Make Your Move Read Free Page A

She’s acting out, and it’s playing havoc with my life as well as hers.”
    Jodie murmured sympathetically and offered a hug. Though she tried not to spend too much time thinking about her less than ideal childhood in a working-class neighborhood of Philly, where her dad had been a mechanic and her mom a lunch lady at the elementary school, Jodie couldn’t help the memories sneaking up on her now and then.
    Don Patterson had been an asshole of tremendous proportions, constantly expecting perfection, even from a six-year-old. Jodie couldn’t remember ever receiving a kind word from her father, and she’d gotten out of town as fast and as far away as she could when she’d graduated high school. He’d wanted her to stay home, to go to a local school, but she’d resisted.
    He’d died when she was in college, and she hadn’t bothered going home for the funeral. For that reason, her mother hadn’t spoken to her since then, either. She didn’t lose a lot of sleep over it, since her mother hadn’t ever defended her, but just let her father take over.
    Jodie shook her head, blowing out a breath and offering Ginger a cranberry muffin. “Get some coffee, sit, and decompress. Things are slow for the moment.”
    “Thanks. You’re one in a million, Jodie.”
    Jodie patted her on the shoulder and wiped the fingerprints from the fronts of the glass display cases more vigorously. In her experience, men rarely cared if they stomped on your heart or ruined your life in the processof getting what they wanted. Ginger and Anna were two more examples of that.
    Still, women had more choices now, and Jodie always congratulated herself and her friends for opting to be independent career women, and she wanted to support Ginger in doing the same, if she could.
    She didn’t hate men because of her father, God, no. Men were luscious. They were fun and wonderful, but a girl couldn’t let herself get in too deep. Jodie never did. Guys were drawn to her voluptuous thirty-eight-C build and her long brown hair and blue eyes since she could remember.
    “Whoa, hottie alert,” Ginger almost purred as a guy ran by the bakery, drawing both of their gazes in appreciation. He stopped mid-stride and turned around.
    “That’s what I’m talking about,” Jodie said admiringly, to herself, though Ginger overhead and nodded.
    “Uh-oh, he’s coming in!” Ginger laughed as he approached the door.
    Jodie shushed her employee with a grin and greeted the guy, discreetly admiring his sleek runner’s build. “Can I help you?”
    He walked up to the counter, smiling. All blond and tan, he was probably a few years younger than Jodie’s thirty-two, closer to Ginger’s twenty-seven.
    “Sure. You have anything whole grain? And some water?”
    “Water is in the case, and we have some fresh bran muffins that are cooling from the oven. Ginger would be happy to get one for you—or more than one?”
    “No,” he said, smiling in Ginger’s direction. “One is fine.”
    Ginger’s head snapped up from where she’d been admiring him from the waist down through the glass case, her cheeks flushing prettily. Their handsome customer didn’t seem to mind at all as he took in her curly red hair and pale complexion.
    “Uh, sure. Just a minute,” she stammered, and disappeared.
    “She’ll be right back,” Jodie promised with a smile. Ginger needed a boost, and waiting on a cute guy was just the ticket. Jodie made herself scarce when Ginger returned, reorganizing some cakes she had organized five minutes before at the far end of the display case.
    To her amazement, Ginger finished the sale without even getting the guy’s name. When he left, Jodie popped up and looked at her assistant squarely, hands on hips.
    “Ginger, why didn’t you flirt a little? He was into you.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “He asked you about every muffin we have on the board, even the sugary ones, and all the ingredients in this one—and he was staring at your boobs. He