Blame it on Cupid by Jennifer Greene Read Free Book Online

history. Not to a girl wearing army fatigues. “I did a couple years in college, but just didn’t really have a career in mind….”
    She tried to think, what to say, what not to say. “So I just started working. Worked as an assistant DJ for a radio station—that was fun. Worked in an insurance office—actually, that was kind of interesting, too. A way of helping people, hearing about their lives. Was a management trainee at Ann Taylor for a while….”
    Finally, a voice piped up from the passenger seat. “You don’t have any idea where you’re going, do you?”
    â€œHuh?” How many times had her dad asked her that in real life? Was she ever going to get a clue where she was going, find a job she wanted to stick with, a place she was willing to stay?
    But apparently Charlene meant something else entirely. The child said patiently, “You keep driving in the wrong direction. I mean, I don’t know where you’re trying to go. But you’re headed the wrong way if you’re trying to drive toward home. My home.”
    â€œWe are headed toward your home. Um, I don’t suppose you know the way, do you?”
    â€œSure.” Finally, some conversation. Precise, clear directions.
    Well, hell. They were only seven or eight miles out of the way. God knew, Merry had done worse. “You do want to go home, right, Charle—Charlie?”
    â€œYes.”
    There. The first sign of emotion she’d seen so far. An honest yes. A desperate yes. A yes that captured Merry’s heart and made her determined to reach the child no matter what it took. And she reminded herself of the obvious. They were just getting started. No one ever promised her this was going to be easy, and she hadn’t expected it to be.
    â€œWhat was it like,” she asked, “being with your great-grandmother this last week?”
    Charlene scrunched up her nose. “Is that a trick question?”
    â€œNo. You were staying there, so I figured—”
    â€œWhen we first moved to Virginia, I was really little, but I can remember my dad saying that was why. I mean, why Virginia. Because his grandmother was here and there was no one to take care of her. Only that was ages and ages ago. She doesn’t know who I am anymore. She doesn’t know who anyone is. Everybody there was nice enough. I just really, really want to be home.”
    â€œYou missed some school?” Merry already knew the answer to that question, but Charlene had finally started talking; she wanted to keep it going.
    â€œYeah, I know. That’s freaking everybody out. But I think that’s pretty stupid. I only missed a week or so, because it was still Christmas vacation before that. And I was already getting all As. And I could keep up just as well from the books as from classes anyway.” Her face suddenly turned toward Merry. “I’ll bet you’re thinking that I’m going to be a big problem. But I won’t be. I promise. If you just take me home, I won’t bother you. I won’t bother anybody. I don’t need anybody to take care of me.”
    â€œCharlene, I wasn’t worried about that at all—”
    â€œCharlie.”
    â€œCharlie, then. I—”
    â€œYou’re lost again, aren’t you.” This time, the squirt didn’t waste time phrasing the comment like a question.
    Merry said, “Looks like. Feel like a burger or an ice-cream cone or anything?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDo you, um, know which way to turn from here?”
    Merry zealously obeyed the eleven-year-old’s instructions. Left at the first light, then four blocks later and so on. It was a new experience, actually paying attention to directions, but it still didn’t seem to win her any brownie points.
    She rashly assumed it might help warm up the waters if she tried talking about Charles. “I knew your dad back when you were just a toddler, when