A Place Called Home by Jo Goodman

Author:Jo Goodman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-10-23T22:00:00+00:00

Oblivious to the cold, Mitch slowly walked back to the house. He passed on a beer from the fridge and chose a soft drink instead. Wandering back to the living room, he picked up the TV remote, turned it on, flicked through a few channels, and flopped on the couch. He didn’t want to watch anything, didn’t even want to listen. He left the TV on, tuned to a financial station with a ticker tape of news running at the bottom of the screen, and hit the mute button, silencing the talking heads.

Thea had scared him with her revelation. She had always scared him a little with her poise and frankness and cool demeanor. He had the suspicion that on the occasions they’d met over the years, she was sizing him up and had decided a long time ago that he was a boy’s size Large. Maybe that had changed recently, Mitch thought. He certainly hoped that was the case, but he also knew it was no longer so important what she thought of him. He needed to decide what he really thought of her.

He knew he liked her. At the rehearsal dinner for Gabe and Kathy he had acted four kinds of stupid around Thea Wyndham. That was his first hint that his feelings were engaged. At the wedding reception the following day, he had offered an absurd number of toasts to the new couple’s happiness in order to knock back another flute of cheap champagne and get his courage up to ask her out. Everything had come out wrong, of course. His invitation, the one that he hoped to communicate in a tone that was both smooth and casual, came out in fits and starts. He was pretty sure he actually stuttered. Mortified, he changed direction, and fell back on humor to help him get out from under Thea’s patient, but mildly derisive smile. Somehow he managed to suggest they retire to the fire truck in the garage to do the wangy-bangy. Suave. He remembered her refusal as being flat and firm. There was really nowhere to go from there.

It was true, he knew, that his interest in her had begun before the moment of their first meeting. He had hedged a bit when he told Thea that he was trying to remove her as a potential rival for Gabe’s affection. It was more to the point that Kathy had begun to speak so often of Gabe’s friend Thea, that Mitch wanted to meet her himself. Okay, so maybe that photo of the striking redhead he’d seen in Gabe’s wallet had roused his curiosity and jangled his hormones, but he’d also paid attention to the little things they dropped in conversation about her. Most of it he still remembered.

Not once had anyone hinted that she had a drug problem.

It seemed likely they hadn’t known back then, or perhaps Gabe had suspicions that he never shared with Kathy. Thea had been his boon companion, after all, and Mitch understood the urge to protect someone close.

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