Romance on Mountain View Road Read Online Free

of tapping her pencil on the desk as she talked on the phone, which she was doing now. The call only lasted a moment. She pushed a button and sent the caller on, probably to one of the bosses. Such an efficient woman.
    Now she smiled as she caught sight of him walking down the hall in his gray slacks and his white Oxford shirt, his hair slicked into the latest style (at least according to the new barber he’d gone to at Sweeney Todd Barbershop—the one highlight of his weekend). He puffed out his chest and donned his best smile. He did have a good smile; even his sisters said so.
    Oh, man, look at the way her eyes lit up at the sight of him. It was the hair, had to be. He forced his chest to swell to its fullest capacity.
    Look at that smile. She had a great smile and she used it a lot. When a woman smiled a lot, it meant she was happy and easygoing. That was exactly the kind of woman Kyle wanted.
    He was almost at her desk when he realized they weren’t making eye contact. She was looking beyond him.
    Then he heard a rich tenor voice behind him say, “Jillian, you’re especially beautiful this fine morning.”
    Ted Darrow, the ass-wipe. Kyle’s supervisor. Kyle could feel his smile shrinking even as he shrank inside. He mumbled a hello to Jillian and slunk by her desk.
    â€œHi,” she said absently as he passed. Then for Ted it was a sexy, “Hi, Ted.”
    â€œHi, Ted,” Kyle mimicked under his breath as he strode to his cubicle. Jillian shouldn’t waste her breath saying hello to that fathead. Men like that, they flirted with women, they used women, but they didn’t appreciate women. Kyle flung himself into his chair with a growl.
    â€œStarting the day off well, I see,” said a soft voice from the cubicle next door.
    Unlike some people, Mindy Wright always had the decency to acknowledge his existence. It didn’t make him feel any better, though. Mindy was no Jillian.
    â€œHi, Mindy.” His hello probably sounded grudging, so he added, “How was your weekend?”
    â€œWell, it was interesting.”
    Mindy had been trolling the internet for her perfect match. So far she’d hauled in a truck driver who was ten years older than she was and about forty pounds heavier than he’d looked in his picture on the dating site, a man who claimed to be a churchgoer but hadn’t gone in two—okay, make it five—years, a shrink who Mindy said was the most screwed-up person she’d ever had dinner with and someone who’d seemed like a great catch until she learned he had no job. “And he wasn’t planning on finding one anytime soon, either,” Mindy had confessed. “He’s writing a book.”
    â€œOh, well, that’s good,” Kyle had said, trying to put a positive spin on the latest loser.
    â€œAbout mushrooms.”
    â€œBound to be a bestseller.”
    That had made her laugh. Kyle made Mindy laugh a lot. If only he could work up his nerve to ask Jillian out. He was sure he could make her laugh, too. But so far, his attempts to get her attention had all been thwarted.
    Shakespeare had it right. The course of true love never did run smooth. For Kyle, it seemed to run into nothing but dead ends.
    At least Mindy was getting some action. “So, who’d you go out with this weekend?” he asked.
    â€œNo one I want to keep, that’s for sure. I think I’m done looking.”
    â€œHey, you can’t give up. Your perfect man may be right around the next corner.”
    â€œThe next internet corner?” She peeked around the cubicle wall, a grin on her face.
    It was an okay face, fringed with dark hair and decorated with glasses, a turned-up little nose that made him think of Drew Barrymore and a small chin that seemed to sport a zit once a month. (What was with that, anyway?) As for the bod, well, not a ten like Jillian. Still, she was pretty nice. Someone would want her.
    â€œYeah,” he