Love's Little Instruction Book by Mary Gorman Read Free Book Online Page A

gave them about fifteen seconds’ head start, then followed them across the parking lot to the sandy path that led just over the rise to the beach.
    His plan was to follow them at a casual difference, see where Denise and Presley set up their towels, and then encamp himself nearby — preferably within a conversational distance. He wanted to learn more about Denise, to see if his gut feeling about her was correct and to maybe attract her notice if it was.
    As soon as Dave was over the rise, he paused to look out at the endless expanse of sea spread out before him. He left off his thoughts of Denise in order to feel the wind against his face, enjoy the salty-egg smell of the water, and to take in the sight of the sunlight sparkling on the waves like diamonds. A sudden rush of appreciation filled him as he took in the glory of the day. It was good. It felt right. This was the day he was going to get to know Denise. Life was good indeed.
    “Denise?” A tall, golden-skinned Greek god with sun streaked blond hair and a red speedo called out, waving. It was Todd O’Connor. Technically, he wasn’t a station employee. He worked for an independent company called Traffic Stoppers that monitored traffic in and around the Boston area, then filtered this information into sixty second reports that O’Connor called into the station for direct broadcast every afternoon. Most listeners probably still imagined the intrepid traffic reported from a helicopter, but in reality, it was just a guy in an office near the top of one of Boston’s tallest skyscrapers. Dave had never really thought about it before, but now that he did, it seemed somehow dishonest.
    “Todd?” Denise inquired eagerly. When he nodded, she launched herself towards him and he caught her up in a joyous hug, patting her back as he lifted her off her feet. “Oh, it’s so good to finally meet you!”
    Part of Todd’s job was to call in reports during Denise’s shift and banter with her when the traffic was light. It made it seem more like they were actual colleagues instead of disembodied voices on the ends of a phone line. But they must not have actually met in person until now.
    “You look just like your pictures,” O’Connor told her, setting her down on her feet and looking at her.
    “And look at you! Presley said you were good looking, but she never said you were so ripped!” Dave couldn’t see Denise’s face, but he had a terrible feeling that there was a look of blatant admiration on it.
    “That’s because Presley never saw him with his shirt off before. Good Gawd, Todd,” Presley gawked. “You should never wear a shirt with a bod like that!”
    O’Connor laughed as he released Denise. “How you doing, Pres? Come here.”
    Presley seemed more than willing to take Denise’s place in O’Connor’s arms. For about half a nanosecond, Dave hoped that maybe Presley would catch Todd’s fancy so that he might still be able to spend time with Denise, but the thought vanished like the Red Sox’s chances in September. Turn down Denise in favor of Presley? Yeah, right.
    Dave roused himself and hefted the cooler up higher in his arms. He supposed that he shouldn’t have been disappointed. After all, he barely knew the woman, and so he was no worse off than he had been before, right? He would just have to drop off the meat and make the best of it, finding someone else to sit with. He wondered if there was a cooler around somewhere with beer in it. He drew in a bracing breath and began his determined walk past Denise, Todd, and Presley, just as if nothing were wrong.
    No such luck. “Whatcha got in the cooler, Dave?” Presley’s loud, nasal voice called out as he walked by O’Connor’s light blue blanket. Turning his head, he saw that she’d stepped out of O’Connor’s arms and was now walking towards him.
    He gave the heavy cooler another boost in his arms. “Meat for the cookout. Paul asked me to carry it.” He looked around bleakly. “Now I just