Lovin' Blue Read Free Page A

your life is probably just a blur.”
    â€œThat’s for sure.” Eden yawned again, and her stomach growled. “Mom, I’m going to go now. See if I can scrounge up something resembling a vegetable in Michael’s kitchen.”
    â€œYeah, well, good luck with that. You’re the only vegetarian in the family. Your brother is strictly a meat-and-potatoes man.”
    â€œDon’t remind me.” Eden’s stomach lurched at the thought of having to endure meat in the refrigerator, even for a night.
    â€œI feel good knowing Jansen is there with you. Tell him I said hello and not to be a stranger.”
    â€œI will, Mom. Bye.”
    Minutes later, Eden hesitantly opened her brother’s refrigerator. The pickings were slim but were much as she’d feared: a six-pack of cola and another of beer on one shelf, a couple leftover takeout cartons on another, and various packaged, processed meats and cheeses in the see-through crispers. There was nothing even green, much less fresh. Eden began opening cabinet doors and fared no better.
    â€œSorry, I haven’t been to the store yet,” Jansen said. “But there’s some lunch meat in there. And some chips in the other cabinet.”
    â€œNo, thanks,” Eden replied, reaching for a box of shredded wheat she spied on a cabinet’s top shelf. She glanced at Jansen, thankful that he’d covered his body, even though the pristine white wife beater T-shirt, paired with low-riding shorts, accented his athletic physique almost as good as the towel.
    â€œWhat, you too good for bologna now?”
    â€œNo.” Eden again looked into the refrigerator. There was every condiment known to man in the door, but no milk. “I’ve been a vegetarian for the last five years.” She poured some of the biscuits into a bowl and began to eat them dry.
    â€œBut you still eat, what, chicken and fish?” Jansen watched in fascination as Eden popped one wheat mini biscuit, and then another, into her mouth.
    Eden shook her head, still chewing. “I don’t eat meat or fish of any kind, and I’m weaning myself off dairy. I plan to become vegan within the next year.”
    â€œWhat’s this, some kind of religious position or health kick or something?”
    â€œIt’s the way I choose to live. Makes me feel good.” Eden crunched down on another mouthful of wheat and then rose and began scanning the cabinets again. Then she walked back over to the refrigerator. The shredded grain may have been healthy, but it wasn’t doing much to assuage her appetite at the moment.
    Jansen sat down at the table Eden had just vacated. “Little garden,” Jansen said, using the nickname he’d used to call Eden just before he’d mess up the thick, naturally curly locks Eden used to wear all over her head. “Guess you’re trying to live up to my moniker.”
    â€œDon’t flatter yourself.” Eden laughed. “I’d forgotten all about that stupid name. Ooh, you used to get on my nerves with that.”
    â€œI got on your nerves with a lot of things.”
    â€œTell me about it. Between you and Michael, it’s a wonder I made it out of the house without losing my mind.”
    While Jansen and Eden ate bowls of vanilla Swiss almond ice cream she’d found in the freezer, they caught up on each other’s lives.
    â€œSo what have you been doing since graduating Howard in what . . . 2000?”
    â€œ1999,” Eden corrected around a spoonful of creamy goodness. “With a degree in business administration.”
    â€œHuman relations? So how’d you get into politics?”
    â€œMy minor was political science, but trust me, I hadn’t envisioned a career on Capitol Hill when I moved to DC. That just sort of happened after an internship with a senator during my junior year.”
    â€œAnd a marriage sort of happened, too, correct?”
    â€œYes,” Eden said,