Checking It Twice by Jodi Redford Read Free Book Online Page A

engine. She peered glumly out the windshield before removing her keys from the ignition. The thought of losing Kevin—someone she’d never even technically had —hurt so damn much, she couldn’t breathe. Resting her head back, she closed her eyes, squeezing the tears in. She tightened her grip on the keys until their serrated edges bit into her palm, cutting through the pain in her heart.
    He’d accused her the other night of wanting something more from him than friendship and sex. The awful, pathetic truth was she did. All these years she’d harbored the secret dream of him waking up and realizing that he loved her just as desperately as she did him. She’d fantasized about the white picket fence and one or two rugrats for them.
    She’d visualized a forever with him. But here she was, more alone than ever.
    Abandoning the vehicle, she made her way to the front door of her shop. The reflection of her tear-stained, puffy face in the glass mocked her. Loser. Crying your eyes out over a guy who probably doesn’t give a monkey’s ass about you.
    Disgusted with herself and queasy, she pushed open the door and stepped inside. Allie, her part-timer, paused in the middle of straightening the markdown table and frowned at Jana. “Are you all right?”
    “Yeah, just have something in my eye.” Jana made a show of rubbing at a nonexistent irritant on her lashes. “Thanks for putting in the extra half an hour.”
    “I can stay later if you need me to.”
    Usually she enjoyed the opportunity to chat with Allie, but the last thing Jana wanted to do was feel like an even bigger idiot by breaking down in front of the girl. “No, I’ve got it covered.”
    After a few more reassurances directed towards Allie, Jana waved goodbye to her employee, headed to the register and tucked her purse beneath the counter.
    As she was straightening, her attention snagged on the pink sticky note stuck to the register’s cash drawer. 3:00—in-store demo with Naughty Girl Nights. She exhaled heavily. If she’d known the emotional wallop she’d take today, she never would have scheduled the meeting. The last thing she wanted to do was wax poetic about vibrators when she’d rather be drowning her heartache with a pitcher of margaritas and a carton of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Still, business took precedence over her misery.
    Besides, it’s not like she wouldn’t have the rest of her life to cry Kevin out of her system.

Chapter Three
    Nick clicked the tabs shut on his presentation case before picking up the copy of Metro Cuisine he’d brought with him from Chicago. He flicked the pages to the feature on the Dockside restaurant. He’d read the damn article so many times it’d been unnecessary to mark the section—the magazine fell open to it automatically. His focus lowered to the trio of small pictures at the bottom of the glossy page and locked on the image of Kevin. It wasn’t a clear shot of him, and he was half blocked by a waitress holding an enormous platter of St. Louis-style short ribs. But the brief glimpse managed to fill Nick with the same mix of hope and regret he’d experienced six weeks ago, when he’d first spotted the picture.
    It was an odd twist of fate that he’d even come across the article. If not for boredom and a layover in Cincinnati, he’d be clueless of his former best friend’s whereabouts and would no doubt be contemplating for the thousandth time whether he should hire a private investigator to track Kev down. There’d been several motivating factors that’d prevented him from giving in to the urge, but stubbornness had been the most paramount. For the last five years he’d convinced himself that if Kevin didn’t feel the need to stay in touch, Nick damn well didn’t either. That of course had been a crock of shit. No one understood him like Kev, and it hurt like a motherfucker that Kevin had walked away from their friendship. He knew why Kev did it, but it didn’t make it any easier.
    Dropping