Gentlemen Prefer Curves: A Perfect Fit Novel by Sugar Jamison Read Free Book Online

friend Cherri called him at work. She called me on my cell phone, too, but you know I can never remember to turn it on. Your father has to do it for me, but today he left for work early and forgot so I didn’t know she had called me until we were on our way here.”
    “Carmina,” Bill growled in his low voice.
    She sighed. “I was having lunch with your father in his office. We do that sometimes. Did you know that? We have lunch together in his office. He likes for me to spend the afternoons with him and I like to go because I have to! If I don’t go in there with those smelly plug-in things, your father’s office will smell like sweaty socks. Those boys he coaches smell just horrible after practice. I don’t know how he deals with them.”
    “Why did your friend call us?” Bill interrupted, finally tired of waiting for his wife to get to the point. “What’s wrong with you? Your face is all pale and stuff. You don’t ever get sick. You take after me that way.”
    “Yes. Tell Mamá what’s wrong, Pudge? I had to ride all the way over here in your father’s dirty pickup truck. I swear he finds every inch of mud in the city and drives through it. I got mud on my pants. These are linen pants. Do you know how hard it is going to be to get the dirt out of here? I—”
    “If you don’t stop complaining about your damn pants … I’ll buy you a new pair if the mud doesn’t come out.”
    “I don’t want a new pair. You can’t buy me another pair. These were custom-made in Italy.”
    Belinda plopped herself facedown on her bed as her parents argued.
    She just wished they would shut up sometimes.
    “I saw Carter in the park today,” she lifted her head and blurted out when the argument started getting louder. “You know, Carter. The man I married after knowing him a month. I got so flustered I fell in the lake at Elder Park. That’s why Cherri called you.”
    The room went silent, and for a split second it was bliss.
    But then she came back to reality. Her parents just stood there staring at her. This was the one thing they never talked about. Her mistake with Carter. How she disappointed them as their only child when she ran off and got married without telling them. She knew she had hurt them. And she knew they silently said I told you so when she came running back to them after six weeks of marriage.
    Neither one of them said much of anything to her about it. She knew why. She was their only child. They just wanted her to be happy. But sometimes she wished they had told her what a big ass she had been. It would have lessened her guilt.
    “What does he want?” She watched as her father’s jaw grew tight. His nostrils flared just a bit.
    Carmina stared at her with an open mouth and looked back at Belinda. “Well, Pudge, what does he want?”
    She was almost afraid to tell them. She thought they had known, but how could they? Once she came home to nurse her wounds she never said another word about the man she married. “He said he’s being trying to contact me. I think he wants a divorce.”
    “A divorce!” Bill snapped. “You two aren’t divorced? What the hell have you been doing these past four years?” He let out a long stream of curses.
    “William,” Carmina said in a hushed voice. “She doesn’t need you barking at her right now. Go to the store and bring us back some cookie dough.” She looked at Belinda and squeezed her cheek. “I know my Pudge. Cookies will make you feel better, won’t they, beauty?” She looked at her husband. “And the drive will make you feel better. Now go.”
    But for once Belinda didn’t want to avoid this confrontation with her parents. They never spoke of how they felt about what she did. Maybe it was time they did. Maybe it was time they cleared the air. For once she didn’t want Carter being the elephant in the room. “But, Mamá —”
    “Hush,” she said firmly. “It’s okay now. Everything is going to be okay.”
    Belinda looked at her mother