Troubled Waters by Rene Gutteridge

Author:Rene Gutteridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781598566369
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2012-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

And then there was Keith. Wow. Keith. He was something else. A doctor, really rich, drove a Porsche and a Mercedes and had two homes. But there was no chemistry between us, nothing. After Keith came Bobby. I thought it was true love with him, but then he dumped me out of the blue to date some up-and-coming actress. It took me some time to recover from that one, and I’m not sure I ever did completely. After that, I was a lot more cautious about who I dated. I never let myself take risks. So there was Alex, and then James, a construction worker if you can believe that, then Danny, and lastly Rob, who dumped me by way of my answering machine the same day I found out my dad had died.”

Macey took a breath. She had to. She was feeling lightheaded because she’d been talking nonstop. He wanted to discuss her past. Well, this was her past. As he cleared her plate with the untouched portions of snake and rabbit, there was a small smile of satisfaction on his face. The questions were coming, she knew, but at least she could appease him for now with a few facts about her life.

She continued as they moved into the living room. “By the time Rob broke up with me, I was pretty much hardened, so it didn’t really hurt that much. I sort of expected it. I’m occasionally too temperamental, my hours are wacky, and I’ve become calloused. Doesn’t exactly make the perfect formula for a little housewife, does it?” Macey couldn’t help but glance at the picture of Emily on the nearby end table.

Noah sat opposite her in a plush leather chair, his feet propped up on the ottoman, his coffee neatly balanced on his lap. He was listening, but Macey sensed he was deriving some amusement from something other than what she shared.

“I’m rambling,” she finally confessed. She laughed to herself, embarrassed and feeling vulnerable. On most of her prior dates this would be the point where the male would begin reciting all of his past mistakes and disappointments, a common practice so both understood exactly what they were getting into. Everyone, in her experience anyway, had a long laundry list. Breakups, divorces, heartaches. But as she stared at the dark-haired man across the living room, she suspected this wasn’t going to be any ordinary evening. She also suspected he wasn’t going to have much of a laundry list.

She sipped her coffee, well aware that as she sat silently, Noah was reading her like a book. She’d never met anyone like him. It seemed it didn’t matter what she said, he was able to sift through it all and find the truth.

She decided to fill the silence again. “You know those commercials—the ones where there’s a group of people sitting around, all drinking wine or some other beverage, laughing and joking and hugging like they’ve been soul mates their whole lives?” She looked up at Noah for a reaction.

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