Eve's Men Read Online Free

and a bottle of Absolut or Scotch.
    He accepted it that the root of the problem was his marriage, that he and Donna simply didn’t connect anymore, that day by day they seemed to be turning into perfect strangers. But he preferred not to think about it, since it seemed insoluble, a fact of life as immutable as aging.
    In any case, here he was, easygoing if not overly happy Charley Poole, sailor of smooth seas and walker of the worn path, on his way to rescue his little brother, who seemingly had been everywhere and done everything, almost none of it safe and sane. About all Charley could do was smile sadly at the prospect. Fortunately or unfortunately, he had a strong sense of the ridiculous.
    While she was still on the phone, Eve Sherman had offered to pick Charley up at the airport, but he had told her that wouldn’t be necessary, knowing that even if he stayed only a few days, he would want his own transportation. So he rented a Ford Thunderbird at the airport and headed north. He had been in Colorado Springs twice before, the first time to attend a realtor’s convention at the Broadmoor Hotel and the second time on vacation with Donna, so he had some knowledge of the city, which sat at the foot of Pike’s Peak at an altitude a good thousand feet higher than Denver.
    To the west was the great wall of the front range, to the east a flat wasteland so desiccated all it seemed capable of growing was tumbleweed and housing, mile after mile of crackerbox condos and apartment buildings so drearily the same that Charley elected to take the freeway to Brian’s motel rather than the shorter beltway, Academy Boulevard, which cut through the heart of the wasteland. Normally Charley was not that sensitive about his environment, but in the last few years, as he redesigned more and more homes, he had come to loathe boxy architecture, even to the point of considering it responsible for much of the country’s social ills. Boxes, he believed, were for dead bodies.
    So he was not overjoyed to find that Brian’s motel, the Good-land, was itself a box, an oblong two stories with patios and balconies on the side facing the mountains, and a swimming pool, parking lot, and entrances on the other side. It was located just off the interstate, almost as far north as the Air Force Academy, which made Charley wonder why Brian had chosen it, a place so far out of town. Then it occurred to him that the motel was probably one of the closest to Black Forest, where the movie set had been built.
    After parking, Charley had just gotten his luggage out of the back seat of the car and was closing the door when he saw the woman up on the second floor, standing at the walkway railing, looking down at him. She was a striking brunette, slim in jeans and a green jersey turtleneck. He was about to look away from her, reluctantly, when she smiled slightly and lifted her hand in a tentative wave. He smiled back at her, then spoke as he drew closer to the building.
    “Eve?”
    She nodded. “I’m so glad you came, Charley.”
    He gestured toward the office. “I’ve got to check in.”
    “I’ll come down.” She was already moving along the walkway, toward the stairs.
    He waited for her there, outside, still holding his luggage, a suede suit bag and an overnighter. But as she came into view, smiling more warmly now, he almost dropped the bags in his confusion as to whether he should kiss her in greeting or just shake her hand. Fortunately, she solved the problem, taking his hand and turning her cheek up to him, for either a kiss or an air buss, as he called them. He chose the kiss.
    “Did you have a good flight?” she asked.
    “Yes. Uneventful.”
    “I’ve reserved your room,” she said. “Just two doors down from us.”
    “Good.”
    After he had checked in, she led the way, carrying the overnight bag, graciously insisting on it. In his room, she opened the drapes and the sliding glass door, letting in fresh air and the last of the sunset, a mosaic