Maid for Love (A Romantic Comedy) Read Online Free Page A

spoke. “Zoe, what’s going on here?”
    She looked around the kitchen. “I’m cleaning.”
    “That’s not-” but he got no further before she cut him off.
    “The kids did a great job of cleaning up after I left yesterday.” She gathered up a bottle of spray cleaner in one hand and a roll of paper towels in the other. “I’m just going to dust the living room and then I’ll be off.”
    She moved to go around him but Michael held his ground. If she was going to carry on with this ridiculous charade that she didn’t know him from a stranger at the grocery store, he wasn’t about to let her get away with it. He stood his ground in the middle of the doorway. “I think we should talk about what’s going on here.”
    He could have sworn that he saw a glimmer of understanding in Zoe's eyes. Beautiful blue eyes that had haunted him since she’d left.  He would wait all day if it meant she was ready to confess.
    But his niece had other plans. Kathryn came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you, Uncle M?”
    “Later, Kathryn,” he answered without taking his eyes from Zoe’s.
    “Uh, I think now’s better,” Kathryn persisted. She tugged on his arm. “Please.”
    “You’d better go, Michael.” Zoe made her move and squeezed past him. “I’ll just see to the living room.”
    Exasperated, Michael sank into one of the kitchen chairs. “What is so all fire important, Kathryn, that it couldn’t wait until I was done with Zoe?”
    Kathryn sat across from him. “You’re going to be done with Zoe all right if you keep acting like that. Are you crazy?”
    He sure felt like it, but that wasn’t something he was about to admit to his fourteen-year-old niece. Or his sixteen-year-old nephew either, he decided as Josh joined them. “You were listening to our conversation?”
    Kathryn nodded. “Lucky for you, yes. What were you trying to do?”
    Hoping for some male solidarity, he turned to Josh. “What do you think?”
    “I think I understand why you’re still single.”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning that wasn’t cool. Chicks don’t dig that kind of tough act.”
    Chicks? Tough act? Michael's ego hit an all-time low.  Had the kids thought he was putting the muscle on Zoe? “No guys, you don’t understand. Zoe and I know each other.”
    “Right, you met her yesterday.” Kathryn’s voice was low and soothing, as if she were talking him off a ledge. “We were here with you.”
    “No, I mean we dated for over a year.” He looked between them. “We were in love.”
    “You’d never guess that by the way she’s acting,” Josh said.
    “Exactly.” Michael felt slightly vindicated. “I don’t know what’s going on. Yesterday she acted like she’d never seen me before.”
    “You’re sure it’s the same Zoe, right?” Josh asked.
    Michael was saved from having to answer that by the withering glance Kathryn shot in her brother’s direction. “She’s certainly acting like she doesn’t know you, but who broke up the relationship? You or Zoe?”
    “Zoe.”
    “Ouch.” Josh shook his head ruefully. “That bites.”
    “Yes, it did. It does.” He turned to Kathryn, whose uncharacteristic frown marred her normally genial expression. “What are you thinking?”
    “Why did Zoe run out to her car yesterday? You know, right after she got here?”
    “She said she had to make an emergency call to the office.”
    Kathryn’s lips curled into a slightly smug smile. “I think not.”
    Josh looked between them. “What am I missing?”
    Kathryn leaned in and lowered her voice. “I think Zoe remembers knowing Uncle M.”
    Remembered him? She’d loved him. That much Michael was sure about, even if everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours made no sense at all.
    “She’s not acting like it,” Josh said. “Why?”
    “Question of the day, Josh.” Michael sighed. He should be at the office. Not sitting at home hashing over his love life like he was a