Bittersweet by Noelle Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

actually beginning to like him—something she hadn’t felt in five years.

Five
     
    Zoe laid her
paperback down on the seat beside her, deciding the bench was dry enough to not
get the pages wet. She adjusted her sunglasses and stared out at the gently
rippling water of the lake.
    All
she could see was sky and water. It was a beautiful day—the first day of the
year that it had really felt like spring. The sun was warm, although the breeze
was still brisk, and the air felt refreshing and almost light, like the
heaviness of the winter was finally lifting.
    Zoe
stretched out on her bench seat, straightening the cushion behind her head. She
felt comfortable, relaxed, and incredibly lazy. And she wasn’t planning to move
for a long time.
    They’d
sailed out earlier and dropped anchor in the middle of Lake Pace, the largest
sailing lake in the state. The lake was less than an hour from the city, and it
was too early in the season to be crowded with other boats.
    Zoe
had never been sailing before, and now she couldn’t for the life of her figure
out why not. It was so quiet, sunny, and peaceful that she felt like she might
be alone in the world.
    She’d
left Logan with her mother, who was visiting for the week and insisted that Zoe
take the day to relax. Although she felt a little guilty for the thought, it
was kind of nice to have a short break from her son.
    She
glanced over then to Adam, who lounged on the other bench seat, reading a book.
He wore a white camp shirt, gray trousers, and boat shoes, and he looked
relaxed and affluent—like he was ready to go yachting at a club.
    Over
the last few months, he seemed to have shed some of his layers, allowing more
of his real self to come out. He still wasn’t the guy she’d known at the
café—she doubted he would ever be that guy again—but he was closer, and it made
her happy.
    Feeling
how warm the sun was on her arms, Zoe was a little worried that he hadn’t worn
a hat.
    “What
is it?” Adam asked without looking over. He wore sunglasses too, but his
attention hadn’t seemed to stray from his book. He must have sensed her
watching him.
    “You
should have worn a hat.”
    Adam
lowered his sunglasses and gave her a silent, quizzical look over the top of
them.
    “It
looks like your face might be burning.”
    “Do
you have any idea how often I’ve come out here to sail? You think I can’t take
care of myself?”
    Zoe
chuckled at his lofty expression. “Well, you’re obviously not taking care of
yourself very well,” she replied with a teasing note in her voice. When he
didn’t reply with anything except a wry smile, she added, “And I can’t believe
you’ve come sailing all these years and never told anyone about it. Talk about
being a closed-mouthed bastard.”
    “I
don’t come out in the winter. There would have been no reason to bring the
subject up with you.”
    “Still,”
she insisted with an impressive scowl, if not with any credible objections.
    It
had been almost four months now since Josh had died, and she never would have imagined
that she and Adam could have become friends. But they had. She figured she knew
him now better than most people, and it seemed so strange that she hadn’t known
that he loved to go out on his ridiculously expensive sailboat on Sundays until
just a few days ago, when he’d invited her to sail out with him.
    “What
are you reading?” Zoe asked, seeing he’d gone back to his book. When she first
settled down with her own book, Adam had been messing around with the lines and
sails and such. She assumed he’d been reading for a while now, but she’d been
barely conscious of him before.
    She
was comfortable with Adam. She wasn’t always aware of his presence, didn’t have
to notice everything he did. Being with him was sometimes like being by
herself. Only not so lonely.
    And
she figured he felt the same way about her.
    She
wasn’t sure how she would have gotten through the last few months without him.
    When
he