Read Online Married by June by Ellen Hartman - Free Book Online Page B

worst dancers she’d ever dated, too tall, too awkward, too aware of his own feet and not other people’s, but standing in her doorway in a suit, he looked exactly perfect. He wore clothes the way a model did, as if they’d been made for him. He looked smart and strong and in charge. And that was why she’d considered maybe falling in love with him—right before he’d asked her to marry him and ruined everything.
    She forgot about her sweatpants and focused on his eyes. She and Alice had organized the attackand it was the right thing to do. Bite the bullet, she thought. Do it now before he has a chance to say something that would ruin it all and send her searching for a new option. She really didn’t want to have to go the Sandy-in- Grease -full-body-leotard route.
    “I think we should get back together.”
    Either there was an echo in her foyer or they’d just spoken the exact same words. In unison.

CHAPTER FOUR
    S HE LOOKED…A MESS. He didn’t know what he’d expected—that he would break off their engagement and she’d go right along with her normal life? God knows that hadn’t happened for him, so why should it have happened for her? This was Jorie, though. She never looked a mess. If someone had shown him that particular Dirty Bird Bar T-shirt with the holes in the shoulder seams and asked him if it belonged to Jorie, he’d have laughed. And yet, there she was wearing it along with a pair of sweatpants that had even more holes. He got a sweet glimpse of her pale thigh.
    “You look great.” The words slipped out, and her mouth dropped open, but he meant it. What else didn’t he know about her?
    He was turned-on thinking about a younger Jorie doing shots at a shore bar in that clingy T-shirt. My God, what else don’t I know about myself?
    “Can I come in?”
    “No,” she said, but then quickly relented. “Yes.”
    She stepped aside and followed him into thehouse, closing the door behind him. In the living room, a cake stand and two crumb-covered plates were on the coffee table next to a bowl full of what looked like bright orange popcorn. The cake made sense since Alice had been there. But the orange popcorn? Jorie didn’t eat junk food. There were purplish smudges under her eyes that made the blue deeper, but he couldn’t remember when he’d last seen her without those shadows. Back before her mom died, he guessed.
    He remembered her fingers on his wrist that afternoon. She’d held on to him. At least for that moment, she’d wanted him to stay. Was it fair to ask her to become fake engaged if she was unhappy about the breakup?
    He didn’t have a choice, knowing what he did about Bailey and his family, but he didn’t like the way he felt right now. He’d made a mess of the situation at the bakery. He was going to have to be much more on top of his game if he wanted to convince her to go along with his plan.
    She grabbed the bowl off the table and the two dirty plates and took them into the kitchen. He stayed in the living room, unsure what he was supposed to do.
    “Cooper?” she called.
    She walked toward him and stopped, one hand on the door frame.
    “What?”
    “Are you insane?”
    “No.” Not yet. But the night wasn’t over and he wasn’t ruling anything out at this point. Especially not when he still had to secure a fake engagement and then strategize with his dad about what really amounted to a fake appointment to the Senate.
    “Well, do you have some kind of compulsive mind-changing disorder, because the only other option is that you’re purposely trying to make me nuts and I know you wouldn’t do that.” Her voice rose as she neared him. She stopped a few steps away. The T-shirt not only had holes, it was a little too small and he could clearly see her breasts moving up and down as she breathed quickly.
    She had a hot body. People didn’t notice that about her right away, partly because her sophisticated, classy wardrobe put up such a serious front, but he suspected she