Read Online Right Next Door by Debbie Macomber - Free Book Online Page A

simple.”
    â€œProbably, but I’d prefer to just forget it. Please?”
    â€œAre you all right?”
    â€œEmotionally or physically?” She tried to joke, but didn’t succeed.
    â€œBoth.”
    He was so serious, so concerned, that it was all Robin could do not to dissolve into fresh tears. She’d made a world-class fool of herself with this man, not once but twice.
    This man, who had suffered such a tremendous loss himself, was so gentle with her, and instead of helping, that only made matters worse. “I’m sorry, really I am,” she said raggedly, “but perhaps you should go home now.”

Four
    â€œY ou know what I’m in the mood for?” Angela Lansky said as she sat on the edge of Robin’s desk early Monday afternoon.
    â€œI certainly hope you’re going to say food,” Robin teased. They had shared the same lunch hour and were celebrating a cost-of-living raise by eating out.
    â€œA shrimp salad,” Angela elaborated. “Heaped six inches high with big fresh shrimp.”
    â€œI was thinking Chinese food myself,” Robin said, “but, now that you mention it, shrimp salad sounds good.” She opened her bottom drawer and took out her purse.
    Angela was short and enviably thin with thick brown hair that fell in natural waves over her shoulders. She used clips to hold the abundant curls away from her face and looked closer to twenty than the thirty-five Robin knew her to be.
    â€œI know just the place,” Angela was saying. “The Blue Crab. It’s on the wharf and worth the trouble of getting there.”
    â€œI’m game,” Robin said.
    They stopped at the bank, then headed for the restaurant. They decided to catch the Market Street cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf and joined the quickly growing line.
    â€œSo how’s the kid doing?” Angela asked. She and her salesman husband didn’t plan to have children themselves, but Angela enjoyed hearing about Jeff.
    â€œHe signed up for baseball through the park program and starts practice this week. I think it’ll be good for him. He was lonely this weekend now that Blackie’s back with Cole.”
    â€œBut isn’t Blackie over at your place as much as before?” Angela asked.
    Robin shook her head. “Cole left early Saturday morning and took the dog with him. Jeff moped around for most of the weekend.”
    â€œWhere’d your handsome neighbor go?”
    â€œHow am I supposed to know?” Robin asked with a soft laugh, hiding her disappointment at his disappearance. “Cole doesn’t clear his schedule with me.”
    The way he’d left—without a word of farewell or explanation—still hurt. It was the kind of hurt that came from realizing what a complete fool she’d made of herself with this worldly, sophisticated man. He’d kissed her and she’d started crying. Good grief, he was probably doing backflips in order to avoid seeing her again.
    â€œDo you think Cole was with a woman?”
    â€œThat’s none of my business!”
    â€œBut I thought your neighbor said Cole spent his weekends with a woman.”
    Robin didn’t remember mentioning that to Angela, but she obviously had, along with practically everything else. Robin had tried to convince herself that confiding in Angela about Cole was a clever way of thwarting herfriend’s matchmaking efforts. Unfortunately, the whole thing had backfired in her face. In the end, the last person she wanted to talk about was Cole, but of course Angela persisted in questioning her.
    â€œWell?” Angela demanded. “Did he spend his weekend with a woman or not?”
    â€œWhat he does with his time is his business, not mine,” Robin reiterated. She pretended not to care. But she did. Too much. She’d promised herself she wasn’t going to put any stock in the kiss or the powerful attraction she felt for Cole. Within the