Catch Your Breath by Shannyn Schroeder Read Free Book Online Page A

Griffin kissed
     her neck. Being surrounded by all these couples caused a surge of jealousy. She wanted
     this for herself. Why couldn’t she find the right guy?
    Without thought, her gaze went to the O’Malley house across the street. She saw no
     movement, but it didn’t surprise her. They weren’t planners or preparers. They usually
     set a cooler on their front porch whenever they got moving and then pulled their grill
     from the yard right about when it was time to cook.
    A revving motorcycle engine drew her attention. Sean pulled up in front of his house.
     Moira walked over to remind him not to leave the motorcycle on the street. Knowing
     him, he forgot about the party and didn’t even notice the construction horse that
     he had to drive around to get down the block.
    Sean climbed off the bike and looked around.
    “Hey,” she called.
    He waved. “Block party today, right?”
    “Yep. I figured you forgot. You might want to move your bike so kids don’t knock it
     over when they’re playing.”
    “It’ll be fine.”
    “You guys are going to play football today, aren’t you?”
    He shrugged. “Guess so. I better call Kevin and remind him it’s today.”
    “You don’t have to do that.” It might be nice if she didn’t have to suffer through
     Kevin’s relentless teasing for one block party.
    Sean laughed and pulled out his phone.
    “You need help getting ready?”
    With the phone to his ear, he answered, “Nah. Jimmy will have food in the fridge.
     I’m sure he’s got it covered.”
    That answered one question she had. Jimmy was going to be at the block party. She
     turned away to head back to her family’s house. “Game starts in two hours.”
    Even as she crossed the short distance, more people started filling the street. Kids
     ran with water guns, and the new family at the end of the block was filling a bounce
     house with air. Moira snickered. They would regret it once the drunk adult males decided
     to hop in.

    Jimmy filled the cooler with ice and beer. He didn’t know why he bothered. His brothers
     always hoarded their beer and headed down the street where the O’Learys would have
     a keg set up. Same with the food. Liam would be on grill duty and Jimmy’s burgers
     could never compare, especially since his were packaged and frozen.
    He shoved the frozen patties back in the freezer, grabbed a couple of bags of chips,
     and checked his wallet. He’d give Liam some money to cover what his family would eat.
     If necessary, he’d run to the store for more supplies. One of these years, he’d plan
     better. Maybe by the time he had his own kids running the street.
    He sighed and dragged the cooler out the front door with the chips balanced on top.
     Once the cooler was in place, he glanced down the street. Sure enough, the O’Learys
     were already sitting in lawn chairs and laughing. Moira stood in front of her siblings
     acting something out that had them all in stitches. Liam stood back at the grill,
     arranging charcoal.
    Sean sat at the curb next to his bike.
    “Hey, you might want to move that into the garage for the night.”
    Sean looked over his shoulder. “Yeah, Moira already reminded me. I want to change
     the oil first.”
    “Hurry it up, then. We have a game to play.”
    The football game was the best part of the block party. It gave him a chance to play
     the game he loved. He’d played in high school, and probably could’ve in college if
     he had gone. After becoming a cop, he tried out for the police league and made it.
     For a very short season, he represented the boys in blue on the field.
    The remainder of the block party turned him into one big ball of stress. Kids ran
     around unsupervised because the parents were all drinking and having a good time.
     Parents were drinking, sometimes too much. Grills were on . . . there were too many
     things that could go wrong.
    He made his way to the O’Learys and did his level best to keep his eyes off Moira.
     When he