Read Online Catch of the Day by Kristan Higgins - Free Book Online

other.
    “Hi,” I say. “What’s up?”
    “Hey, Mags. Nothing. How about you?” he says amiably.
    “Hanging out.”
    “Is it okay if I come over to watch TV tomorrow night?” Jonah asks. “There’s that crabbing show on Discovery. Looked cool.”
    “Sure.” I own one of the few satellite dishes in town. The cable service frequently goes out way up here, and as a single woman, well, let’s face it. I watch a lot of TV.
    Chantal returns. “Jonah! My, how you’ve grown,” she purrs.
    My earlier amusement at her antics evaporates. Even though Jonah is a grown man (officially, anyway), I don’t want him decimated by a man-eater like Chantal. “Chantal, stop. Not my brother. Leave Jonah alone.”
    “No, no, no. Chantal, stay. Don’t leave Jonah alone,” Jonah says, grinning. “Hey, Chantal, you know anyone Maggie here could date? We’re trawling for men who will go out with her.”
    “Thanks so much, Joe,” I say, pinching him. “A little louder, please? I don’t think they heard you in Jonesport.”
    “Hell, I don’t know,” Chantal says. “The pickings are certainly slim. Present company excluded.” She edges closer to Jonah.
    I get up and wedge myself between them. “If you sleep with my brother, I will be very mad at you, Chantal,” I say firmly. “Jonah, Chantal is a diseased woman. Crabs, chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, syphilis…”
    “Don’t believe her, Jonah. Underneath all this, there’s a heart of gold.” She gestures to her chest.
    “Is there?” Jonah asks. “Can I see?”
    “Stop, Joe!” I smack my brother on the back of his head.
    Chantal smiles. “Back to your problem, Maggie. How about Malone?”
    “God, you’re the second person today who’s said that!” I exclaim, jarred out of my irritation. “First Christy, now you.”
    “Why not?” Chantal says. “He’s kind of cute.”
    “This from the woman who said Dick Cheney had that ‘sexy bald thing’ going on.”
    Chantal shrugs. “Well, I can’t help it if it’s true.”
    I stare at her. “Chantal, please. Maybe, I don’t know, Andre Agassi or Montel Williams. But not Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney will never have a sexy anything going on.”
    “Well, Malone’s got that Clive Owen thing going on,” she continues, taking a sip of her martini.
    “Clive Owen after being beaten and left for dead, maybe.”
    “More importantly, he’s single. Right, Jonah?”
    My brother nods sagely at Chantal’s breasts. “Ayuh.”
    “Malone is surly, scary and ugly,” I say. “So I’m gonna pass on him, if you don’t mind.”
    “I don’t know,” Chantal says. She looks past me. “What do you say, Malone? Want to go out with Maggie?”
    Crap. Crappety crap crap. I close my eyes and let the mortification wash over me. Big Mouth strikes again. And Chantal led me right into it.
    I open my eyes and glance past my brother. There he is, surly, scary and ugly. “Hi. Sorry.”
    As nothing brings my brother as much joy as his sister’s humiliation, Jonah is slapping the bar in mirth. “You know Maggie, right, Malone?” he chortles gleefully.
    Malone stares at me, unsmiling, and he is a little scary. But I never noticed, on the rare occasion that I’ve been this close to him, that his eyes are actually quite nice, light blue contrasting with thick black eyelashes. Short, curly black hair, heavy eyebrows, sharp cheekbones. Deep lines run between his eyebrows, out from his eyes, alongside his mouth, and let me assure you, they’re not laugh lines. It occurs to me that I’ve never really looked Malone straight in the face before. Actually, I can kind of see what Chantal means…a little. He’s definitely masculine and—
    “So, what do you think, Malone?” Chantal asks. “You want to go out with Maggie?”
    By now, the whole bar is listening. Though I should be used to public embarrassment, my cheeks are burning. Malone drops his gaze to my chest, looks for a minute, then looks up at my face again. He shakes his head.