Read Online The Boyfriend Thief by Shana Norris - Free Book Online Page A

his home. “Aw, shucks,” he said in a deep drawl. “You didn’t pretty yourself all up for little ol’ me, did you?”
    Maybe the dress and makeup were bad ideas. I didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard. Maybe Hannah could have gotten away with this outfit without a second glance, but my usual uniform was jeans or a simple denim skirt and T-shirts with witty slogans plastered across the front, topped off with my purple Chuck Taylors. My toes felt a bit naked in the sandals I wore.
    I was saved from answering Zac’s teasing by the arrival of a tall blonde man dressed in dark blue pants and a pressed white shirt. A name badge attached over his left breast pocket read “Greeley Lock & Key: George Greeley, Manager.”
    “Oh,” he said when he spotted us. “I thought I heard the doorbell.”
    “Hello,” I greeted him, returning his polite smile.
    Zac had suddenly become absorbed in studying a painting of flowers on the wall.
    The man extended one hand toward me. “Since my son obviously isn’t going to do the introductions, I’ll handle them for him. I’m George Greeley, Zac’s dad.”
    “Avery James. I’m a, uh...friend of Zac’s from school.”
    Zac stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I told you and Mom last night that Avery would be coming over today to work on our economics project, remember?”
    Mr. Greeley nodded, but the vague look on his face suggested he didn’t remember this. “Ah, yes. Well, then, Avery, I’m counting on you to make sure Zac focuses like he’s supposed to. No letting him goof off and go on one of his wild ideas, okay?”
    Our entire project was based on one of Zac’s wild ideas. But the stormy look clouding over Zac’s face told me it was better not to point this out.
    I nodded. “I’ll try my best.”
    Mr. Greeley smiled, satisfied. “I’m off to the shop. Zac, I expect you there at three o’clock. Not three-thirty. Three on the dot. Can you handle that?”
    Zac rolled his eyes. “I lost track of time once ,” he muttered. “It’s not the end of the world.”
    But Mr. Greeley was grabbing a bag from the closet and apparently didn’t hear Zac’s response. “I’ll see you then, Zac. Nice to meet you, Avery.”
    Once the door had closed behind his dad, Zac’s entire body seemed to relax from the stiffened posture he had taken on. He smiled and I couldn’t miss the relieved look in his eyes.
    “Ready to go build a matchmaking business?” he asked.
    I raised my eyebrows. “Lead the way, Cupid.”
    Zac led me down the hall to his family’s den, which was decorated with cozy, plush furniture situated in front of a flat screen TV mounted over the fireplace. But my eye noticed how one lampshade was slightly crooked and how the table didn’t line up with the couch evenly. Someone had left magazines scattered across the coffee table and for a moment, my fingers itched to straighten them into a neat stack. I sat down quickly, putting my hands under my legs. I would not be the weird girl who came over to other people’s houses and cleaned for them.
    A couple cans of soda and a bowl of chips had been placed on one corner of the coffee table, near where I sat on the green couch.
    Zac sat down next to me and opened the business plan notebook that he’d taken home with him after class the day before. I had worried that he would lose track of it, but he had insisted on taking it so he could read over everything. He opened it to the first page of questions, on which he’d already filled in some of the lines with his big, sloppy print that seemed to dance off the page.
    “Did you already do all of the work?” I asked, looking over the page.
    “I couldn’t help it,” he told me sheepishly. “I don’t sleep so I have a lot of free time.”
    I glanced at him. “You don’t sleep?”
    “Well, I mean, I sleep. But not as much as most people. A couple hours here and there. Enough to get by.” He shrugged, as if this were no big deal, despite the fact that