Sweet Dreams on Center Street Read Online Free PDF

to enjoy every one of
them.”
    â€œYou think you’ll ever get married again?” Heidi asked.
    Charley made a cross with her fingers as if warding off a
vampire. “Bite your tongue.”
    â€œYou might want somebody around to bite yours once in a while.”
Rita laughed. “Or other parts of you.”
    â€œMen are still good for some things,” Elena put in. “In fact,
they’re good for a lot of things. You shouldn’t give up on all of them just
because you got a bad one.”
    â€œYes,” said Lauren, who was dating Joe Coyote, the nicest man
in town.
    â€œWell, when you find a good one, let me know and I’ll take
him—to the cleaner’s.” Charley’s comment made everyone laugh. “Seriously,” she
added, “love’s a gamble, and I’m done gambling.”
    â€œHeck, all of life’s a gamble,” Samantha said.
    Charley gave her a one-armed hug. “You’re right. But I’m going
to make sure the deck’s stacked in my favor, so from now on I’ll just keep men
as friends.”
    â€œFriends with benefits?” Rita teased as they tossed the last of
the paper plates on the embers.
    â€œMaybe.” Charley shrugged. “Who knows what the future holds.
I’m open to anything but marriage.”
    â€œBut don’t you want kids?” Heidi asked.
    Samantha thought of Elena’s handicapped daughter and the baby
Rita had lost last year. Parenthood could be as risky as marriage.
    â€œI don’t need a man to have children,” Charley said. “That’s
why there’s adoption. Meanwhile, you’ll share James, right? I’ll be his Aunt
Charley and spoil him rotten.”
    Baby-sharing. It saved a girl from those pesky little
complications, like men. And childbirth. Still, it wasn’t the same as having a
child of your own.
    As Samantha walked home she had plenty to think about. Did she
ever want to try and have a serious relationship? Her parents had had a great
marriage. It could be done. Every man out there wasn’t a Waldo or a Richard. And
just because she’d picked one Mr. Wrong didn’t mean she couldn’t find Mr. Right.
Although she was beginning to wonder what the odds of that were. She hadn’t
dated anyone since college who even qualified as Mr. Maybe. Sheesh.
    Look at it this way, she told
herself. Your life has nowhere to go but up.
    * * *
    Or not. At the office the next morning Samantha ground
her teeth as she sat at Waldo’s old desk, which was now going to be hers, and
sorted through a mountain of papers in preparation for meeting with Lizzy, who
had, thank God, consented to return. There was the mock-up for their spring
catalog that he’d insisted on looking at three weeks ago and then ignored. And
what did he need with a week’s worth of old newspapers? In another pile she
found several threatening letters from suppliers who hadn’t been paid. She’d
have to start calling them this afternoon, explain about Waldo’s death and beg
for mercy. Oh, and here was a week-old invitation from Cascade Mutual to come to
their open house and meet the new manager, Blake Preston, who, according to the
invite, was anxious to assist her in any way he could.
    Blake Preston? The former football hero of Icicle Falls High?
He’d been four years ahead of her in school and she’d been too young for his
crowd, but it was a small school and everyone knew everyone. He’d winked at her
a few times when they’d passed in the hall, like that was supposed to make her
day. It had.
    Yes, good old Blake had been a player both on and off the
field. But how the heck had he wound up as a bank manager? Banking and football
didn’t exactly go hand in hand.
    She frowned, remembering the jocks she’d shared classes with as
a college business major, not to mention the one she almost married. Guys like
that spent more time studying their