Read Online Free Gift With Purchase by Jackie Pilossoph - Free Book Online Page A

something about Preston that caused me to be the definitions of daring and uninhibited.
    “When am I seeing you next? How about Wednesday?” his next text read.
    My fingers seemed to be on autopilot. “Yes.”
    I burst out laughing and then sent another text, “Yes Yes Yes!”
    Trying to hide her smile, Laura warned, “Just don’t forget about lunch.”
    When Wednesday came around however, there was a head-on collision on the Eden’s Expressway and four of the victims were brought to Laura’s hospital, forcing my sent-from-God sister to kick it into overdrive and cancel lunch. So I never saw my family that day (with the exception of my parents for five minutes when I dropped Izzie off.)
    This time my dad walked me to the door. “So who is this fella?” he asked.
    “Just a guy dad,” I smiled, “He’s really nice and we’re having fun.”
    Dad took a deep breath that said it all right there. He was trying to learn to adapt and accept the reality of his widowed daughter’s new life.
    “Don’t worry, Dad,” I said, putting my arms around him and hugging him tight, “I’m just having fun. I’m just…” I pulled away and finished, “Actually, I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
    Dad gave me a big grin. “You’re living, Em. Enjoy yourself. It’s okay.”
    “Thanks for understanding.”
    “I understand more than you think,” he replied.
    “What does that mean?”
    At this moment I heard shouting from the kitchen, “Stan? Is she gone?”
    “No mom, I’m still here!” I shouted back with a laugh, “If you wait a few more seconds I’ll be out the door and then you can talk about me as much as you want!”
    My dad and I laughed and I hugged him again.
    “I love you, Stan.”
    “Me too, sweetie.”
    Exactly two hours later, a hot babe appeared outside my window. I watched him peruse my garden before he knocked on the door. So nervous for the date (but in a good way), I cracked open a bottle of Pinot and had a glass before Preston even got to my place. And since the bottle was open, I offered him a glass when he walked in.
    “Sure,” he said with his dashing smile, “Let’s have it on the patio so I can check out your garden more.”
    Now I was truly in heaven. My newly updated, enhanced, renovated, fixed up, whatever you want to call it garden was of interest to my new man, and I had the luxury of showing off all my recent hard work, the same work I’d offered to show Luke, my new friend, who had texted me a couple days earlier.
    “Hi Emma, it’s Luke. It was great meeting you. Now you have my cell phone number. Call if you ever want to go for a run. Hope your knee caps are healing. How was your date?” That was the first text.
    I’d texted back, “The date was good.” Ha! If he only knew! I continued, “Thank you for taking care of me. I would love to run with you sometime. Say hello to Lucky.”
    “Lucky’s all over me. It’s the most action I’ve gotten in awhile. If Lucky was a woman I’d tell her she needs to learn how to play hard to get. That being said, I’m not into dogs. More into girls. We’ll talk soon. Glad your date was good, by the way.”
    I was very happy to hear from Luke, and thought he was sweet for being happy for me. Yet, part of me was disappointed because I wanted him to be jealous, not happy. His texts did seem a little flirty, though, and that was a good thing. I was getting mixed signals. Did Luke want to be my buddy? Or did he dig me? Maybe he had a girlfriend he didn’t want to tell me about. Maybe he just didn’t want to date. Or maybe he wasn’t attracted to me in that way. I wasn’t sure, but something seemed odd. Without sounding completely arrogant and conceited, my gut instinct was telling me Luke liked me. So why he was asking me to jog with him instead of have a meal was puzzling.
    Would I go out with him if he asked? Probably. Although at this point, I wasn’t thinking about it too much. I was having a hard time focusing on