Unpredictable Love Read Online Free PDF

signed up for three years and only
half of that had passed—she had plenty of time to figure it
out.
    This new letter` had changed the stakes. The
writing that had started out as a lark, with Jory picking up the
pieces of another Amber mess, had progressed way beyond. Trent had
become much more than a pen pal, and it was time to admit the
truth.
     
    * * * *
     
    Days without letters were
disappointing. She noticed a sluggishness about her gait when the
mailbox was empty. I’m not falling in love
with him. He’s just a friend. A good friend.
    “ Do you know that your appetite is
less when you don’t get a letter from Trent?” Nan said, putting a
mac and cheese casserole on the table.
    “ That can’t be true.”
    “ It is. You’re falling for him, aren’t
you?” Nan pulled out her chair.
    “ Nonsense.” Jory added a healthy
portion to her plate. “Where’s Amber?”
    “ Out with Troy. Fast food for them
tonight.”
    “ She shouldn’t eat that
stuff.”
    “ She’s thin enough. It won’t kill her.
When are you going out with Archie again?”
    Jory’s stomach got queasy at the thought. “I
don’t know. If I get lucky, never.” She shoved the spoon in her
mouth.
    “ Never? You’re finished with him? I
thought you two were an item.”
    “ No one says that anymore. And no, we
never were. Never will be.”
    “ He struts around town like he owns
you.”
    “ Amber says he complains to everyone
that I won’t sleep with him.”
    Nan choked on her food. Jory handed her a
glass of water and patted her on the back.
    “ Do you have to tell me that when I’m
eating?” Nan said, when she regained her breath.
    “ Sorry.”
    “ What are you going to do? One man
here you don’t like, the other over there you do, but he doesn’t
know it’s you.”
    Nan’s succinct spelling out of her dilemma
brought tears to Jory’s eyes. “I don’t know, Nan. I just don’t
know.”
    Her aunt put her arm around the young
woman’s shoulders. Jory cried, hiding her face behind her
napkin.
    “ Hey, kiddo. It’s okay to cry. This is
crazy.”
    “ I need to dump Archie. He keeps
asking me, and I keep turning him down.”
    “ What about your job? Doesn’t he have
influence?”
    “ I don’t know. Maybe I need a new one.
The guy from the Oak Bend Reporter has been calling me. Mac
Caldwell, my old dean from Kensington State, recommended me for
managing editor.”
    “ Why don’t you go for an interview?
Not that I want you to move. But if it’s the best thing, then do
it.”
    “ How will you and Amber get along
without my contribution every month?”
    “ I’ll make Amber get a real job.” Nan
chuckled.
    Jory dried her eyes and nodded. “I’ll talk
to him tomorrow.”
    There was no time to call the Oak Bend
editor because Archie Peabody had been stalking her, hovering
around her desk all morning. Ever since she had written about the
Pine Grove soldier pen pals initiative, her sort-of boyfriend had
been shadowing her.
    Archie strolled by Jory’s desk for the
hundredth time that day, and stopped. He leaned on the corner.
“After that piece on the soldier, I suppose you don’t want to go
out with tame old me anymore,” he said, making eye contact for a
few seconds before lowering his gaze.
    “ I’m writing him letters, Archie.
That’s all. I wouldn’t know him if I fell over him.” She turned her
attention back to her computer and continued typing.
    “ Does that mean you’ll go to the
concert with me?”
    She looked up, frowned, and nodded.
    Archie leaned over to whisper in her ear.
“And spend the night?”
    “ Nope,” she replied, turning her
attention back to her work.
    “ What’s the point?” His face flushed.
“I spend all this money on you, and you won’t even sleep with
me.”
    “ Keep your voice down!”
    “ It’s the truth. I’m the one who
should be ashamed, not you.”
    “ So, it’s about money? Doesn’t that
make me a hooker if I sleep with you?” She drew her stare from