Happy Again by Jennifer E. Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

back?”
    She nodded, not quite trusting herself to say more. Graham stuck the Yankees cap back on his head, pulling down the brim, and then, to her delight, they began to walk in the exact opposite direction of the Ziegfeld.
    Fifth Avenue looked magical at this time of night, a sea of bobbing lights from cars and taxis, the shop windows like aquariums in the dark. Neither of them spoke as they crossed Fifty-Eighth Street, and the pale facade of the green-roofed Plaza Hotel came into view. Beyond that was the great blue-black sweep of Central Park, and without any discussion, they turned toward it.
    “I like this place,” Ellie said as they waited for the light to change, standing so close that the fabric of Graham’s jacket brushed against her bare arm, making her shiver. “I wasn’t sure I would.”
    “You’ve never been?”
    She shook her head.
    “I’ve been here a lot lately.”
    “You’ve been everywhere a lot lately.”
    “It’s kind of weird,” he said as they began to cross over to the park. “I never went anywhere as a kid. And now I’m all over the place. Sydney, London, Paris, Tokyo…I can’t even remember all the cities.”
    Ellie glanced over at him. “But?”
    “But I get homesick,” he said with a shrug. “Which I realize is crazy, since all that’s waiting for me there is a pig. But still.”
    They were just inside the park now, tracing a path along the edge of a murky pond, where a ring of streetlamps made blurry reflections in the water. They stopped beside an empty bench, and Ellie sat down on one end, waiting for Graham to do the same. But he just stood there, staring down at her with a thoughtful expression, his hands deep in his pockets and the tail of his suit jacket fluttering in the breeze.
    “I can’t tell if you’re happy,” she said, trying to meet his gaze beneath the brim of the baseball cap, and he ducked his head, hesitating a beat too long before answering.
    “Honestly,” he said, “I can’t really tell, either.”
    He sat down beside her, leaving too much space between them. A woman walked by with an enormous dog, straining hard on its leash, and when they were gone and the path was empty again, Graham shook his head.
    “I don’t really mean that,” he said, sounding frustrated. “I know I’m lucky. And I know people would kill for this kind of life, these types of opportunities…”
    “I’m not a reporter,” Ellie reminded him. “You can be honest with me.”
    He’d been absentmindedly curling the end of his tie, and now he let it drop, and they both watched it unwind again. “Sometimes it’s just a lot.”
    “I can imagine,” she said, but she saw him wince and changed her mind. “No, you’re right. I can’t.”
    “Lately, I’ve just been feeling kind of suffocated. Like I can’t get enough air. Which is why it’s nice to escape sometimes.”
    “By driving way too fast.”
    “It’s not that fast.”
    “I’ve seen at least three stories about you getting pulled over.”
    “I can handle it.”
    Ellie gave him a hard look. “Just be careful, okay?”
    “You sound like my parents,” he said, and then his face softened. But before she could ask him whether things were better now—whether he still worried over the distance between them in the aftermath of his sudden fame—he nodded.
    “I’ve been seeing them a lot more lately, which is good,” he said. “My dad’s gotten completely obsessed with the landscaping at my house. I’ve got a whole crew that comes out twice a week, but whenever I’m in town, he usually just ends up dragging the mower out himself. And my mom—she thinks I eat too much takeout, so she’ll come over and spend a whole day cooking, and then my fridge ends up looking like I’m preparing for the apocalypse or something.”
    Ellie smiled. This is where most guys she knew would stop, concluding the story with an eye roll. But not Graham. She knew what it meant to him, these kinds of mundane gestures, and