A Promise to Cherish by Lavyrle Spencer Read Free Book Online Page A

country, Kansas City and its surrounding suburbs had had perhaps twenty more general contractors than it did now. Now the industry grapevine buzzed constantly with news of this one or that one on the verge of folding, and they all held their breaths, hoping the next one to go under wouldn’t be themselves.
    The phone interrupted Lee’s reverie. She punched line one and answered, “Lee Walker.”
    “You made it back.”
    The voice surprised Lee.
    “Brown, is that you?”
    “That’s right, the Honorable Sam Brown. I looked for you on my flight. Thought we might sit together and share my magazine.”
    She didn’t feel in the least like smiling but couldn’t help it. Damn the man, making her laugh when he’d been the initial cause of the altercation she’d just had with Thorpe!
    “Oh, you did, huh? I took an earlier flight. I’ve been back since ten o’clock.”
    A brief pause, then, “How did Thorpe take the news?”
    She laughed, a single mirthless huff. “Need you ask?”
    “Well, you win a few and you lose a few. He should know that by now.”
    “That isn’t even remotely funny, Brown. Not after what you did to me! He came down on me like a tent when the circus is over, and what really irritates me is that Fat Thorpe actually seems to admire you for your duplicity. His exact words were, ‘The kid’s got more brains than his old man.’ It appears you’re two peas in a pod, you and my boss.”
    His unconcerned laughter came over the wire. “We’re both a couple of degenerates, is that it?”
    “That’s it,” she agreed.
    “Well, how would you like a chance to try your hand at reforming me . . . say over dinner Friday night?”
    Lee came close to sputtering, the dressing down she’d just taken from F.A. still burning beneath her collar. “Dinner! What, again? And ruin my reputation around this town by being seen with a known pervert? I told you, Brown, I don’t know why I ate with you the first time!”
    “I’ll take you to the American Restaurant,” he bribed.
    The American! Lee was suddenly crestfallen and undeniably tempted. The American Restaurant at the Crown Center was the crème de la crème of eateries in the Kansas City area.
    “Brown, that’s a dirty, rotten low blow, and you know it.”
    “I know,” he agreed mirthfully, a smile in his voice.
    “I told you, not until I’m the low bidder, and right now I’m not, as you well know.” The American Restaurant, she thought woefully, kissing the chance good-bye.
    “Okay, Cherokee, but I’ll hold you to it . . . when you’re low bidder.”
    “Ch . . .” Now Lee did sputter! “Ch . . . Cherokee! Brown, don’t you ever call me that ag . . . Brown?” She clicked the disconnect button. “Brown!”
    But he’d hung up. Then she did too, slamming the receiver down so hard it jumped back off the cradle. “Cherokee!” she spit out crossing her arms and glaring at the instrument guilty of carrying his damn sexy, teasing voice to her when she was in no mood to be manipulated by a smooth talker like him.
    How dare he call her Cherokee when . . . when . . .
    But a moment later her lips betrayed her and she found herself grinning at the phone. It was the last time she grinned that day.
    Things went from bad to worse. Fat Thorpe pounded in and out, cussing like a marine and demanding test borings on jobs Lee knew were too wet to even consider bidding; ordering installation of inferior quality pipe they’d had trouble with before; demanding last minute changes in a bid she’d all but finished. He became more overbearing and demanding as the day passed. Lee required all her teeth-gritting strength to maintain her composure.
    By the time she left the office, her nerves were at the breaking point. She arrived at her townhouse tired, angry, and depressed. In the front foyer she stripped off her shoes and pantyhose and left them lying in a heap. There was something about bare feet that seemed to take the stress off her head.
    In the