Been In Love Before: A Novel Read Online Free

bright Sunday morning with the Florida sunshine pouring through his bedroom window. He looked at the clock: eleven thirty. He had been up late the night before, and now his hangover was telling him he was getting too old for this kind of foolishness.
    His long legs draped over the end of the bed, but he was used to it at this point in his life. When he had traveled while playing professional baseball, he would always ask for a longer bed. After a while he just stopped asking because he always got the same response: “Sorry, sir, none available.” The coffeemaker in the kitchen signaled with a loud beep that his morning java was ready for him. He picked up his shorts and T-shirt off the floor, dressed, and lumbered into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
    He stopped to grab a handful of the pink terry-cloth robe that hung on the back of the bathroom door. He pressed it to his face and breathed in deep, smelling the all-too-familiar sweet lilac perfume of his late wife Alice. She had been his second wife, and they had been inseparable for the last fifteen years before she finally lost her six-year battle with Alzheimer’s.
    He cursed the dreaded zombielike disease, which robbed people not only of their identities but also of their dignity. The last two years had been a living hell: she did not know him, or anyone else, except for those rare moments of recognition when he had carefully brushed and fixed her hair, applied her makeup, and dressed her just the way she had always done herself. It took him over an hour. When he was finished, she lifted her eyes to his, and sometimes he saw a flash of a thank-you coupled with the thought of I love you drifting across the wasteland of her face before she returned to the darkness of her own world. God, how he missed her, and he realized that no amount of alcohol would ever bring her back.
    She had been in and out of three different health facilities when he needed help and could no longer manage her, but he always brought her home with him. It was where she wanted to be, home with her Eian.
    He cried and grieved for her when she was gone. It was almost a relief that she died; her suffering was over. Now he was doing what everyone told him he should be doing, getting on with living, after having had six years carved from his life. But he didn’t mind; he had loved her until the very end. He loved her now, and he missed her more than anyone could imagine.
    Eian heard the front door chime alert and female voices in the background. He grabbed his coffee mug and went to investigate who would barge in on him without knocking or ringing the doorbell. He had a sinking suspicion as to her identity.
    “Hello? Hello? Who is it?” he shouted.
    “Oh, Eian, you’re still here?” came the puzzled reply.
    He recognized the high-pitched tone. It was the last voice he wanted to hear on a lazy Sunday morning. It was the voice of his stepdaughter, Laura.
    “Yes, of course I’m still here. Where else would I be?”
    She came into the living room, accompanied by an older woman dressed in a business suit.
    Laura was always dressed in the latest fashion from her regular shopping trips to the New York boutiques. Shoes—expensive. Handbag—expensive. Watch—expensive. Her makeup and hairdo were impeccable. She worked with her father at his advertising agency, and part-time as a Realtor. She spared no expense on her clothes or on entertainment for friends or clients. She just never seemed to have time for her mother. Her damn loss now, thought Eian.
    The woman accompanying her reached out her hand and, after introducing herself, said, “You’re Eian Macgregor, the baseball player, aren’t you? I listen to your radio broadcasts all the time.”
    “Yes, I’m Eian,” he said, instinctively turning on the Macgregor charm. He smiled and held her hand as he looked her in the eye.
    “I’ve seen your commercials on television, but I must say you are much more handsome in person.”
    “Thank