Christmas Letters Read Online Free PDF Page B

already assured me of that.” She studied her watch, gently dislodged Phillip and stood. “You’ll need to leave right away. The reservation’s under my name,” she said and ushered them out the door.
    Before she could protest or comment, K.O. found herself standing in the hallway with Wynn Jeffries, her dinner date.

Chapter

4
     
    I f nothing else, K.O. felt this dinner would afford her the opportunity to learn about Wynn. Well, that and an exceptional dining experience, of course. Something in his background must have prompted a child-rearing ideology that in her opinion was completely impractical and threatened to create a generation of spoiled, self-involved brats. Although she didn’t have children of her own, K.O. had seen the effect on her nieces ever since Zelda had read that darn book. She was astonished by how far her sister had been willing to go in following the book’s precepts, and wondered if Zach understood the full extent of Zelda’s devotion to The Free Child. Her brother-in-law was quite the workaholic. He was absorbed in his job and often stayed late into the evenings and worked weekends.
    Chez Jerome was only a few blocks from Blossom Street, so K.O. and Wynn decided to walk. She retrieved a full-length red wool coat from her condo while Wynn waited outside the building. The moment she joined him, she was hit by a blast of cold air. A shiver went through her, and she hunched her shoulders against the wind. To her surprise, Wynn changed places with her, walking by the curb, outside the shelter of the buildings, taking the brunt of the wind. It was an old-fashioned gentlemanly action and one she hadn’t expected. To be fair, she didn’t know what to expect from him. With that realization came another. He didn’t know her, either.
    They didn’t utter a single word for the first block.
    “Perhaps we should start over,” she suggested.
    Wynn stopped walking and regarded her suspiciously. “You want to go back? Did you forget something?”
    “No, I meant you and me.”
    “How so?” He kept his hands buried in the pockets of his long overcoat.
    “Hello,” she began. “My name is Katherine O’Connor, but most people call me K.O. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
    He frowned. “We did earlier,” he said.
    “This is pretend.” Did the man have to be so literal? “I want you to erase this morning from your memory and pretend we’re meeting for the first time.”
    “What about drinks at LaVonne’s? Should I forget that, too?”
    “Well.” She needed to think this over. That hadn’t been such a positive experience, either. “Perhaps it would be best,” she told him.
    “So you want me to act as if this is a blind date?” he asked.
    “A blind date,” she repeated and immediately shook her head. “I’ve had so many of those, I need a seeing eye dog.”
    He laughed, and the sound of it was rich and melodious. “Me, too.”
    “You?” A man this attractive and successful required assistance meeting women?
    “You wouldn’t believe how many friends have a compulsion to introduce me to the woman of my dreams. ”
    “My friends say the same thing. This is the man you’ve been waiting to meet your entire life. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s a disaster.”
    “Really? Even you?” He seemed a little shocked that she’d had help from her matchmaking friends.
    “What do you mean even you? ”
    “You’re blond and beautiful—I thought you were joking about those blind dates.”
    She swallowed a gasp of surprise. However, if that was the way he saw her, she wasn’t going to argue.
    He thrust out his hand. “Hello, Katherine, my name is Jim Carrey.”
    She laughed and they shook hands. They continued walking at a leisurely pace, and soon they were having a lively conversation, exchanging dating horror stories. She laughed quite a few times, which was something she’d never dreamed she’d do with Wynn Jeffries.
    “Would you mind if I called you Katherine?” he