Uninhibited (Unlikely Lovers) by Cheryl Brooks Read Free Book Online

old self again, filled with energy and desire—even vacuuming her house without trying to talk herself out of it.
    The cause was a mystery. Kathy’s story wasn’t the only thing she’d laughed about in months. Had she eaten anything different? Were the planets in better alignment, or was it simply a delayed reaction to meeting Alan? Maybe she was finally getting into the Christmas spirit. She had no idea, but it was real, and it stayed with her.
    Now if I could only find Alan’s number...
    Sure, he was a little strange, but she’d liked him, and he was cute, in a scruffy sort of way. Then there was the prospect of sex. Being with a man who wanted that much sex would certainly be fun—even challenging. She might even be able to make up for lost time.
    Unfortunately, c atching him when he got another craving for ice cream was akin to winning the lottery. She’d had her chance, and she’d blown it. Still, there was always the mysterious Mitch. Perhaps they would meet at the office party, fall madly in love, and live happily ever after. Stranger things had happened to even stranger people. There was still hope.
    And there was the phone book ! Snatching it up, she flipped to the J’s. He should be easy to find. Alan Paul Ryan John. How could there possibly be more than one?
    Unfortunately, there were none—at least, according to the phone book. He was either unlisted or one of the many people who only had a cell phone.
    If I’d only told him my name.
    After a bit more fruitless searching, she wound up calling her mother.
    “I hear you’re going to Jamaica ,” Emily began—though without the proper degree of enthusiasm.
    “ We got the most amazing deal,” her mother exclaimed. “We simply couldn’t pass it up.”
    “That’s wonderful .” Once again, she sounded less than enthused. “When are you leaving?”
    “The twentieth . I thought we might have our Christmas get-together when we come back on the twenty-eighth.”
    “Janice seemed to think we’d be doing Christmas without you.”
    Her mother let out a snort. “I’m not surprised. Honestly, ever since all that crap with Ned and the hooker, she’s been so melodramatic.”
    “Hooker ? The little slut puppy was a hooker ?”
    “ That’s the way I heard it—although my information might not be accurate.”
    K nowing her mother, Emily suspected she’d gotten her info from the hooker. “Janice seemed to think she was Ned’s girlfriend.”
    “ That’s bullshit. Janice was picking him up downtown one night, and some hooker was all over him, soliciting. Trust me, Emily. It was nothing.”
    “I must have missed that part —maybe Janice did too. She was making a big stink about it—even wanted me to tell Ned she’d been screwing Jeremy’s math teacher.”
    “Is she really?”
    “Well, no —at least, I don’t think she is.” Then again, she might have been jumping all over Ned to keep herself from looking bad.
    “If you ask me, she should stay home and screw Ned now and then. It might solve a few of their problems.”
    Emily chuckled. “That’s what I told her.”
    “All that running around, doing stuff for everyone except her own family. Poor Mandy went out with a group to a football game the other night. Janice was supposed to meet them at Steak ’n Shake afterwards to pick her up. She was late, and Mandy was embarrassed because everyone else was getting milkshakes, and she didn’t have any money. She was being silly, of course, but you know how those young teenagers are. If Janice had been thinking at all, she’d have given Mandy some money to spend before she left home. The poor girl was crying in the restroom, and the other mothers kept going in to check on her, trying to find out what her problem was.”
    In Emily’s opinion, Mandy had always been too sensitive for her own good, although everyone had flaws. “I’m sure Janice got her squared away in no time—or thought she did.”
    “ The poor kid will probably be scarred for