Read Online Second Thoughts: A Hot Baseball Romance by Mindy Klasky - Free Book Online

She’d told herself plenty of stories about how she’d grown, how she’d become a better person because of standing on her own two feet.
    But the truth of the matter was, there’d been something wonderful about sharing a life with someone. Even in the protected madness of college life, she’d thrived knowing Nick was there for her, and she was there for him.
    She remembered the quiet times, how easy it had been to literally lean on Nick, to study together, to just be. She could hear herself reading a passage out loud from Hawthorne or Melville or Ralph Waldo Emerson, something from that course on Self-Reliance and the Transcendentalists . Nick had thought the whole philosophy was hogwash, and they’d argued for hours, only giving up when they were both too tired to speak. But not too tired to make love—slowly, comfortably, spooned against each other in the laughable confines of a university dorm-room bed.
    She shook her head. That was ancient history. She was a different woman now.
    Defiantly, she grabbed her computer. Soon, she’d be able to update her photography website, to send out word through social media that she was ready to take Raleigh society by photographic storm. She’d waited for months to boast a “get” like Nick Durban. The Professor himself—who could be safer? More family friendly? More inviting for the clients she hoped would break down her door? She only had to wait for the entire calendar shoot to wrap up, and then she could complete the serious promotional work she needed to rebuild her career.
    But before she could open her website, she ordered herself to check out TrueLove. She didn’t want to do it. She wanted to think about all the great times she’d shared with Nick in college.
    But that had been seven years ago. In the interim, she’d done everything in her power to build a life without Nick. And Ashley had been right when she’d pushed the online flirtation—it was well past time for Jamie to move on, completely, whole-heartedly. Even if Nick finally knew about Olivia.
    Especially if Nick finally knew about Olivia. Jamie had to do everything in her power not to slip back into schoolgirl dreams of a glowing, happy future. An impossible future that would only break her heart all over again, the next time Jeremy Epson said, “Jump,” the next time Nick settled on whatever he thought was best for her, for them.
    Steeling herself, she opened her inbox and found a short message from RoadWarrior ending with, “I hope you’re having a nice day.”
    And suddenly, she was. Because she’d heard from a guy who liked her, at least enough to send her a message. Because she’d heard from a guy who wasn’t wrapped up in years of angst and misery, in lies and silences and all the spaces that could grow between them.
    It was silly, she knew. She had no idea what RoadWarrior looked like, where he worked, anything about him, really. But there was that little rush of excitement when she saw his words, that tightening beneath her heart that made a smile bloom on her lips.
    She typed back, before she could think of all the reasons not to. “I AM having a nice day. Surprised to hear from you, though, in the middle of it. And I think those Live Five Questions are pretty stupid too.”
    She hit Send and shook her head, calling up the software that ran her complicated website. She could rough out the updates, even if she couldn’t make them live yet. The trick was to tell a story about the Rockets. She started with a few warm-up pictures she’d taken outside of the stadium—clear, clean shots of the architecture, dramatic stretches of green grass, of red-brown base paths.
    Just as she finished uploading the last shot of Rockets Field, her computer chimed, and her phone buzzed three times. She smiled and switched over to the TrueLove site.
    “Everyone has to play hooky sometimes,” RoadWarrior wrote. “What’s the use of being a grown-up if you can’t break the rules once in a