Fortunate Harbor by Emilie Richards

Author:Emilie Richards
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Florida, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Female friendship, General, Domestic fiction
ISBN: 9780778327707
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2010-06-29T06:26:20.378000+00:00

After lunch Tracy had thrown all the snacks in her desk into the rec center Dumpster, and now she was starving. “There’s got to be something I missed.”

She jerked open drawers. “Brutal!”

She kept searching. “Thanks for nothing, world,” she said as she slammed the last one shut.

Now she was talking to herself, too. Maybe she was hallucinating from starvation.

She rested her head in her hands and wondered if last year, before Marsh and good old Wanda had started cooking for her, she had been this hungry. She’d been raised to see fat grams and calories in every bite, and virtue in nearly invisible portions. She had gone out to lunch with girlfriends and turned up her nose at the bread basket, asked for salad dressing on the side, eaten, at most, half of what was on her plate, and never taken leftovers.

Of course, she hadn’t enjoyed eating, either. That was the difference. She and CJ had dined in some of the world’s most famous restaurants, and she had nibbled. Nibbled in Paris and Florence and New Orleans. Nibbled at Spago and Urasawa and Lawry’s. Now she was ready to nibble the paper on her desk. Creative Cooks’ steamed vegetables and slivers of chicken breast had already been a memory less than ten minutes after she’d consumed them.

She got up and went to the glass door, looking outside. The place was teeming with parents on their way to watch softball, and all the shuffleboard courts were in use. She wondered if she just offered herself as a sacrifice, would the shuffleboarders beat her over the head with their cues instead of asking her to slowly starve herself to death?

“Maybe I’ve been substituting food for sex,” she muttered. “Maybe if I just hop into bed with somebody, the pounds will melt away.”

“I’d be happy to test the theory.”

She whirled and found a jeans-clad Marsh standing several yards behind her, a navy blue Rays cap under one arm. She put her hand against her heart. “You snuck up on me!”

“I did no such thing. I made enough noise to wake a giant. And what was that about hopping into bed?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I was not talking to you or about you. I had no idea you were standing there.”

He didn’t smile exactly, but he came close. “You’re sure? I think you knew, at least subliminally. I think you wanted me to hear that.”

“I think I want you to go watch your son’s softball game and leave me alone.”

“The other game’s just finishing up.”

“Where’s Sylvia?”

His almost smile disappeared. “Why does it matter?”

She didn’t like his tone. “It doesn’t to me, but it matters to Bay. He’s been looking forward to her watching him play.”

“Why are you talking to my son about Sylvia?”

Maybe she was irritable from hunger. Maybe she was exhausted. She opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again and waited until she had breathed deeply. Twice. It didn’t help much, but the pause said plenty.

“What are you asking, Marsh? Do

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