Five Minute Man: A Contemporary Love Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

intervention - the corners of her mouth curved down slightly.
    “You don’t like kids?”
    “Hm?” she hummed, her gaze snapping back to his. Clearly he’d been watching close enough to catch the slight frown she hadn’t caught in time. She could add “perceptive” to the mental checklist she was creating in her mind. So far the plus column had a lot more entries than the minus column, which was still shockingly empty. “Oh, no. I love kids. It’s just kind of a sore subject with me.”
    “Why is that?” Adam asked. Normally he was not quite so intrusive right out of the starting gates, but he was determined to find something wrong with her. The sooner, the better, too, because the more time he spent with her, the more he was inclined to possibly overlook some of his prerequisites for ascending to the next level (should it become necessary). Once he started settling, he was in trouble.
    Holly scratched a non-existent spec from her coffee mug with the tip of her well-manicured but practically short nail. It was a few minutes before she glanced up at him with a rueful smile. “I have four siblings – two older, two younger - each of which is married, actively procreating, and professionally employed.”
    Adam shrugged, waiting for the innate alarm built into all single males to sound at the reference to marriage and kids, but it didn’t. Weird. “So?”
    She dropped her eyes again, but not before he caught a flash of something raw and vulnerable. “So... I’m thirty, not married, have a dog instead of kids, and work from my home. In my family’s eyes, that equates to bottom of the ninth, down by a boatload, with a full count and our worst hitter just off injured reserve up to bat. In other words, all but hopeless.”
    The baseball analogy amused him, a not-so-subtle attempt to infuse humor in a subject that was obviously painful for her. Instead of shying away from it, she took it, dressed it up a little, and put it right back out there. “You paint quite a picture.”
    She shrugged, but there was no mistaking the stubborn tilt of her chin or the challenge in her eyes. “No use in sugar coating it. It is what it is.” Then she flashed him a grin. “You seem like a nice enough guy, Adam. You should know what you’re up against.”
    Jesus, he liked this woman. “Forewarned is forearmed?”
    “Exactly,” she beamed, seemingly pleased that he had caught on so quickly. “As innocent as this is, if my family finds out about you, they’ll hold a family meeting – after the shock wears off, of course. There’s nowhere you’ll be able to hide that they won’t find you. They’ll probably try to bribe you. It won’t be pretty.”
    “I take it you don’t go out much.” Adam’s smile grew, reaching his eyes. 
    Holly snorted softly. “Not much, no.”
    Solitude was something he understood very well; it was the reason behind it that interested him. Dare he hope that she, like him, was past all the superficial bullshit with the dating scene? Because nothing else made any sense to him. She was adorable, witty, smart, and didn’t take herself too seriously. What the hell was he missing?
    “Why not?”
    ***
    H olly sat back, an enigmatic smile on her face. Adam was so easy to talk to, to be around. She’d already broken her first cardinal rule - talking about herself and her family issues. Generally speaking, there was no faster way to end an evening. And yet he was still here, looking unfazed and even slightly amused. Most guys would have left skid marks within seconds of hearing words like “marriage” and “kids” from an aging woman well on her way to spinsterhood that they’d just met over coffee. Granted, it was some really great coffee, but still.
    What the hell , she decided. She already liked this guy way more than she should at this point in the game. Best to break out the big guns now and save herself a lot of pain and heartache later. As soon as he found out how she paid her bills,