Renewal 6 - Cold Read Free Page A

into a grin, taking a halting step in her direction. They played a game of love chicken for several stuttering steps before she gave up and hurled herself into his arms with the force of a linebacker. A slender redheaded linebacker, but the result was the same. Terry staggered back, bouncing off the door frame before he regained his balance.
    Sally kissed him twice before he could focus on her face. Once he felt stable on his feet, he looked into her eyes and saw the same combination of kiss-me and get-back he was rapidly learning to recognize. He wanted to go with option A, but gave her a long hug and went with option B instead. If there was one thing he knew about women, it was that it never paid to give in too easily. If he could play the cocky hero for a moment, he might have assumed that “rule one” counted double with Miss Sally. She liked a fight.
    He stepped back and gave her a smile before he began to scrounge for food himself. He figured Bill would be getting hungry too.
    Sally uttered a particularly female growl of exasperation before she made a show of stomping to the table, scraping the chair out, and plopping into it with a heavy sigh. Terry gave the contents of the refrigerator an evil grin. He found the makings for sandwiches and set the ingredients on the counter so that he was facing her. He began to construct a man-sandwich, overstuffed and completely devoid of subtlety.
    Sally deliberately spoke with her mouth full of food. “Are you actually going to eat that?”
    “No. Your dad is. I’ll eat the next one.”
    “It looks disgusting.”
    “That’s because you are covered in freckles. Everyone knows they mess up your senses.”
    “Yep. That’s why for almost ten seconds, I thought you were good looking,” Sally said, trying to catch him off guard.
    “I was good looking for ten seconds, but that was when I was seven.” He said it absently, as if it took no effort to keep up. “You, on the other hand, looked good for almost a full minute and that was only four minutes ago.”
    She unconsciously preened. “You think I look good?”
    “I’m sure I would have noticed by now if you were ugly,” he replied, denying her catch from the compliment fishing expedition. “But you know what they say. Looks ain’t everything.”
    “Ugh, Terry Shelton. I think you’re trying to drive me crazy!”
    “Well, ugly boys gotta have some way to get your attention. Is it working?” he asked with a wry grin.
    “No, it’s not! I have work to do. I’m leaving,” she said with a final masterpiece of a pout, and stormed out the back door, leaving her dishes and uneaten food on the table.
    Terry put away the sandwich fixings, cleaned up Sally’s mess, and carried the two small plates upstairs to Bill’s room.
    “Here you go, Bill. I thought you might like something to eat.” He handed Bill one of the sandwiches.
    “Mmmm, huge pile of pork sandwich. Looks delicious,” Bill said, considering whether he could unhinge his jaw to take a bite.
    “Opinions vary.”
    “So I heard. Damn, kid. Riding a little close to the edge, aren’t you?”
    Terry looked confused for a second. “You mean with Sally?”
    “Hell yeah, I mean with Sally,” Bill said, looking oddly concerned.
    “No. I think I’m right where she wants me. How many guys have tried to catch Sally’s interest?”
    “All of them, I think... Except for a couple of chickenshits.”
    “Well, she’s a pretty girl. What do you do to catch a pretty girl?”
    “You tell them how pretty they are, and do nice things.”
    “Yep, that’s what they tell us. But if the pretty girl happens to be a tough girl, too, you gotta put up a fight. All those other guys made the mistake of being too nice.”
    “What makes you so smart?” Bill asked, since he would have never figured it out.
    “I’m not. I just pay attention. In school, there’s always that one girl who everybody wants. The only guys who succeed are the ones who make them