Rolling in the Deep Read Online Free PDF Page A

in the movies who tucks it behind her ear, but since that guy is a macho dickwad, I shove my hands into my pockets instead.
    “Hey.”
    “Hi, Ray.” She pushes the lock of hair out of her face with the back of one hand. “Did Timmy send you here to help with the dolly? I think I can do it myself. If I can push it over that lip in the doorway, I mean.”
    I shake my head. “Nah. I can help you with that lip, though.”
    Sometimes the actual meaning of the words you say doesn’t hit you until they’re already out of your mouth. Holly snorts, thank God, and goes back to stacking. I grab a package of tissue and toss it on the dolly.
    “By the way, I, uh…got the Powerball ticket.”
    Holly brightens. “Whoa, really? You actually did it?”
    “What did you think, I was going to take your dollar and run away?”
    “I don’t know. You could, I guess. Just kind of hide the ticket and then run off with it when you win?”
    “When we win, you mean.” I shift from side to side a few times to get my blood moving in the unheated warehouse. “And no, I’d never run off. You’ll need your winnings to buy a fur coat so you don’t freeze your ass off out here.”
    “There’s a picture.” Holly blows a cloud of dust off the shelf. “Stocking the shelves at Cogmans in a mink coat. You know what, though?” She shakes her head. “Let the minks run free. We’ll say wool coat. That doesn’t hurt the sheep, right?”
    “Don’t think so. But you won’t need to buy a warm coat, because of how you’re gonna move to the tropics. You know, like Costa Rica. You could buy a mansion there and retire.”
    “I don’t speak Spanish.”
    The dolly is almost filled, so I slow down a little, to stretch time out. “I’ll teach you.”
    “Okay. But won’t you be busy driving your yacht around the world?”
    “What is it with people and yachts? Do you get rich and suddenly have to own a giant boat for some reason?”
    Holly smiles. “I think it’s the jaunty captain’s hat. Put that hat on, hold a martini in your hand, and
boom,
you look just like a rich guy.”
    I laugh. “Which is important. Looking the part.”
    “Very.” Holly stills for a moment and looks at me. I read on some website the other day that people in ancient Greece didn’t have a word for the color blue. There’s no mention of it in Greek literature, for example, even though every other color is described in detail. I try to imagine not being able to describe the blue of Holly’s eyes.
    That would be a genuine tragedy.
    “What would you do, really?” I ask her. “With the money, if you won.”
    “If we won, you mean.”
    I grin. “Yeah.”
    “Hmm.” She stares past me, and while she’s thinking, she redoes her ponytail. For a moment her hair falls around her shoulders and I catch the scent of her shampoo. Like she just stepped out of the shower or something. I cough to cover up the sharp breath I take, but she hears it, and pauses with her hands gathering her hair at the back of her neck. She stops and looks at me, and blushes. Which only makes things worse, because now I am imagining my own hands in her hair, the way all that thickness would feel, the way it would feel to grip it in my fingers and kiss her.
    Holly clears her throat and looks down. “Um. I’d probably buy a house, first. For me and my son.”
    “I didn’t know you had a kid.” Doesn’t surprise me that much, though. It explains her seriousness, maybe.
    “Yeah. Drew.” She smiles when she says his name, as though she can’t help herself. But then her smile slips, and she backs away into herself—cautious suddenly.
    “I bet you’d buy him a houseful of toys, too.”
    She hesitates for a moment before she answers. “Maybe a pet elephant. He’s always wanted one.”
    I chuckle. “Haven’t we all? And possibly a forklift, just for fun. For, like, digging in the backyard.”
    She gives me a small smile. “I see you have some experience being a little boy.”
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