Read Online Out Bad by Janice M. Whiteaker - Free Book Online Page A

have five minutes before they find me. 
What's up?”
    “I just had a couple minutes and thought I’d call and see if
you’d recovered from your heat stroke.”  Gwen tried to keep her voice
casual, but nonchalance was a skill she’d always struggled with.  Straight
forward she had down, but she'd never been good at working her way around
things.
    “Oh my gosh it's so much better.  I didn't realize how
bad the other air conditioner was.  Now it's like a refrigerator in
here.  It's glorious. ” 
    “Good.  Good.”  She used one hand to squeeze her
temples. 
    Shit this was hard.  Why couldn’t she just be straight
up with Gabbi, tell her what she really wanted?  It wasn't that she was
being sneaky.  She simply needed this information to help put an end to
the unrest screwing with her life right now.
    Gwen took a deep breath.  “I have an odd question for
you.”
    “Okay.”  Gabbi sounded hesitant.
    Odd questions weren’t something Gwen normally called her
sister about.  She was always the one with answers, not questions.
    “I’ve been wracking my brain for the past few days and I
keep drawing a blank.”  She was sweating.  She flapped the front of
her top trying to cool herself down. 
    “I feel like I know Joe from somewhere and for the life of
me I can’t figure out where that would be.”  She sank her teeth into her
bottom lip before she kept talking and raised her sister's suspicions.
    “I can't imagine how you would know him.”
    Damn it.  Gabbi was really going to make her work for
this today. 
    “Me either.  What did you say his last name was?” 
    That was all she needed.  Gwen held her breath praying
Gabbi would just give it to her without wondering too much about why.
    “Parker.”  Gabbi sighed into the phone as little girl
voices once again surrounded her.  “Gwen, I gotta go. It looks like somebody is wearing chocolate milk.  I’ll call you
later.”
    The phone disconnected in her ear as she finished typing
'Joe Parker' into the search engine.  Her pinky clicked the enter button
and she put her phone down and waited, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
    The list of options found for the words Joe Parker filled
the screen in front of her.  The first option was a background
search. 
    No way.  That was the kind of thing crazy women
did.  She was simply looking to see who he was.  Maybe discover
something that would bring an end to this crazy sort of crush she was
developing before it got out of hand and distracted her even more than it
already was. 
    “Shit.”
    She slumped back against her office chair.  It was
already out of hand.  She’d called her sister for Christ’s sake. 
About a man.  Now she was sitting at her work computer trying to seek him
out like… like a crazy woman. 
    This situation was a firm reminder of why she tried to stay
away from the opposite sex.  Especially ones like Joe Parker.  Right
now, she was acting like a completely different person.  She was acting
crazy and distracted, taking her attention and time away from more important
things, like her work.
    That was why she decided it needed to stop.
    She leaned her elbows on her desk and dropped her forehead
to her hands.  What in the hell was she going to do?  How could she
just force a man out of her thoughts.  She lifted her head.
    There was one way she'd discovered.
    Holy shit.  What was she thinking?  That would be
the dumbest thing she could do.  Unless it worked.
    A firm knock on her office door made her jump, her hand
immediately reaching out to slam her laptop closed. 
    “Come in.”  Perfect timing.  She needed to just
focus on work.  Get her mind back together.
    Her door opened slowly, Richard peeking his head through the
gap.  “Hey.  I’ve got some numbers to go over with you.  Got a
minute?”
    Any other time, she would have said no and suggested he
shoot her an e-mail with whatever long winded conversation he wanted to have,
but today she was