Read Online Holly and Her Naughty eReader by Julianne Spencer - Free Book Online Page A

us for a while.”
    “Still, a real man would have
fixed it or ended it,” said Michelle. “Oh well. At least you’re free now.”
    There was a hint of bitterness
in Michelle’s voice.
    “How about you?” I said. “We
didn’t get to talk much at the reunion. Tell me about your life.”
    “My life is what you see here,”
Michelle said. “The kids are great. The husband is nice. He goes to work every
day. I only work weekends now. These two little people are how I spend my
time.”
    I remembered how left out I felt
at the reunion when everyone at the table was talking about their kids, but
listening to Michelle now, I realized I wasn’t being fair. Those people didn’t
have much else they could talk about other than their kids. The kids were the
centers of their lives now. They weren’t trying to exclude me—they were just
speaking about what was on their minds.
    “Veronica started gymnastics in
March,” Michelle said. “Veronica! Show Ms. Holly your tumble run!”
    From across the park, little
Veronica beamed at the opportunity to show off, and broke into a sprint, which
turned into a series of cartwheels and rolls. When she was finished, Michelle
and I cheered for her.
    “What about Owen?” I said.
“What’s his schtick?”
    Michelle shook her head. “He
likes video games,” she said. “Everything else is like pulling teeth.”
    “And Rick?”
    “He’s doing alright, other than
his job,” Michelle said.
    “What’s wrong with his job?”
    “Nothing. It’s a good job. He’s
just restless. You could give my husband any job in the world and he’d be bored
with it in three months. He’s one of those grass is always greener types. When
we’re at a restaurant, he spends twenty minutes deliberating what he’s going to
have, and then as soon as it arrives, he wishes he’d chosen something else.
When we visit someplace for vacation, he wants to move there, no matter where
it is. If it’s a small town, he’s envious of the slow, simple life. If it’s a
big city, he thinks it’s better than home because there’s more opportunity.
He’s so fascinated by other people’s lives he never stops to think about his
own. It’s frustrating to me.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” I
said. “I guess we all have our hangups.”
    “With Rick it’s more than a
hangup. I’ve told him he needs to talk to a doctor about it. You know we put
Owen on Ritalin last year and it’s changed everything. I think it would work
wonders for Rick.”
    As Michelle went on about the
shortcomings of her husband, I found myself sympathizing with the guy. I could
relate to the feeling that everyone else was having more fun than you. I think
it’s a common trait among bookworms. The real joy of reading is the release it
gives for all those fantasies you have of what it might be like to be someone
else. Were it not for my books, I have no doubt I’d be a career-hopping nomad
who packed up her car every few months and went looking for the newest
adventure. How could you not? There’s something hardwired into our brains from
the hunter gatherer days that makes us need an escape, and for me, the need is
only satisfied with a good book.
    I resisted the urge to tell Michelle
that her husband needed a Kindle rather than a prescription. This wasn’t my
place to speak. As had been quite clear to me at the reunion, Michelle and I
were no longer the sister-like best friends we had been in high school. Her
life was here. My life….
    Well, my life was nowhere at the
moment, except in my eReader.
    We finished our lunches, I
played with Michelle’s kids, we packed up, I hugged everyone goodbye, we swore
to do better about staying in touch, and we were off. On the way back to the
hotel, I thought about the plight of Michelle’s husband. How cool would it be
to live someone else’s life for a while? How awesome was it that my Kindle was
letting me do so, over and over again?
    When I got back to the room I
brought up Mane of the