If We Lived Here Read Online Free PDF Page A

paint colors? I’ve seen this gorgeous Robin’s Egg swatch that I think would be great for the bedroom, seems very you and Nick. I’ll bring it this weekend.”
    “Annie, slow down. First of all, you are not bringing paint swatches for my apartment to your own wedding. Secondly, how do you know all this stuff?”
    “Oh, Mrs. C and I got to chatting. We have a lot in common. We both prefer the Whitney over MoMA and we both want to be best friends with the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey —no offense to my real bestie. Mrs. Caroline seems like she really cares about you guys. She was so interested. I think you’re a shoo-in.”
    “I knew you could charm her.” This is why Emma loved Annie, because as impossible as she could be, she would also do anything for a friend. Emma spotted the hostess and, covering her speaker, whispered, “Yes, Emma Feit. Five veggie, six lamb.”
    “Ems, you are not eating meatballs three days before my wedding, are you? That dress of yours is skintight.”
    “I plead the Fifth.”
    “ Blerg . Okay, enjoy your greasy dinner. Kindly go for a run afterward. Ta-ta!”
    Back home Emma found Nick crouched over a notepad. “So I concede that you won either way,” he said, “but with our superior version of point scoring, you only beat me by thirty-two, instead of the sixty-eight-point slaughtering you delivered with traditional scoring.”
    “ Only thirty-two, huh?” Emma kissed Nick on the forehead and dug into the take-out bag.
    Together Emma and Nick had developed what they thought was a fairer way to score Scrabble. Based on facility of use and frequency of appearance, they believed that Qs and Zs should be worth eight, not ten, points; that Cs should be four, not three; that Ys should be five, not four; and that Us should be two, not one. They disagreed only on the V; Emma thought it should be five, but Nick felt it was aptly weighted at four points. For her twenty-ninth birthday last year, Nick had designed Emma a poster of their scoring (he valued the V at 4.5), framed it, and hung it above her bed. Emma was so touched that she’d insisted on showing off the poster to everyone who came over. Most people deemed it super-sweet or super-dorky. Except Emma’s brother and his wife, that is.
    “Oh, we used to have board game nights, didn’t we, Max?” Alysse, Emma’s sister-in-law, had remarked during a visit. “Gin rummy and Monopoly.” Those games aren’t at all like Scrabble, Emma had thought but not said. “That was before we had real responsibilities, of course.”
    “Well, I think it’s cute that you guys spend so much time playing games,” Max had added, patting Emma’s head like she was a puppy instead of his younger sister. “It’s whimsical.” The implication seemed to be that the way she spent her time was insubstantial, and Emma had fumed. Her brother often managed to diminish whatever she felt proud of or excited about. That memory still gave Emma a twinge.
    “You know,” Nick said now, reaching for his dinner, “I think our point system has subconsciously affected my play. Whenever I recalculate the score using our version I always come out ahead.”
    “So that’s your excuse, huh?” Emma dug into a lamb meatball, and with mouth full, added, “How many more times do you think I’ll hear from Annie tonight?”
    As if on cue, her phone rang. She swiped it open and, still chewing, said, “Annie, I told you we’d figure it all out tomorrow.”
    “Excuse me, Emma?”
    Emma nearly choked on her food. “Oh, Mrs. Goldstein, I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else. How are you this evening?” Ever the professional, Emma had all her clients’ voices memorized. It was important to let the Hellis know how much she valued them. She chastised herself for being so careless.
    “Good. Well, listen, we have somewhat of a doozy on our hands. We just received Isaac’s fall course schedule, and he got Mr. Trundle for A.P. World.”
    “I see.” Emma had