Of Happiness Read Online Free Page A

insistent that I refer to her in a formal way. Simply thinking about the meeting ignites anxiety; I wonder if Claire spread her deceptive stories to Mrs. Fletcher, too.
    “Do you want company?” Dad asks hesitantly, and his words send a beam of happiness through me.
    “That would be great,” I respond shyly. “We could grab breakfast. There are some restaurants near the shop.” Through my research last week, I found a popular antique store I thought might have an interesting oversized mirror for Amanda’s guestroom. Now that I lost the McDaniel account, I’ll visit the store anyway to review it and scope out the merchandise.
    “What time should I come to get you?”
    “I was going to take the train over there around ten.”
    “Ed, I’m an old man; let’s take a cab.”
    “Forty-seven is far from old, and you run five miles almost every day.”
    “Humor me.”
    We end the call and I check the time. It’s 7:40 in Chicago, an hour behind DC. 8:40 is a semi-decent hour to call my best friend, Sarah Mendel. She’s an early riser anyway.
    “Morning,” she chirps into the phone. “What are you doing?”
    “Just making plans to have breakfast with my father in a couple of hours. In Chicago. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
    Sarah laughs nervously. “He might have called me and asked for your address.”
    “He might have, or he did?”
    “Are you mad? That will impact how I answer.”
    On my end of the phone, a small smile plays at my lips because truthfully, I’m more thankful than words can express. “No,” I murmur almost to myself. “Not mad at all. He showed up at exactly the right time. What are you doing, Sar?”
    “Drinking coffee in the kitchen and worrying about you. Why do you sound like you were run over by a Hummer?”
    “I didn’t protect my heart,” I whisper, my voice coming out garbled with the onslaught of brutal memories.
    “Oh, Eddie. Tell me what happened.”
    For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I relay my tale.
    When I’m done, Sarah’s contemplative. “We know that Claire has lost her mind, but Harris…”
    “Harris kept his mouth shut. First he pushed me away, which sucked, but I understood why. I was ready to give him time to decide when he was ready to talk about Cooper. But when Claire came after me, he was catatonic, completely unlike him.”
    “And then he chased after you,” Sarah reminds me gently like Luke did last night. “Give him a break, Eddie, he was already in a state after being confronted with Cooper, and then this mess with his sister? I’m sure it’s not easy on him.”
    “He could have chased harder.” Sighing, I flop against the pillows. “I guess I’m just scared,” I admit softly.
    “There’s the truth. What are you afraid of?”
    “That I’m not just dating Harris, but Harris controlled by Claire. Every time things start going well for us, she pulls a string and he lets me go. He told me the road was clear, but that wasn’t the case as soon as Claire wormed her way in.”
    “Truth time?”
    I brace for impact. “Sure.”
    “He’s never run after you like that, Eddie. He left Claire behind to come after you. This piece weighs heavily; you need to acknowledge that.”
    I squeeze my eyes closed. She’s right.
    “When you say you’re scared, it’s not of Claire, it’s Harris. You don’t want to be vulnerable or give him the power to hurt you. Opening yourself to that kind of pain is scary.”
    “Sarah,” I moan into the phone. “How did you figure that out before I did?”
    “Because I’m your best friend, and it’s easier to call the plays from the couch than on the field.”
    “Sports analogies?”
    “Sorry, Greg’s been teaching me about soccer.”
    My eyes pop open and as I expel a puff of air. “Okay, Dr. Mendel, what am I supposed to do now?”
            “Don’t misunderstand me, I’m glad you walked away from him on Saturday. A, it gave you a chance