The Name of the Game by Jennifer Dawson Read Free Book Online Page A

seemed the kind thing to do.
    Despite what his family believed, he’d seen her numerous times since the breakup, although it had been a while. Not so long that he didn’t recognize her flirting, or the way her lashes fluttered at him. If he chose, tonight after dinner, he could go to her house and she’d let him in. They’d go to bed and the sex would be great. They’d talk and laugh. Share stories about students and colleagues. Discuss papers they’d written and fall right back into the old rhythms of their relationship. But, in the morning, he still wouldn’t look at her the right way, and he wouldn’t be able to explain why, any better than the first time.
    â€œNot true,” Gracie said, stirring him from his thoughts. “You freaked out at me.”
    James turned to the woman who was equal parts nightmare and fantasy. “I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.”
    Gracie shook her head, her curls flying. “You were definitely mad.”
    â€œYou provoked me.” Mad wasn’t the right word. She frustrated him. He’d never been attracted to someone he had nothing in common with. Who disliked him so intensely. How could he barely be in the same room with her without an argument, and still want her?
    She sighed, a deep, resigned sound. “Yeah, I did and I’m sorry.”
    Surprise lit through him. Had he heard her right? From the corner of his vision he could see the two couples watching them with rapt attention. He shrugged. “I might have overreacted a little.”
    â€œI pushed,” she said, a smile flirting over her lips. She tilted her head toward the couples. “Maybe, for the sake of the lovebirds, we could call a truce?”
    It had been his goal all day, so why didn’t it sit well with him? He nodded. “I’d like that.”
    Their gazes locked, and a glimmer of something passed between them, before she jerked her attention away and picked up her menu. “It’s settled then. What’s good here?”
    As usual, everyone started talking at once.
    James returned to his own menu, scanning the items, not really paying attention to the food or the conversation. Her desire to call a truce sat like a thorn in his side. He’d accomplished what he’d set out to do this morning, but at an unwelcome cost.
    The truth.
    A part of him liked how she baited him, because deep down he’d wanted to believe it meant something. When he’d stayed behind to talk to Lindsey, it hadn’t been to catch up with her. He’d wanted to see if Gracie might get jealous.
    Lindsey was a beautiful woman, and he couldn’t deny he’d wanted Gracie to see that he wasn’t quite the geek she thought he was. That, while she believed he sat in his basement playing World of Warcraft , in reality he was as capable as any other man of landing a pretty girl.
    But, as with all his plans with Gracie, it had backfired. While she seemed interested in his relationship with Lindsey, and her barb about Lindsey’s name rang with a hint of jealousy, she now wanted to drop the hostility. After being nice to Gracie all day, now that she’d met Lindsey she wanted to call a truce. He pondered what it meant. Why did she have to be such a difficult read? He didn’t have this kind of trouble with other women. In fairness, with another woman, he’d ask her to explain and expect a straightforward answer. An option not available to him and the vexing Gracie, where every conversation, no matter how simple, turned into a raging fight.
    So, with direct communication off the table, he could only apply the Occam’s razor principle to derive the most logical conclusion. Gracie, like him, wished he’d meet someone, thereby rendering their chemistry moot. Thus, when she met Lindsey, she’d determined James no longer posed a threat and she could therefore relax.
    It was the simplest, most straightforward reason.
    He