Been In Love Before: A Novel by Bryan Mooney Read Free Book Online Page A

swept her off her feet and proposed six weeks later. She had hired a wedding planner to help with all the details, and now the date was fast approaching.
    “Well, I’m having dinner this Thursday with him and Daddy. Next week he’ll meet all three of you at Duke’s Tuxedo Shop on Linton for a tuxedo fitting. The four of you can go out to dinner together afterward. Just don’t give him a hard time, okay?” She softened her tone and said to the trio, “Oh, and one last thing . . . I want you all to bring dates to my wedding.”
    “What?” they all howled in unison.
    “You heard me, and . . . this is not a request. It’s time for the three of you to rejoin the human race again. And by the way, clean this place up. It’s a mess. You have beer bottles, whiskey glasses, and pizza boxes everywhere.”
    “Pizza! Oh my God!” shouted Robert as he sprang to his feet. “I gotta go. I forgot, I left a pizza in the oven.”
    She hollered at him as he ran for the door, “Don’t forget, Uncle Bob, Tuesday is your first dance class. Don’t be late.”
    His tires squealed loudly down the driveway as he sped away, hoping it was not too late. He drove as fast as he could toward home.
    As he approached his street, racing down Boynton Beach Boulevard, he saw the flames rising above the tree line from three blocks away. He turned onto the gravel road leading to his house. It was blocked by fire trucks, police cars, and an ambulance, with their red, blue, and yellow lights flashing in his driveway. He could only stand there and watch his house be consumed by the flames as they blazed high in the sky.
    Hours later he realized the house was a total loss as he walked through it searching for anything that had been spared. The tall Scotsman’s shoulders drooped as he walked amid the still-smoldering rubble. Everything he had had was gone. The only things he had left were his memories. Gone. Now he would even have to find a place to stay. What was he going to do?
    When he turned around, he saw his two brothers there, standing beside him. They all joined together, wrapping their arms around each other.
    “Everything will be okay. We can rebuild it, Bob, better than before. You’ll see,” said Eian.
    “Grab your things, you’re staying with me,” said Ryan.
    Robert turned to have one last look at the smoldering ruins. His home was gone, but not his memories. Time to move on.

Chapter Six
    Michael Thompson, Mickey to his friends, listened to her voice on voice mail before ending his call. No answer. Her cell-phone message box was full. Where was she? He tried again and finally left a message on her machine at home. “Graw, are you there? Call me when you get this message. Love ya.” She must be out and about, he thought to himself.
    Mickey loved her and trusted her, even though they had known each other for only a little over six months. He did not normally give of his emotions so freely, but he had been in love with her from the moment they met. He believed in fate, and as fate would have it, he was in love with a Macgregor. Head over heels in love.
    They had met at a charity dance event his company was sponsoring for the House of Ruth. They clicked immediately—like a match and gunpowder. At first they fought every other day, then made up at night. They both were headstrong and iron-willed. Friends said it would last only a week, but they endured.
    He had never felt this way about anyone else before and had asked her to marry him six weeks later. Much to his surprise, she had accepted. How he loved that fiery redhead. Yelling at him at the top of her lungs one minute, and wrapping her arms around him, kissing him, the next.
    He stood in his penthouse office, high above the city of Boca Raton. He looked at his reflection in the tall window and instinctively touched the wavy white streak in his hair for good luck. He would need it for his meeting today.
    As a kid Mickey had lackluster grades in school. His teachers told