The Look of Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

sleep late, lounge around in bed, and have the day off. Hudson Sherwood reached out to silence the alarm, sighing deeply and remembering the time when he was one of those people. No more.
    Now holidays were just workdays. The Hollywood Haven Hotel was open seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Somebody had to staff the reception desk. Hudson got stuck with it most weekends.
    Once, when he had complained, the hotel manager had shrugged, indifferent and unsympathetic. If Hudson didn’t like the way things were, he could try to get a job elsewhere. The manager knew that it would be easy to get another desk clerk. There were lots more people looking for jobs than there were available positions.
    Hudson didn’t complain again.
    As he showered, he thought about his days at Elysium. The spa had also been open year-round, but that hadn’t kept Hudson from being free on every single holiday. After all, he was the director. It was the staff, the underlings, who had to work on the holidays. Not Hudson.
    Those were the days when he actually had things to do on the holidays. He would fly back east to visit his elderly mother. Or, if he stayed in Los Angeles, there were dinners and parties to attend. Once he lost his position at Elysium, he found that the invitations dried up. He came to realize that the people he’d thought were friends weren’t bothering with him anymore. They had included him because of what he did rather than who he was.
    He turned off the water and grabbed a towel. After drying himself, Hudson wiped the steam from the bathroom mirror. As he shaved, he almost didn’t recognize himself. His sharp features were even more pronounced because of the weight he’d lost. His complexion was pasty. His graying hair was receding more every day.
    He dressed quickly, wincing as he always did when he put on the hotel jacket. A stiff uniform was fine for somebody else, but not for him. Considering his past, it was another indignity to be suffered.
    Going to the kitchen, Hudson poured a bowl of Raisin Bran. He took it to the living room and sat on the sofa. He looked around the apartment. When he purchased it, he had still been working at Elysium. The furnishings reflected that. Nothing but the best. Now some of the upholstered pieces were faded and frayed, and the rooms could use a fresh coat of paint, but basically the place looked pretty good. He loved his apartment. He prayed all the time that he wouldn’t have to sell it.
    He worried about it constantly. He had gone through all his savings. After his mother died, Hudson discovered she’d taken a reverse mortgage on her house, which left only a few thousand dollars’ inheritance. That money, too, went quickly.
    His credit cards were maxed out, and he was friendless and embarrassed about how far he’d fallen. He didn’t belong in Los Angeles anymore. He wasn’t beautiful enough or young enough or connected enough.
    Losing his position at Elysium had started the downward spiral. For a while he’d found work at a less prestigious spa, but he hadn’t been able to conceal his contempt for the place. After a few months, he was fired. The next spa he worked at was even worse.
    When he lost that position, Hudson decided to try fine hotels. But his anger and resentment sabotaged any success and led to still more dismissals.
    Each successive job was another step downward. And for that there was only one person to blame.

Chapter 10
    T he firm knock on the bedroom door was followed by her mother’s call from the hallway. “You better get up, Piper. Robert and Zara are coming for brunch at noon.”
    Piper rolled over and moaned. What a way to start the new year. Zara was her sister-in-law, but she was also one of Piper’s least favorite people. The idea of spending the afternoon with her was unappealing at best, nauseating at worst.
    What did Robert see in that woman? Piper would feel sorry for her older brother if he didn’t seem so inexplicably