Read Online The Hardest Fall (Roadmap to Your Heart Book 3) by Christina Lee - Free Book Online Page A

the store and she tidied up the front. Tickets stayed with orders in a pile on the middle table and one of us swept the floor of loose thread, rivets, and leather cuttings that got lost in the process.
    “I haven’t seen your friend come in for his shoes,” she said, storing away the large button and rivet bins. “Were you able to contact him?”
    I felt my face heat up. “I’m uh, actually going to drop them off at his apartment on my way to Safe Harbor.”
    Annie’s mouth dropped open but she recovered quickly as she studied me, possibly hoping for me to elaborate, especially since I had said earlier that I didn’t know him very well. “Well, that’s nice of you.”
    I swallowed roughly as I silently swept the floor pondering how I never talked much about anybody, outside of the people I had come to admire at Safe Harbor. Annie had briefly met the women I’d dated over the years, but outside of my volunteer work I was a pretty simple man who enjoyed the creature comforts of home.
    Annie had known Alan from my childhood. As we continued our friendship through adulthood, I could tell she didn’t like him much, though I could never figure out why. Not that I asked. But maybe she saw something in him that I had been ignoring all those years. Besides, he was obviously unfaithful to his wife.
    As we walked onto the street together, I turned in the opposite direction as Annie. She grinned sneakily. “Have a good night.”

12

Sebastian
    I ’d been buzzed up to the third floor in a pretty decent building despite the worn carpet. Affordable real estate was hard to find in Manhattan, so I was lucky to have inherited my dad’s first floor walk down unit on a nice street in the city. He’d bought it in the 90s prior to the housing boom and it was still in decent shape, though it had needed updating.
    A pretty girl with brown hair swept back in a trendy pompadour answered the door. Her attractiveness barely registered however, because my pulse was thrumming in my ears about seeing Tate again. Damn, this felt so backwards and upside down. I wondered what it was about him that triggered this in me, or opened me up to feelings in myself that had been hidden.
    “You here for Tate?” the girl asked with a dazzling smile. “I’m Tori.”
    “Sebastian,” I said as she moved aside to let me in. “Nice to meet you.”
    I took in the small apartment as I stepped through the door. The tiny kitchen was to the right, the living room to the left, and on opposite sides of the unit were two doors to what I assumed were bedrooms.
    “Tate’s in the bathroom, washing off his makeup,” Tori said, and then I heard a muffled noise from behind the closed door. “He says he’ll be out in a minute.”
    I stood awkwardly holding a plastic bag that contained the box with Tate’s shoes until she pointed to them. “So you were able to stretch the Louboutins for him?”
    “Yeah, it’s a pretty simple process if you have the right tools.” I set the bag down on the table and pulled out the slim box. “Did these once to belong to you?”
    “I got them from a style shoot.” She motioned down to her feet. “We don’t wear the same size so when I saw an eleven, I grabbed them.”
    The size difference between men and women wasn’t something that I had ever considered before in this context. Sure, I was aware of such things during intimate moments, but women came in different shapes and measurements and some did not appreciate being handled with kid gloves or being viewed as delicate, which was fine by me. I respected women who were fierce and feminine. Sort of like Annie. And maybe even my mom.
    “Bet he’s sorry he can’t borrow your clothes,” I said because she was pretty petite and Tate was tall with some lean muscle mass. We were about the same height but I was thicker than him, just from genetics alone. Christ, listen to me.
    “Thank God,” she said, laughing. “He’d be stealing my stuff left and right.”
    “Hey, I