Read Online Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center - Free Book Online Page B

haven’t had this much fun in ages.”
    â€œMe neither.”
    â€œBut you must have lots of girlfriends.”
    â€œNot lately,” he said with a head shake. “Not interested.”
    Then I asked a question that I never would have dared to if I weren’t so drunk on kisses—and if he hadn’t just spent the past half hour convincing me that I already knew the answer. “But you’re interested in me?”
    â€œYes,” he said. “But you’re grandfathered in.”
    â€œJake,” I said, “I really like you. How did that happen?”
    His eyes roamed my face in the most grateful way. “I have no idea.”
    He looked at me like he was memorizing every tiny detail—the way, I imagined, a painter must look at a subject. It was pure aphrodisiac. Then an idea occurred to me: I hadn’t been with anybody since Mike in all the years we’d been married, and in the years we’d dated before that, and in this whole, unbelievably long year I’d been not married . I suddenly wanted like crazy to be with someone, and for that someone to be Jake. I didn’t care that he’d been too young to vote in the last presidential election, and I didn’t care that he was Duncan’s friend. I didn’t care about anything at all in that moment except getting a better helping of whatever this was.
    I slid a hand down and felt around for the tie on his pajamas.
    He broke from the kiss to look down at me. “What are you doing?”
    I looked up. “Untying your pants.”
    He shook his head. “You can’t do that,” he said. “If you get that started, I’m not sure I can stop.”
    â€œWhy would you have to stop?” I asked. I’d found the knot at his waist and began working to untie it.
    â€œHelen,” he said, “we can’t.” He put his hand over my hand.
    â€œSure, we can.”
    â€œHelen. Helen—” he said. “Don’t. I really did trick you. There was no way you were going to win that Scrabble game. I was on a team . I played in tournaments .”
    â€œShould I mock you about that now or later?”
    â€œThe point is, you’d lost before we began.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œI had devious intentions. Even the whole idea of Scrabble. I knew you couldn’t resist that game. Duncan told me. That’s the whole reason I brought it.”
    â€œOkay, that is devious,” I said. “But you did give me an out.” I kissed him again.
    â€œI’m trying to do the right thing, here.”
    â€œDon’t do the right thing,” I murmured into his neck just as I worked the pajama knot free. “I don’t want you to do the right thing.”
    That’s when he pressed down and kissed me so fiercely I almost lost my breath. I thought we had been kissing before, but at this moment, I realized we hadn’t even started. Right thing, wrong thing. None of it mattered. I was dissolving into the moment, turning into nothing but touch and motion. Whatever had been holding him back was gone, and now we were caught in a gale-force sweep of longing. That was it. The decision was made. We were going to do the wrong thing, and there was nothing anybody could do to stop it.
    Until the phone rang.
    My phone. Right on the bedside table, inches away.
    We froze, locked gazes, and waited for it to stop.
    It stopped. But then it started up again. We waited that one out, too, stock-still except for our breathing.
    When the ringing started up a third time, I had to check. Three rings is always an emergency. Or, as it turns out, an ex-husband.
    I reached out to pick it up in slow motion, and we both saw Mike’s name on the little screen.
    â€œDon’t answer,” Jake whispered.
    I shook my head. “I have to.”
    He rolled onto his back in defeat.
    I answered. The room was quiet. Dead quiet. I put the phone to my ear.