Read Online We Interrupt This Date by L.C. Evans - Free Book Online Page A

Steve—well, not necessarily
Steve. A boyfriend, anyway. But I’d failed blind dating and I’d
failed going from crush to dating. Maybe I was fated to spend the
rest of my life alone like Mama. I could accept that, but if I
developed a desire to adopt a couple of unruly Chihuahuas, I wanted
someone to slap me hard.
    A few minutes ago I’d felt like hiding in
shame. Now I actually smiled at the empty chair in front of me, as
if I had an imaginary friend. Hey, if I were serious about coming
out of my year-long slump, I’d have to expect a few setbacks. We
late-bloomers didn’t always get it right on the first try.
    The door swung open, I glanced up, and locked
my eyes on the figure who’d just walked in. For a few seconds I
forgot to breathe. Accepting a few setbacks wasn’t the same as
preparing myself to see Jack Maxwell, long lost buddy from the
past, suddenly appear in front of me.
    He looked in my direction and then a goofy
grin spread across his face. He strode across the room to stand
staring down at me.
    Jack had aged well. He’d always been
handsome, but with maturity his cheekbones were more pronounced and
fine lines around his cobalt blue eyes gave him character. His
black hair, worn shorter than when I’d seen him last, was as thick
as ever, with a couple of strands of gray showing at the
temples.
    “Nic. Thought you’d moved to Texas. Okay if I
sit here?” Without waiting for my answer, he pulled out the chair
across from me and plunked himself down.
    My middle name is Nicole and the day he found
out, I became Nic as far as Jack was concerned.
    I couldn’t stop smiling. I felt a familiar
comfort in his presence as if it were a week ago that we’d last
seen each other instead of nearly twenty years.
    “Since when did you have to ask to sit at my
table?” We’d eaten lunch together at school about a million
times.
    “Thought this might be your husband’s
chair.”
    “It isn’t.” At the thought of my ex, I
clamped my jaw tight and fiddled with the napkin holder, squeezing
the metal and pretending it was T. Chandler’s jowly neck. “What in
the world made you think I moved to Texas?”
    Emmie appeared with my coffee, and Jack
ordered a cup for himself after she finished trying to upsell us on
pecan pie. He waited until she went back to the kitchen and said,
“I tried calling you once, five or six years ago.”
    “And? You forget how to use a phone?”
    “Your husband answered. He said he took a job
in San Antonio and you were out there getting your house ready. I
asked for your new address and he was pretty vague, said you’d
contact me after you got settled.”
    “What?” I dropped my spoon and it landed in
my lap. I’d known T. Chandler was jealous of my family and friends,
but telling such a lie was really out of line. I might have to
rethink my plans to forgive him. “That’s not true. We never moved
out of Mount Pleasant.”
    “Doesn’t matter.” Jack shrugged. “Wasn’t
anything important, just wanted to say hello.”
    “I wished you’d called Mama instead of that
rat, T. Chandler. And you can stop calling him my husband. We
divorced last year.”
    “Yeah? Sorry. I guess.” He took his coffee
mug from Emmie when she silently reappeared at our table. “Aren’t
you wondering why I’m back in Charleston?”
    “Why are you back in Charleston, Jack?”
    “My firm bought up a big contracting outfit
here. Lenley Building. It used to be owned by Myron Lenley. You
must know him, local family.”
    “If you mean Myron Lenley--the third--he was
in school with us until his family shipped him off to Camden
Military Academy for an attitude adjustment.” I didn’t add that
Mama had once forced me to go to a dance with him.
    “That’s him. Anyway, Lenley inherited the
firm and sold out to the outfit I’m with. I was offered the job of
running the place and figured, why not? Better pay, and living in
Charleston sure beats living in New Jersey as far as I’m concerned.
I’m