One Good Turn Read Online Free PDF

listening to the silence that surrounded him. No pounding rock music, no voices, no laughter. Just the sound of loneliness.
    He hadn’t gone back to the party. After Jenny had stalked off in her self-righteous snit, he hadn’t had the desire. He wasn’t sure why he had even gone to the party in the first place; Taylor’s sister Holly had phoned him at work to invite him, and he’d figured attending a party would be no worse than sitting around the apartment, watching TV and drinking his father’s bourbon. Taylor had told Holly and Luke to look after each other that summer, since they were both going to be in D.C. Luke had done his part by taking her out to dinner, and Holly had done her part by informing him of this party being thrown by a group of guys she knew from Dartmouth.
    He’d gone, figuring that if he didn’t Holly would feel obligated to continue inviting him to things—and figuring, as well, that it wouldn’t be a crime to check out some available females. Washington was supposed to be teeming with single women, but in the three weeks since he’d moved into his father’s duplex across the street from Folger Park, he hadn’t met anyone worth a second look.
    Not that he’d knocked himself out trying.
    For some reason, the notion of spending a couple of months in solitude appealed to him. He wasn’t interested in racking up conquests. This was his last summer of freedom; already he could feel the noose tightening around his neck: hustle, hustle. He had no overwhelming urge to hustle for dates along with everything else.
    Come autumn, he’d be facing LSAT’s, law school applications, probably a few rejections—and his father’s wrath, followed by an intense campaign of string-pulling, if the rejections came from the more prestigious schools. James Benning had every intention of seeing his beloved son become a high-power attorney like himself, and ever since Luke’s older brother Elliott had abdicated, Luke had found himself in the unexpected but longed-for position of beloved son.
    He didn’t want to go to law school, but he couldn’t bear to disappoint his father. For the first time in his twenty-one years on the planet, Luke had gotten the old man to notice him. How could he ignore his father’s wishes?
    And yet...
law school
. The very words made him shudder.
    As recently as four years ago, when he’d chosen to attend Princeton rather than his father’s alma mater, Yale, his father hadn’t cared what Luke might choose to do with his life. Elliott was attending Yale, Elliott was being groomed for law school, Elliott had been steered into the right classes, the right secret society, the right summer employment. Elliott had been the heir apparent and Luke had merely been “the other son.”
    The one advantage of being ignored, he realized in retrospect, was that in the days when Elliott had still been on the scene, nobody had interfered with Luke. He could go his own way—even if his way was convoluted and full of false turns—and dream his own dreams.
    Not anymore. Luke was the number one son now. He had a duty to follow his father’s direction and dream his father’s dreams—and at times he came close to convincing himself his father’s dreams could take the place of his own.
    Even so, he couldn’t help but admire Jenny Perrin’s idealism. A school teacher, for God’s sake. The only people who became school teachers were those who lacked the ambition to become something better.
    But Jenny had seemed pleased by her choice and at peace with herself. She’d seemed overjoyed by the prospect of molding children’s minds. It was her serenity and confidence, more than anything else, that had made Luke want to take her to bed.
    Of course, her appearance hadn’t hurt, either. She was a bit small, both in height and physique, but she didn’t look dainty. He’d liked her narrow waist and boyish hips, and her eyes were awfully pretty, wide and almond shaped, sparkling with glints of green