoid telling them?”
    Greta blinked.
    Nadia shook her head. “I’m the most disinterested of observers, my dear. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. Whatever you tell me I can take at face value since I have no idea who’s who. Take advantage of my willingness to listen. You don’t get chances like this often.”
    Greta licked her lips. Well, why not? “My marriage broke up. And my brother was supposed to get married, but then his fiancée left him at the altar. Sort of. And I can’t bring myself to tell my mom that my husband walked out too.”
    She breathed deep. There now, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Actually, it was. Definitely.
    Nadia frowned. “Why wouldn’t your mother be sympathetic to you?”
    Greta pushed her fingers through her hair, probably leaving it standing in spikes. “I’m sure she’d be sympathetic. Eventually. But I have this…reputation. I’m always doing things wrong. I keep rushing into things without stopping to think about it. And this might look like one more thing I’ve screwed up.”
    “Actually, dear, I think that’s something of a misstatement. It usually takes two to break up a marriage.” Nadia picked up another muffin crumb.
    “Well, maybe. But I still think a lot of people will figure it was mostly my fault, given my track record.”
    “Bullshit,” Nadia said cheerfully. “Anyone who’d think that isn’t worth worrying about. What happened?”
    Greta took a deep breath, ready to tell her, politely, to butt out. Nadia stared back at her, smiling slightly. Take advantage of my willingness to listen. You don’t get chances like this often. True enough. Her mother probably wouldn’t be quite as relaxed about it.
    “My ex-husband, Ryan, is a bond trader. In Boston,” she began slowly. “He had this secretary, Dorothy. She was really good at her job. Very efficient. Very professional.”
    In fact, Dorothy always looked like she planned on moving up to the executive suite within the next fifteen minutes. Her ash-blonde hair hung just below her jaw in a smooth line. Her brown eyes were always made up flawlessly with just the right amount of taupe shadow and dark brown mascara. Even her lipstick was a perfectly modulated