Read Online Dream of You by Lauren Gilley - Free Book Online Page A

know.”
                  “I don’t want exciting,” Ellie said, the same way she’d been saying it for months. She’d thought that’s what she’d wanted once upon a time: the thrill of waiting and wondering, the chase, the butterflies in her stomach and the jealousy of other girls eyeing her boyfriend. But it was funny the difference a year made, and now she craved stability and honesty.
                  “Ellie.” Paige heaved a dramatic sigh as she began whisking. “It has to be exciting. If it’s not, then you might as well be making out with your cousin.”
                  “Oh, Jesus,” she groaned.
                  “I mean, don’t you want the butterflies? Don’t you want to be so hot for a guy you can’t wait to get home?”
                  “Not if it’s a lie.” She picked up the piping bag again with a scowl, wanting to be done with this line of conversation. She didn’t know why she’d even brought up her impromptu dinner date. It wasn’t like she’d been thinking about Jordan Walker’s blue-green eyes or anything…
                  “See? This is exactly the kind of attitude that’s going to make you an old spinster with seventeen cats.”
                  “Paige.” Ellie didn’t intend to snap, but her voice was like a whip crack across the tiled island where they were working. “Just forget I said anything, okay?”
                  Paige, her blonde and pink locks tied up in a black bandana decorated with pink Jolly Rogers, tilted her head at a defiant angle, hand stilling on the whisk. “And you.” Her blue eyes were serious. “Don’t have unlimited time to wait on something perfect if you want a family, El. You know that. So don’t say ‘no’ to a good time if Coach Calves asks you out for real. Deal?”
                  She knew Paige was right – as physically painful as that truth was – just like she knew she was not at all attracted to her teacher. She wasn’t . But she glared at her friend and said, “Fine. Deal.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    5
     
                  “ I t’s a shame that Walt and Gwen couldn’t make it,” Delta said with a proud little smile that said see? I’m learning how to be a person who cares about this whole family . She was wearing a tailored white blazer over a champagne colored blouse that probably cost more than the dining room table. Her dark hair was slicked back in the sleekest of ponytails and she looked more ready for work than a Saturday brunch with the family. But Jo had to give her credit; she was trying hard these days. Her efforts, even if misguided at times, were genuine. She was still painfully perfect to look at, polished and tidy and shallow, but she was here with the Walker clan, eating Beth’s quiche with dainty bites and trying to make conversation.
                  At the mention of Walt, Jo’s already dark mood plummeted. He would have loved this – seeing her and Tam on opposite ends of the table, a bristling, sharp silence hanging between them. He would have laughed in delight to know that Tam, like his father, was allergic to his own flesh and blood. Mom and Gwen had worked in tandem to try and get Jo back on speaking terms with her oldest brother, but Walt had made it clear – in his calm, irritating way – that he was completely right about the whole thing and that he was never going to accept Jo as a Wales.
                  Beth’s face fell at the mention of her eldest and it was a sharp kick to Jo’s bellyful of guilt. “It is,” she said, and her eyes lifted across the table up to Jo, who cringed at their touch, who hated that her mom somehow didn’t blame the family rift on her, even though she was responsible. “But Gwen’s bringing the boys by tomorrow, so that’ll be nice.” Beth gave her a small half-smile that