Still the One by Robin Wells Read Free Book Online Page A

she’d probably end up getting hurt all over again.
    “No, I couldn’t. You’ve met Gracie. She’s like a force of nature.”
    “But you never wanted children. Or any kind of commitment, for that matter.”
    “I believe in doing the honorable thing.” Actually, he believed in being the exact opposite of his own father, who had been
     a liar and a cheater and who’d never shown the slightest interest in him as a child. “How about you? Are you in?”
    “Of course I’m in! You already knew it would never be a question.”
    He did. But it was good to hear it, all the same.
    She stared out at the rain. “I hope Gracie will warm up to me.”
    Zack studied Katie’s profile, taking in her small straight nose and the freckles dusted over it, and felt an old tenderness
     waft through him. He steeled himself against it. Getting close to her would just end badly, like before. She was a vine-covered-cottage,
     white-picket-fence kind of girl, and he didn’t believe in happily-ever-afters. From what he’d seen, the phrase “I love you”
     was just a manipulative tool, a way to get someone to do something for you. Love was nothing more than a gussied-up word for
     lust. It didn’t last. Attraction faded and degenerated into insecurities and bickering. Romance happened, fell apart, and
     dissolved.
    Love was like heaven—if it really existed, it wasn’t for people like him. He didn’t even believe in it. But Katie did, and
     he hoped she could find it with Gracie.
    “Of course she will,” he told her.
    After all, who could help but warm up to Katie?

C HAPTER FOUR

    The balding man at the front of the bookstore peered over the wire-rimmed reading glasses low on his nose when Gracie stepped
     inside. “Can I help you find anything?”
    “No. I just want to look around.”
    Gracie made her way down the narrow aisle of bookshelves, her stomach churning, her thoughts spinning about the woman she’d
     just left in the café. So that was her birth mom—her B.M. Appropriate initials, Gracie thought dourly, considering the shitty
     way Katie had discarded her.
    That letter made it sound like Katie had loved her and cared about her, but Gracie didn’t believe it. Katie had probably written
     it to relieve her own conscience. Well, Gracie wasn’t buying it. She’d spent a lifetime wondering why her B.M. had given her
     up, and one tearjerker of an I’m-so-noble, I’m-giving-you-away-for-your-own-good letter wasn’t going to make everything all
     right. She’d spent too many years thinking she was somehow secretly flawed, that something about her just wasn’t good enough.
    Her mom—her real mom—had told her that being adopted meant she was special—that she was chosen and wanted and prayed for and
     loved more than other kids. Gracie had never really bought that bull, either. It was just a bunch of empty words meant to
     make her feel less pathetic. What she really believed, deep down, was that she was unlovable. Why else would her birth mother
     give her away?
    The rejection had always gnawed at her. Whenever Gracie asked her parents why her bio mom hadn’t kept her, her real mom’s
     mouth would get all pinched and tight, and she’d say something like, “I don’t know. There’s certainly no way under heaven
     that
I
could ever give you away. As far as I’m concerned, you’re my daughter, and that other woman was just a vessel.”
    Gracie had spent an awful lot of time thinking about her vessel—wondering what she looked like, what she did, if she had any
     other kids. After her real parents had died, though, her curiosity had made her feel ashamed. Wondering about her birth parents—especially
     her B.M.—seemed like a betrayal or something.
    Well, one thing was for certain: She wasn’t going to get all close and friendly with Katie. How could she cozy up to someone
     who’d basically said, “I don’t want you in my life”? She intended to treat her with the contempt she deserved.
    Meeting her