Best She Ever Had (9781617733963) Read Online Free Page B

Ma!” Clarissa shouted back. Her footfalls echoed off the walls as she raced up the stairs to the second floor. Her bedroom door slammed less than a minute later.
    Cynthia stood alone in her kitchen, drumming her red fingernails on the butcher block. She blew air out of the side of her mouth, causing her side-swept bangs to flutter.
    â€œWell, I guess it’s just me tonight.” She turned and placed the Styrofoam container of beef back in the freezer. “Good-bye, meatloaf. Hello, pizza,” she said, as she took out a microwavable dinner box of frozen French bread pizza.

Chapter 3
    â€œJ ared?”
    Korey pounded on the bathroom door with his closed fist. He then tried to turn the brass doorknob, but to no avail. The door was locked.
    â€œJared?”
    There was no answer, only the sound of Korey’s precious water going down the drain as his son, Jared, showered. Jared had been showering for more than half an hour now.
    He better not be playing with himself in there, Korey thought. He pounded on the door again. “Boy, are you done yet?”
    â€œAlmost finished, Pops!” Jared yelled through the closed bathroom door. “Just a sec!”
    Korey dropped his hands to his hips and silently fumed.
    It had been a long, tiring day. In addition to the usual oil changes and switching out of air filters, Korey had to do the normal office work and management stuff that came with being a business owner. He had fielded calls from two angry customers who swore one of his mechanics had overcharged them for shoddy work. Korey had promised them that they could bring their cars back and get them serviced again, free of charge. He then had made a mental note to talk to the mechanic in question when the guy got back from vacation later that week. He had been on the phone for an hour with his accountant, who droned on and on about some change in the tax code for high earners that still left Korey confused. Korey just assumed that it meant he would have to pay more taxes. And finally, he had answered a call from a good friend and valued customer, Derrick Winters, who had gotten himself into a bind by rear-ending some woman in the middle of Main Street.
    Korey hadn’t expected that woman to be Cynthia Gibbons—his old flame. The instant he climbed out of his truck and saw her, he felt like he had been given a kick to the chest.
    He had thought it odd that he and Cynthia hadn’t run into one another in the whole year and a half that he had had his shop downtown. (Chesterton wasn’t that big.) He had suspected she had been avoiding him. Now he knew for sure that she was purposely steering clear of him this whole time.
    â€œShe should after what she did to you,” a voice in his head argued.
    Cynthia had dumped him. She had decimated his heart almost twenty years ago to marry some older guy who could buy her diamonds and furs. It had taken him a few years to get over her rejection. Even when he married his now ex-wife, Vivian, Korey still had been dragging around a broken heart from his breakup with Cynthia, angering Vivian.
    â€œI can’t believe you still have a thing for her, Korey! Can’t you get it through your thick head that she doesn’t want your ass anymore?” Vivian had said once during one of their fights.
    Seeing Cynthia today had brought back all those old feelings—a tangled mass of longing, sadness, frustration, and hurt. If he had felt tired before he saw her, now he was damn near exhausted. He was even skipping going to the gym tonight.
    All Korey wanted to do was take a shower, put on clothes that didn’t smell like gasoline or transmission fluid, drink a cold beer, and veg out in front of the television for a few hours. Maybe he could even catch a Nats game. But instead of lounging on his vibrating leather recliner, remote control in hand, he was standing in his hallway still filthy and still exhausted while his unemployed son, who wouldn’t