Free Unmasked (New Adult Romance) (The Unmasked Series) by Anya Karin

matter how much they might like someone or want to
go further with someone. They just shut down. I'm here to tell you, we don't
change a whole lot when we grow up. It was the same way with your mother. She
had to make all the moves at first, because I was a little nervous about making
the wrong ones."
    She sat back on the couch and pushed her hair
behind her ear.
    "It's funny that you say that. About mom, I mean.
I've just never thought of such a thing. I figured it was just because I wasn't
enough of a catch to get anyone worked up. Saying it out loud though sounds a
little whiny."
    "No, that's not whiny, but it's also not true.
What is there about you for a guy not to like?"
    Alyssa sat silently for a moment and then told her
dad that she didn't know, with a shrug.
    "Right," he said. "If you can't think of any good
reason for someone to not like you, then it probably isn't worth worrying
about."
    "Yeah, you're probably right. Still though, when I
can't figure something out, I always assume I'm missing some vital piece of
evidence. But then, maybe not. Maybe I just need to let things be the way they
are."
    Ryan Barton stood up, stretched his back with his
fists planted on his hips, and laughed. "Yeah. It took me fifty something years
to figure that out, but I promise it makes everything easier."
    "You got half an hour to finish getting all
prettied up for the oil man. I'll warn you though, you're probably not gonna see
much of him."
    "That's okay," Lys said running back upstairs, "I
think I've seen him before. It was a few years ago, and he was a good bit away,
but I'm pretty sure it was him."
    The rustling sounds and drawers pulling out and
pushing resumed, as did Alyssa's slightly off-key singing. Her dad took a long
swig and set his empty on the table with a sigh that turned into a chuckle. His
eyes fell on the small stack of ledger books piled on his desk. All of them
already meticulously entered into files that had never been sent.
    Again he checked his watch in a way that had
become almost habit when waiting for Preston Webb to show up for a meeting.
Something about the perfect timing the man always displayed was a little
curious, and sometimes disarming. After a long run in a high school classroom
though, it was something to be treasured.
    "I donno what you want, Preston," he said as he
sat back down and awaited either his daughter's next nervous traipse
downstairs, or the arrival of the strange man who refused to be seen. "But you
better treat her well. I know that much."
    He laughed, nervously. "Of course, if you don't,
I'm not sure there's much I can do about it."

Chapter Eight
    ––––––––
    "I don't know, I don't think they're that big,"
Alyssa flexed one of her arms in the mirror, then the other. "But maybe I'm a
bad judge."
    What her dad said struck a nerve.
    "I'm not scary, or too big, or weird looking," she
said. "Am I?"
    She had on a button down with a low-cut neck and
short sleeves. Looking over at her closet, Alyssa eyed a long sleeved number
with a big, high neck and then returned to the mirror and watched herself
laugh. She balled up a fist and kneaded the place on her side where a little
soreness from her funny way of sleeping had settled.
    "I'm not."
    "Right?"
    She turned left, then right, and pulled her top
tight against her belly. Sucking in her cheeks, sticking her head forward,
doing all the things she read in a magazine once about how to look as thin as
humanly possible in pictures, she held a pose for a moment.
    Then just started laughing.
    "Stop being so silly, Lys," she said. "Stop trying
to make yourself nervous. This guy, whoever he really is, underneath all the
money and power and whatever else, is probably just as nervous as you are.
Hell, he won't even let dad see his face."
    Even as she talked, she turned to view herself in
full profile and sucked in her little paunch. Then she exhaled and stuck it out
as far as she possibly could and puffed out her cheeks.
    "See? It could