How To Bring Your Love Life Back From The Dead Read Online Free Page B

daze.
Actors jumping out at her received a very delayed reaction. Her
brain was going ninety miles per hour along with her heart. We
kissed. We kissed, and it was amazing. This was amazing. It was
everything I’ve ever wanted. My twenty-one year old version of me
was right.
    The thirty-one year old kept trying
to stall her, to delay her from putting her whole heart on the
line. It’s crazy. It’s too soon. There has to be something wrong
with him. There has to be. He is too good to be
true.
    “Can I ask you something?” They were
outside the haunted house and walking side-by-side, really close.
That was something. You could always measure attraction with
proximity. He’d been quiet, but he hadn’t pulled away. And he might
be thinking about that kiss too. That’s why he wasn’t talking. If
you were close to someone, the silences were never
awkward.
    “Sure,” he said.
    “I have this party with friends on
Halloween. I was wondering if you’d go as my date.”
    He hesitated, but then smiled. “Is
it a costume party?”
    Oh, that’s why he hadn’t agreed
right away. For one awful second, she thought he was going to say
no. Maybe this whole night, she’d been wrong about him, and he
wasn’t as interested in her as she was in him. It was stupid to
think that. He’d been just as into that kiss as she had been, and
there was the proximity thing. No, he was definitely
interested.
    “Some people wear costumes, but we
wouldn’t have to if you’re absolutely against them.”
    “I’m not. I’ll go with you. Were you
really going as a zombie?”
    “I was thinking maybe I would. It
seems easy enough. I’m not big into huge, elaborate
costumes.”
    “Okay.”
    This night was perfect. It was as if
nothing could go wrong—which was terrifying—this was usually when
the bottom dropped out, when she found out that she shouldn’t trust
her heart because she attracted insane men. He was too good, too
nice. This date had been too magical. It was all “too”
much.
    It would happen anytime
now.
    Anytime.
    Daniel slid his hand into hers and
smiled down at her. Or not. Maybe not.
     

Standing in front of the door,
Daniel got his key out, but he stopped with it in the keyhole. “I
need to tell you something, Lauren.”
    She’d been at his side, joking about
walking him to his door, but at this, her heart sank, and she took
a few steps back. “You know, there are no conversations starting
with those words that are good news.” No, this had happened before.
She got all excited about a guy—to the point that he seemed almost
superhuman in her eyes, and then he proved without a doubt, he was
most definitely human. Never to this degree of course, but that
should have told her the end would be a harder fall. “Please tell
me that you’re not married.”
    “Well, that’s part of it, but….” He
grabbed for her hand as she backed up, but she danced out of reach,
holding her hands up.
    It hurt so bad it stole her breath.
“No. No. No. No. I should be put in a psychiatric program for women
who are psychotically bad at picking men.” What was in her profile
on the dating site that only attracted crazy men? She dug through
her purse for her keys.
    “No, I’m not married. Not
anymore.”
    She froze in the act of hunting for
the keys which seemed to have dropped to the bottom of her bag.
“What does not anymore mean?”
    “I was married, but she died…two
years ago. She’d had a heart condition her whole life, and it was
expected, but.… I just….” He dragged a hand down his face. “You
were my first attempt at dating again, and Nadia would have wanted
me to start dating. I thought I was ready.”
    She hurt worse than moments ago when
she’d thought he wanted her, but he was married and having a
conscience attack. Now, he was being noble even though he was
available, and it stung like hell, but how could she ask a widower
to jump back into dating if he wasn’t ready?
    “But you’re not ready?”
    “I