Spinning by Michael Baron Read Free Book Online

known each other for 50 years never remarried. He already had the boy and wanted to spend more time in the office. And that’s why you’re joining us for dinner tonight.”
    I wasn’t sure if it was my turn to talk and I went after the wine to delay.

    “We’re having dinner tonight because the Mrs. and I like to spend the afternoon with the grandkids. Can’t do it during the week because that’s when we’re busy. We make time for our families. We know what’s important.”
    “And we like children.”
    Waverly smiled. “Yes, children. Children keep our minds creative. If we cannot perceive our environment like children, we die.”
    Mrs. Waverly leaned toward me. “Any prospects?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Any serious lady friends?”
    I hesitated, but completely unbidden an image of me with Diane and Spring in the park jumped into my head.
    “You’re prying, dear,” Waverly said. “Gotta draw the line somewhere.”
    For a moment, Mrs. Waverly appeared chastened.
    Waverly switched direction. “You’re a director for Mason, Brand, and Partners?”
    “Executive Director.”
    Mr. Waverly nodded and then stood up, signifying that our dinner was over. “By the way, although you snaked the Crystal Creek deal away from us, we were impressed.” Waverly helped his wife up. “I assume you would like to keep the lines of communication open between us.”
    “I’d like that, sir,” I said, shaking their hands. I felt a little off balance, but it had nothing to do with being courted for a bigger position.
    As I walked away, I was still wondering why Diane came so easily to mind when Mrs. Waverly mentioned “lady friends.”

Chapter 3
    Delighting in Making Me Feel Uncomfortable
    Despite the Waverlys’ offer to join them in their limo, I had decided to walk home from the restaurant. They had built their company around a philosophy a bazillion years old. Things had changed in every way imaginable. When I was growing up, my mom had said that someday I’d understand why we waited sometimes an extra hour or two for my dad to get home from work before we ate dinner. I resented everything about this and wouldn’t want anyone to go through that for me. How could I possibly raise a family and have the kind of career that I had?
    What’s Waverly’s deal with family, anyway?
    By the time my old man had been just a little older than me, he had two kids. My brother, Scotty, is ten years older than I am. Ten years was too much of an age gap to bridge, so we were never particularly close. It didn’t help that he always told me I was a mistake. My mom would
watch us while my pop worked his ass off in construction. That’s why I always took school seriously so I wouldn’t have to lose my hearing to a jackhammer. I still work my ass off, but I get paid very well for it and hear just fine.
    Somewhere down the road, I always pictured having kids you know, like the generic kids off a TV show with a 21st century wife. She cooks, she cleans, she negotiates huge sports contracts, and she can identify more than a hundred different types of poisonous plants on a camping trip ideal and utterly imaginary. But when you were where I was, what was the point of compromising? If Waverly wanted me, he was just going to have to deal with my standards.
    The streets were beginning to hum. Normally, I’d go home, grab a 20-minute nap, swing by Jim’s for a primer scotch, and we’d begin our adventures by 11:00 maybe the Magenta, or that new hotspot over on Grand, or maybe both at least when Jim’s kids weren’t over.
    That wasn’t the plan tonight, though. I had company.
    I crossed the street to my apartment and three beautiful women walked in front of me. Completely on instinct, I did the brushing eye contact thing, making sure to touch each of them just for a fraction of a second. This kind of move actually got me some attention in bars, though it had never worked on the street.
    When I made it home, I waved to the security guard. I’d