Love: Classified Read Online Free PDF Page A

the benefit of the doubt and I think you should too.”
         “Will you call me in half an hour or so?” I begged. “And if I don’t answer, send the police!”
         Peta laughed. “Of course I’ll ring. But I know you’ll be fine. You’ll know pretty quickly if you’ll be able to get along with him. You’re good at assessing people. Anyway, he can’t kidnap you, can he? ”
         I grinned wryly. “No. He can hardly toss me over his shoulder and carry me off, that’s for sure.”
         “Good luck, kid. I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Peta said. She sounded more stressed than usual and added, “I have to go now. I’m sorry. Bree’s planning a party. She wants to invite boys ; I don’t. She wants it to go until midnight; I say ten-thirty as it’s a week night. She wanted to be allowed alcohol; I say, no way. You know, for the first time since she was born, I wish her father was here. Having a man around would certainly make it easier. But I doubt Josh can even remember her name. Anyway, you can imagine the battle we’re having. Teenagers! I tell you!”
         “Poor Pete ,” I sympathised. “What you’re going through makes my problem seem insignificant. Why don’t you contact Josh? Maybe it’s time he got involved with his daughter. She’s too much of a handful for one parent.”
         “You’re right. Maybe I will. I’ll think about it.”
         “I’ll let you go Pete. I can hear Danny wanting your attention.”
         “Yeah. He’s got some new pix and some ideas for how to use them to make them look even more scrumptious. He’s got summer desserts to die for. Chocolate and raspberry roulade. Classic trifle. But you don’t want to hear about You! I promise to call you soon, but in the meantime, relax. Try to enjoy it. You love people. And I’d rather have your problem than mine right now.”
     
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” came the untroubled, chocolatey voice.
         I spun around in the driver’s seat, the bright morning sun in my eyes, realising suddenly that the back end of my precious powder blue Micra was less than a centimeter away from careering into the side of some kind of big stationary vehicle rumbling away in the street behind me.
         I was about to whiz up to the deli for milk as there was still about a quarter of an hour before Magnus was due to arrive. Once the milk was in the fridge I was going to spend the rest of the time finding something halfway decent to wear.
         “You can’t park there,” I shouted back. “You haven’t given me enough room to reverse out of my own driveway.”
         “This is your driveway?” he demanded, leaning from the driver’s window.
         The voice sounded dangerously familiar but I put it down to my lively imagination.
         “As it happens, yes. Now please get out of my way. I’ve got to rush off somewhere.”
         “Are you Virginia?”
         It hit me that this was indeed Magnus. Fuck. I had no milk. And I was in the worst clothes I owned, the ones I gardened in. What was I going to do?
         I drove forward into the carport and turned off the ignition, feeling as if I might throw up. His first impression of me was going to be the worst impression possible. I caught a glimpse of the vehicle – his camper van – being manoeuvred behind the Micra and my stomach lurched with apprehension. This was the man who’d placed the ad. He was the weirdo I’d been dreading. In my daggy clothes I was too embarrassed to get out of the car to greet him, but I knew I couldn’t stay where I was, gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles were white.
          In the rear-view mirror, I saw that he was climbing down from his van. He was tall, lean, heart-stoppingly good-looking. He could’ve been George Clooney with a face that might have been hewn by a master craftsman from a chunk of Italian marble. The shivery sensations that I’d