Fooling Around Read Online Free

opened on the ground floor.
    The first thing he saw was Kristin and the nurse, and they both came at him, fluttering and anxious, as if he’d been miraculously saved from a life-threatening situation.
    He tried to turn around to see the woman who’d been with him in the elevator, but she’d slipped away immediately. He saw the swish of her ponytail as she left by the front door.
    That was who he needed for the next three months. He needed someone exactly like her to help him out. Someone who wouldn’t drive him crazy. He’d never make it that long with the assistants he currently had. He’d end up firing his entire staff and alienating everyone who’d ever liked him.
    He suddenly had an idea. It was crazy, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do it.
    He’d done crazy things before, things that made no sense to anyone else. After he’d torn up his knee, everyone had said he should just rehab it for six months and he might be able to play football again. But he’d known it wasn’t a sure thing, and even if he could eventually come back, he’d never be as good as he had been. His father, who had been a high school football coach all his life, had just died of a heart attack, and Eric had been having trouble working up a lot of enthusiasm for the sport anyway. He’d already had this idea for the video game, so he’d given up on football and started making money in a different way. His decision had been the right one, since his knee had never gotten back to full form. If he’d pressed on, he’d have been stuck on a low-level team, and making anything of himself would have been a struggle.
    People had thought he was insane back then—his friends, teammates, coaches, and mother all telling him that he was overreacting to the injury and his father’s death—but he’d done the best thing for him, despite all of their skepticism.
    His instincts seldom steered him wrong.
    Maybe his new idea now was a little crazy, but all of his instincts told him it was right.
    So he was going to do it.
    He brushed Kristin’s anxious questions away and said, “Shut up for a minute. I need your help with something.”
    She ignored the tone, since she was used to it. She actually looked pleased to have something to do. “What is it?”
    “I need you to find out who was with me in the elevator.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “There was a woman with me. She came from the same floor we were on. I need you to find out who she is. Her mother just died.”
    “The hospital isn’t going to tell me—”
    “Well, find out another way. The funeral will be at Woodlawn Funeral Home. Just ask around. Someone will know.”
    “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.” Kristin had long ago learned not to question the reasonableness of any of his requests. She just did them. It was one of her good qualities, whereas taking care of incapacitated people obviously wasn’t.
    “Good. Thanks,” Eric said. His leg was actually a lot more comfortable in this new position. Why the hell hadn’t someone figured that out before now?
    If he was going to make it through the next three months, then he’d need a different sort of caretaker. It didn’t matter that he had no idea who the woman was. He wasn’t going to let her get away.

Chapter 2
    Julie got back to her parents’ slightly shabby three-bedroom ranch house and collapsed into her mother’s old rocking chair by the front window.
    She sat there, staring out into the quiet suburban street, for a long time.
    She was too tired to work. Too tired to talk to anyone. Too tired even to cry.
    Her laptop was on the desk in the corner. She had papers and online discussion posts for three classes to grade. The kitchen sink was filled with dirty dishes, and she needed to start getting ready for the funeral.
    She didn’t want to do any of it, though.
    Marie was contacting everyone to let them know about their mother’s death. Not that there were many other people to contact. They didn’t have a large extended