Read Online Easy on the Eyes by Jane Porter - Free Book Online

view. Today the sky is one
     of those rare perfect shades of blue that happen only when the Santa Anas blow or after a hard rain. It was breezy last night,
     which explains this morning’s gorgeous blue sky. The water itself is darker, a murkier green blue that lightens in waves to
     foamy white crests.
    Having grown up in South Africa, I had a hard time getting used to the cold water off the California coast. The water off
     the cape is incredible. While growing up, we went body boarding almost every weekend in the summer months, but I don’t swim
     here.
    Lindy spots me and interrupts her conversation to include me. “Tiana, do you know Eve Frishman? She’s a vice president over
     at Sony TV? Eve, this is my good friend Tiana Tomlinson, host at
rival America Tonight
.” Lindy hits the word
rival
playfully hard.
    I shake Eve’s hand. “It’s good to meet you. I’ve been hearing exciting things ever since your move to Sony.”
    “It’s been busy,” Eve agrees, “but it’s a great fit for me.”
    “You’ve been here four months now?” Lindy asks Eve.
    “Almost six,” she answers. “Hard to believe. Time is moving so fast.”
    “I know. I can’t believe how big my little girl is getting. She’s not a baby anymore.”
    Eve looks at me. “Do you have kids?”
    “No.” Somehow it seems so inadequate. I always wanted kids. I never thought I’d be thirty-eight and widowed and childless.
     I came from a family of three. Keith and I had wanted children, too.
    “That’s okay,” Eve says kindly. “Motherhood can be overrated. Not every woman has to have children.”
    Eve’s trying to smooth things over, but she doesn’t know how much I want a full house, a big family, noise and love and chaos
     when I come home. “I do want kids. It just hasn’t happened yet.” My face feels warm, I feel warm. My tunic now sticks to my
     back and grows tight across my shoulders. “It’s just turned out harder than I expected.”
    “Don’t give up,” Eve says.
    “I won’t,” I answer jovially, when on the inside I’m screaming because I never planned to lose everyone I loved. I never wanted
     to lose my family and then my husband. I never wanted to be afraid to love again, or need again, or feel safe with someone.
     It was hard enough trusting life to fall in love with Keith, but then to lose him, too… it’s absurd. Beyond absurd.
    A woman in a white pantsuit comes up to speak to Eve, and Lindy takes my arm and draws me a few steps away. “I heard there’s
     an opening on your weekend show,” she whispers, her voice low. “Do you know who’s leaving?”
    They’re advertising Shelby’s job? I swallow hard, rattled all over again, and smile. It’s how I cope with everything. Smile
     and pretend to be serene when on the inside I’m all pins and needles. No wonder I have problems sleeping.
    Christie saves me from having to answer. She comes up behind me and grabs me by the waist. “Can I steal Tiana?” she asks.
     “I’ve got somebody I want her to meet.”
    Thank you, God.
    I say good-bye to Lindy and walk with Christie back inside, whispering on the way, “You saved me, girl. I was dying back there.”
    “Too much mom talk?” she guesses, squeezing my hand. She’s mom to three, and I’ve spent plenty of weekends at her house in
     Laguna Beach attending recitals, birthday parties, and bat mitzvahs. “You’ll get your baby,” she adds with another quick squeeze.
     “It’ll happen.”
    That might have been my concern a week ago, but suddenly babies and my ticking clock are less relevant than keeping my job.
     “Lindy told me
America Tonight
is looking for new talent,” I tell her as we approach a young brunette.
    “Whose job is on the line?”
    “I think it’s mine.”
    “What?”
    I nod. “We’ll talk later.”
    Christie swallows her shock and introduces me to Liv, a pretty woman in her early twenties who has worked for Ashley Judd
     for the last year as her personal