Three Words: A Novella Collection Read Online Free Page A

the
glasses of wine he’d brought over to the fire with him.
    Daisy turned
away from the fire to face him. His dark brown eyes made her want
to roll over like Rex and beg to be kissed. “Don’t mention it. It’s
not like I have a use for them anyway.”
    “ So, I’m not taking them from a husband or a boyfriend? He’s
not going to come barging through the front door armed with a
shotgun at any minute?”
    “ Not unless he’s flying back on his girlfriend’s
broomstick.”
    “ I’m gathering you’re no longer together.”
    “ You gathered right. He left me.”
    Daisy picked
up her wine from where she’d sat it on the hearth. Why had she
brought Jack up? The very thought of what he’d done still made her
over-emotional and the mention of his name had her hand shaking so
much she almost sloshed her wine over the rug. Guzzling the drink
down, Daisy got to her feet. She needed another drink and now.
    She walked to
the coffee table, picked up the wine bottle and refilled her glass.
She took another gulp. What was wrong with her? She never talked
about Jack yet here she was telling a total stranger. A very
friendly stranger, but a stranger all the same. There was something
about Henry that had made her want to share, something that made
her feel comfortable enough to do so. It was a weird feeling. But
then, this whole situation was bordering on bizarre so who was she
to discount how she felt.
    And now Henry
appeared to be concerned which was utterly sweet. “Let me know if
I’m being too nosy,” he said.
    “ You’re not nosy at all. In fact, it’s a bit of a relief to
share with someone. I’ve sort of been avoiding the
truth.”
    “ Why?”
    “ I guess I was embarrassed that Jack left me for the bakery
tart. Apparently she makes a mean coffee scroll.”
    “ Seriously? He left you because you can’t cook?”
    “ No, he left me because I cook too well.” Daisy sucked in a
breath. “You see Jack didn’t like my curves. He told me I was too
fat and that he couldn’t have sex with me unless I lost some
weight. Then he left me for Anna, one of his co-workers who I might
add has boobs twice the size of mine.”
    Henry shook
his head. “Excuse me for stating the obvious but you’re not fat.
You have a nice figure.”
    “ That’s the ironic part. I was so cut up after Jack left I
didn’t eat for weeks. I weigh less now than I did when I was
seventeen.”
    “ Does Jack know this? Maybe he’d come back if you sent him a
photo or something.”
    “ I don’t want him back. I’d sooner become a
lesbian.”
    “ Right. So you’re not bitter at all, then?” A hint of
amusement played in Henry’s eyes. Under other circumstances, Daisy
might have been a bit put out at his words but for some reason his
sarcasm made her want to laugh. He was very easy to
like.
    “ Uh, not unless you call planning the ten most tortuous ways
to kill my husband bitter,” she smiled.
    Henry gave a
chuckle and rolled over to take up the wine bottle, refilling his
glass. Next to him Marsha stirred but didn’t wake.
    “ Were you together long?”
    “ Since we were sixteen - more than half a lifetime. I met Jack
at a horse show. He was very good with horses. We were inseparable
from the moment we met. Then, when I was seventeen, I got pregnant.
Totally by accident, of course. We had to beg our parents to let us
get married. We were like Romeo and Juliet but without the death
bit.”
    “ Wow. I’ve never met anyone with that type of long-term
commitment before. The people I hang with tend to move on quicker
than you can say ‘divorce’. Being together for that amount of time
is a real achievement.”
    “ Not any more. I feel like a failure.”
    “ But you did nothing wrong.”
    How was it
that this man was single? He was so normal and down to Earth. Not
at all the way she imagined a mega famous rock star would be. If
Jack had been so understanding she was positive things would have
worked out differently, but after the first