Diving In (Open Door Love Story) Read Online Free PDF

canvas tool bag and moving it out of Gabe’s path.
    Gabe rolls forward between two concrete parking thingies and up onto the sidewalk. He puts his hand on the handle and pushes the door inward, easily rolling into the store.
    “Success!” he says, backing out. “Now you’ll never be able to get rid of me.”
    “Good,” I say.
    Mr. Riley raises his eyebrow at me. I can’t say the gesture is unwarranted.
    “See, Dad,” Gabe says, saving me, “having a kid in a chair does have its advantages. I totally scored you free dry cleaning for life.”
    “Thanks, Brynn, but that’s not necessary.”
    “You should probably bring it up with your wife first before you turn my offer down, Mr. Riley.”
    He chuckles. “Smart woman.”
     

     
    Chapter Five
     
     
     
    I’m going through the motions of the Thursday closing procedures, paying extra attention to everything because Thursday is the day Mom checks up on me to make sure I’m doing things the Perfect Kathleen Garrett Way. She’s sifting through my receipts, mmhming and generally putting me on edge. Another thing that’s the Perfect Kathleen Garrett Way.
    Mom abruptly stops ruffling through the papers and I can feel her glaring at the side of my head. “Why didn’t you charge Melissa Riley for her tablecloth?”
    My face heats and I panic, blurting, “You said I should take care of it, remember, for the door problem with Gabe?”
    She purses her lips. “That’s not the way I remember it. I believe I begrudgingly let you give them a one-time twenty percent discount – because you’d already offered it without permission.”
    “Well,” I say, still avoiding making eye contact with her, “you also said you’d call Landon and you didn’t, so I tried to fix the door myself and broke it and Gabe’s dad came out and fixed it for us. I think that warrants free dry cleaning.” I’m not about to tell her that it’s for life. For someone who considers herself a truthful person, I’m doing a whole lot of lying lately.
    “Uh huh, and you,” I finally get a good look at Mom and her nostrils are flaring, “clocked out early? Why in God’s name would you close the store early?”
    I stand up straight and throw my shoulders back, pretending courage. “There weren’t any more tickets left, so I went for a ride with Gabe in his van. You should be happy I have a friend, Mom. You always wanted me to be more social.”
    She does her eye roll/hard sigh. “Yes, with certain people, Brynn. Not … a disgraced boy in a wheelchair! Did anyone see you out with him?”
    “I don’t know!” I shake the trash bag I’m pulling out of the trashcan by the door extra hard and a flurry of closed tickets fall on the floor. “Shit.” I bend down and start stuffing them back into the bag, when a horn honks outside. I don’t look up to see Gabe waving, as I know he’ll do because that’s what he’s done the last two days. I look at my mom instead.
    She shakes her head no. “Brynn, it’s nice of you to want to have a project, but Gabe isn’t a suitable person for you to be involved with.”
    I hate her. I hate her so much. She doesn’t have a scrap of mothering in her. “Like Dani isn’t suitable for Liam?”
    Mom clucks her tongue. “That’s not fair! I don’t know what I did to deserve such ungrateful children. I thought you were on a better track than your brother, wanting to stay home and learn the business, but here you are, just like him, courting the different and socially unacceptable.”
    I do look at Gabe now, and he tentatively waves to me and then turns his hands in a what’s up gesture. He’s not that different and he’s definitely socially acceptable and I realize I wouldn’t care if he wasn’t either. I like spending time with him doing nothing and I haven’t had that experience before.
    I drop the trash bag back into the can – I can deal with it in the morning, it’s not unsightly or smelly or anything – and go over to the computer.