Read Online The Denver Cereal by Claudia Hall Christian - Free Book Online Page A

door, she gazed across the apartment to
the pounding surf. She would miss this view.
    Her eyes shifted to her
engagement ring tucked into its Harry Winston box on the
floor. People magazine said Ronald Winston, Harry’s son, had personally
selected the yellow diamond. Wes paid a cool three and a half
million dollars for perfection in a size seven. Valerie tugged her
note from under the ring box and set it in front. Wes would see the
note first.
    One last check. Yep, she
had everything.
    Valerie pulled the door to
the condo closed and locked the bolt. Holding the keys in her hand,
she closed her eyes. If she had keys, she could always come
back.
    In one swift motion, she
shoved the keys through the mail slot.
    Standing, she picked up
her suitcase and walked to the elevator. A trip home to Denver to
reset her life. A fresh start. That’s exactly what she needed. Her
BMW M3 convertible roared to life in response to the
thought.
    Flicking on her blinker,
she felt real regret. She wished she could be what Wes needed. With
a sigh, she merged into Pacific Coast Highway traffic.
    How long had she been she
engaged this time?
    Longer than the last
two . . . Valerie counted the months on her fingers.
Five months. Valerie shook her head. Three engagements, hundreds of
men, and the red-headed witch was still right.
    Wes’s face flushed red
when he asked, “Please marry me, Val. All I want to do is take care
of you for the rest of my life.”
    And the only thought in
Valerie’s head was “See Delphie, you were wrong! I can love someone
other than Michael Roper.”
    She squealed when he gave
her the ring. They made Viagra love for hours. When Wes fell
asleep, Valerie cried into her pillow.
    She would make this work.
She was going to make this work. She had to make this work. She was
going to love Wes.
    The day her engagement to
Hollywood producer Wesford Kapanski was announced, the blogosphere
vibrated with nasty comments and vicious opinions. Perez Hilton
posted a photo of Val and Wes with a huge white X over them. Every
night, Entertainment Tonight did the “Val Count” for the number of days they
were engaged. Vegas set the line at fifty to one that Val would
marry Wes.
    Valerie worked to love
this man.
    But no amount of
lovemaking, ocean views, or expensive gifts removed her
ever-present thoughts of Mike. Caffeine helped. Alcohol was better.
But nothing ever really washed that man from her mind. This
morning, she realized that becoming the seventh Mrs. Wesford
Kapanski wasn’t going to cure her.
    “ You will only have one
love, Val,” Delphie had said to a sobbing Val. Mike had left for
basic training ten minutes before. “You will cause yourself great
hardship if you can’t allow yourself to love him, marry him, and
make him your world. He is your true love. Children born of love,
like your parents’, are only satisfied with true love. There’s no
more powerful force in this world.”
    True love?
    God. No one believed in
true love anymore. After six years of starring on a popular soap
opera, Valerie knew everything there was to know about love. Men
cheat. Men lie. And women suffer.
    Not that she hadn’t
learned that from her father.
    Delphie was wrong about
her parents. She had to be wrong about Mike.
    “ Where you going, hon?”
the clerk at the Frontier Airlines ticket counter asked.
    “ Denver. The soonest
available,” Valerie said.
    “ You’re Valerie Lipson,”
the clerk said.
    Valerie smiled her movie
star smile. “Do you watch Our Loves, Our
Lives ?”
    Surprised by the question,
the clerk looked up from her typing. She shook her head. “My
husband works for your father. Lipson Construction. You look like
your brother, Jacob.”
    Valerie’s smile dimmed. Of
course. Frontier Airlines was based in Denver, home of Lipson
Construction.
    “ I bumped you to first
class, on me,” the clerk said. “Your father’s been really great to
us. He gave my husband a month off when our babies were born. He
even