At First Sight Read Online Free PDF Page A

statement with the word.
“It’s about time we get to finally meet your fiancée!”
“So what have you and your fiancée been doing?”
“Don’t you think you should get your fiancée something to drink?”’
His brothers, on the other hand, hung back and avoided the word completely.
“So you and Lexie, huh?”
“Has Lexie enjoyed her trip so far?”
“Fill me in on how you and Lexie met.”
It must be a woman thing, Jeremy decided, since he, like his brothers, had yet to use the word. He wondered whether he could do a column about it, before deciding his editor would probably pass, claiming that it wasn’t quite serious enough for Scientific American. This from a guy who loved articles about UFOs and Bigfoot. Even though he’d agreed to allow Jeremy to continue writing his columns for the magazine from Boone Creek, Jeremy wouldn’t miss him.
Jeremy rubbed his arms as his father flipped one of the steaks. His nose and ears had turned red in the cold. “Hand me that plate, would you? Your mom left it on the rail over there. The hot dogs are just about done.”
Jeremy grabbed the plate and returned to his father’s side. “You know it’s pretty cold out here, right?”
“This? It’s nothing. Besides, the coals keep me warm.”
His father, one of the last of a dying breed, still used charcoal. For Christmas one year, Jeremy had purchased a gas grill, but it ended up gathering dust in the garage until his brother Tom finally asked if he could have it.
His father started piling hot dogs on the plate.
“I haven’t had the chance to talk to her much, but Lexie seems like a nice young lady.”
“She is, Pop.”
“Ah, well, you deserve it. I never did like Maria very much,” he said. “Right from the get-go, she struck me as wrong somehow.”
“You should have told me.”
“Nah. You wouldn’t have listened. You always knew everything, remember?”
“How did Mom like Lexie? Yesterday at lunch?”
“She liked her. Thought she would be able to keep you in line.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“Coming from your mother? That’s about the best you’re gonna get.”
Jeremy smiled. “Do you have any advice?”
His father set aside the plate before finally shaking his head. “Nah. You don’t need any advice. You’re all grown up. You make your own decisions now. And besides, there’s not much I could tell you. I’ve been married for almost fifty years, and there are times when I still don’t have any idea what makes your mother tick.”
“That’s comforting.”
“You get used to it.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, maybe there is one thing I could tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“Two things, actually. Number one, don’t take it personally if she gets angry. We all get angry, so don’t let it get to you.”
“And number two?”
“Call your mother. A lot. She’s been crying every day since she found out you were moving. And don’t pick up one of those southern accents, either. She wouldn’t tell you this, but she had trouble understanding Lexie sometimes.”
Jeremy laughed. “I promise.”
“It wasn’t so bad, was it?” Jeremy asked
Hours later, they were on the way back to the Plaza. With his apartment in disarray, Jeremy had decided to splurge on a hotel room their last night in town.
“It was wonderful. You’ve got a special family. I can see why you didn’t want to move away.”
“I’ll still see them quite a bit, whenever I have to check in at the magazine.”
She nodded. As they headed into the city, she stared at the skyscrapers and the traffic, marveling at how large and busy everything seemed. Though she’d lived in New York City before, she’d forgotten the crowds, the massive height of the buildings, the noise. So different from where they would live now, another world entirely. The entire population of Boone Creek was probably less than the number of people on a single city block.
“Are you going to miss the city?”
He gazed out the window before