Worth the Weight by Mara Jacobs Read Free Book Online Page A

in his voice, “Come on Liz, it’s just two old friends talking. You, what?”
    “I’d go home pent up, and I didn’t even know how to take care of myself like you did.” He slowly smiled , but was blown away when she added, “Then.”
    The thought of Liz taking care of business herself made his cock jerk. Damn, but he’d like to see that.
    Slow down, boy, don’t scare her off.
    “So, wait, let’s back up,” she said. He dragged his mind from the image forming of Liz on white cotton sheets, her black hair a stark contrast on the pillow, her hands moving down her own body as he watched.
    “Back up where?”
    “You said you broke up with me because I was about to sleep with you. I grudgingly acknowledge that’s true. So why break up with me, you were about to hit the jackpot.”
    “I never thought of your virginity as some prize to win, like a stuffed animal at some carnival game.”
    She raised an eyebrow, in disbelief.
    “Well, okay, maybe I did.”
    She gave him a small smile. “So why , then ?”
    “I don’t know? I guess I had some misguided notion that you’d hate me later. Or that I’d be bringing you down to my level or something. You’d just turned eighteen… w hat can I say, I was a twenty-year-old kid! I was totally fucked up.”
    She took that in and slowly nodded. She seemed to understand. Or she was letting the point go for now, he wasn’t sure which. He decided to get clear of these dangerous waters before he went down a final time. She must have thought the same thing, because she was the one who ultimately changed the subject.
    “Is your grandmother still living?”
    He nodded while he took another swig of his beer. “Yes. She’s getting up there, but you’d never know it from her attitude. She’s a great lady, I owe her more than I’ll ever be able to repay.” His voice turned soft, almost tender, as it always did when he spoke of Gran.
    “I always liked her.”
    “She liked you too .”
    “We only met a couple of times.” She seemed dubious.
    “She liked you. She thought you were good for me.” There was a long pause as they both let that sink in.
    “So, what have you been doing these past eighteen years ? You were going to State, right?”
    She nodded as she drank from the beer bottle and he was again mesmerized by the sight of her moist lips wrapped around the head of the long neck bottle. He shifted in his seat and put his napkin in his lap.
    After she swallowed she answered him. “Yes. State. I lived with Alison and Katie.” At his blank look she elaborated, “They were with me at the movie the other night?” He nodded in comprehension and motioned for her to go on as he took a drink from his beer. “I got my degree in Communications, moved to Detroit, where I got on with a Public Relations firm. Four years later I opened my own firm. It’s doing pretty well.”
    He put his bottle down, sat back and said, “That’s it?”
     

 
    Chapter Four
    √ Leave Petey another voice mail
    √ Email Zeke
    √ Call Sybil
     
    Lizzie was slightly miffed. How dare he reduce her life’s work to “that’s it?” How could this guy possibly know what kind of courage and determination it had taken her to break free from the stability of an established firm and hang her own shingle?
    But then, what did she expect from a guy who’s main job consisted of scraping candy off  theater floors. No, that wasn’t fair. There was obviously more to Finn ’s story.
    But for now the spotlight was on her.
    “Well, I’d hardly say ‘that’s it’. Opening my own firm was a pretty risky step. I did have some friends who I knew would come on board as clients, but still...” S he was cut off as he held up his hand for her to stop.
    “Whoa . I didn’t mean to diminish your professional achievements. I’m not surprised that you’re doing well for yourself. In fact, I would have been surprised at anything less than you owning your own business. The ‘that’s it’ meant you