New Uses For Old Boyfriends Read Online Free

suddenly those features fell into place in her memory. The brown eyes and thick hair and the deep, teasing voice. “Lila?”
    â€œBen?” She clapped a hand to her mouth, suddenly aware of how bedraggled she must look. “Ben!”
    Without another word, he opened his arms to her and she ran to him, closing her eyes as she pressed her cheek against his shoulder.It had been years since he had held her, but she suddenly felt sixteen again, hopeful and shy but safe.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Something about the way he asked this made her wonder how much he’d glimpsed of the FUV’s contents.
    â€œI promised my mom I’d come stay with her through the summer,” she mumbled into his jacket. “She’s been having a hard time with everything.”
    His arms tightened around her. “I heard about your dad. I’m so sorry. He was a great guy.”
    â€œYeah, it’s been a tough year. But we’re hanging in there.” She looked up at him.
    He cupped her chin in his hand. “It’s so great to see you.”
    â€œWhat about you?” she asked. “I thought you were still in Boston.”
    â€œI moved back last month. I’m taking over my dad’s company. We’re starting some new projects down by Bethany Beach.”
    She was grinning now, not her camera smile but her real smile. She knew she looked toothy and ridiculous, but she couldn’t stop.
    Because the first boy she’d promised to love forever was smiling down at her with what could only be described as adoration. “You changed your hair.”
    She nodded. “I went blond a few years ago.”
    â€œIt looks great. You always look great, Lila.”
    â€œOh, please.” She pulled away, trying to straighten her hair and her shirt and her earrings all at once. “I’m a drowned rat.”
    Ben shook his head. “You get prettier and prettier. Listen, here’s my card. We should get together sometime and catch up.”
    She forced her lips into a more demure expression as her mother’s voice resounded in her head:
Don’t be too eager. There’s nothinga man likes more than a woman who has other options.
“Thanks. I’d like that.”
    â€œYou’re staying with your mom?”
    She nodded.
    â€œTake it easy on the drive into town, and get your car checked out, okay?” He nodded at the SUV. “This model has a lot of electrical problems. Probably a short somewhere.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    â€œMy foreman used to have the same car. Emphasis on
used to
.”
    Lila climbed back into the FUV, buckled her seat belt, and just sat for a few minutes. Relishing the heated seats and warm air gusting out of the vents. Watching the dashboard for any more emergency lights.
    Reeling from the unexpected gift she’d just been given.
    Finally, she put the FUV into gear and started back down the highway to her hometown. And five minutes later, when she passed the quaint clapboard sign adorned with the silhouette of a Labrador retriever— WELCOME TO BLACK DOG BAY —she removed one hand from the wheel, turned on the radio, and scanned through the static until she found a song she could hum along to.
    Maybe coming home wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

chapter 3

    A s if on cue, Cake’s “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” came on as Lila piloted the FUV toward Main Street. The bass line brought back a flood of memories: drinking diet soda in the cafeteria, stretching her hamstrings before cheer practice, pinning corsages to the velvet bodices of her formal dresses.
    She hadn’t heard this song since high school. She’d barely been back to Black Dog Bay in the last ten years, except for the occasional summer weekend and her father’s memorial service. Once she left for college, her parents had always been happy to come to her for visits and vacations. Her mother, in particular, had welcomed any