My Sunshine Read Free Page A

finished knocking. He stepped aside so she could enter the room. He had replaced his jeans with a pair of gym shorts and he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
    Okay, he works out a lot . His hair was wet and he smelled of shaving cream. He had obviously just gotten out of the shower. Chloe took a deep breath as she walked by him. The sexiness of just the way he smelled traveled through her body and almost made her knees buckle.
    “I picked up a few snacks,” he said. He had found his way to the gas station next door. The small table in the room was loaded with bags of chips, cookies, candy bars, sodas and beer.
    “You want a drink?”
    She nodded. “I’d love a Coke.” She noticed that he was drinking a beer. He filled a cup with ice and poured her a drink from a can. She took the drink and sat down on the edge of the bed.
    John sat across from her on the other bed. He didn’t know what to say. He had never been in such an intimate setting before. Usually when he was with a girl in a hotel room they were both half-drunk and fell right into the bed. His mind raced for just the right thing to say. Lucky for him, she spoke first.
    “Where at the coast were you?”
    “Carolina Beach. Mike owns a house there.”
    “Mike? He’s in the group, too?”
    John nodded. “Yeah. Mike Brooks. He’s the tall guy, dark hair.” He could tell by Chloe’s expression that she couldn’t place him. “He was next to me on the cup.”
    She nodded. “Oh, yeah,” she replied although she still wasn’t sure. She mad a mental note to do some research. “Why Carolina Beach? Why not in LA?”
    “His wife, Jane is from North Carolina and she wanted a house there, so that’s where they’ve been staying this summer.
    As for LA, we go out there when we need to, but it’s not home.
    I wouldn’t want to live there.” Not that he hadn’t tried. He and Tyler, another Parrison member and his best friend and roommate since high school, had rented an apartment there for six weeks earlier that summer. John had a great time there, but he quickly grew tired of the “fakeness” of it.
    “Why not? I thought that’s where all the stars lived.”
    “A lot do, but it’s so far away from home, and I like
    Florida.”
    “So you have a house there? In Florida?”
    John nodded. “Yeah. That’s home.” There was a moment of silence. “Have you lived here your whole life?”
    Chloe nodded. “As long as I can remember we have, but Daniel says we lived near the coast when I was a baby. I don’t remember that. So as far as I’m concerned this is home.”
    “How small is this town?”
    “We have about 2,000 people. The only reason we have so much out by the interstate is because it’s the last exit before the state line. We’re not big enough to justify it.”
    “So this is a place where everyone knows everyone else?”
    She frowned. “Yeah, everyone knows everyone else’s business, and they believe every rumor, true or not. Like for instance, half the town already knows that I’m here with you.”
    “Did that man see you come back?”
    Chloe shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. He was already on the phone when we left the office. I didn’t tell Daniel where I was going, but he’ll know by morning.”
    John nodded. He knew full well about rumors. “Why does he hate you? I mean, he didn’t sound very fond of you.”
    She shook her head. “I dated his grandson back in high school.” She paused and tried to think of just the right thing to say without revealing too much. “There were rumors that I was a tramp and real easy. Most people here think that about me.”
    And that’s just the least of it . “It’s not true, but me checking into a hotel with a stranger isn’t going to help my reputation any.”
    John frowned. “I’m sorry. If I had known, I wouldn’t have asked you to go in with me.”
    “I knew,” she said, “and I went in anyway.”
    John stood up. “Are you hungry?” He walked over to the table and