Anne Rainey - Touching Lace Read Free Book Online

you can bet your britches I’d jump on the offer. No pun intended, of course.”
    Mary turned beet red, and Lacey chuckled. Patty laughed, too, and finally Mary offered a slight snicker.
    Touching Lace

    Lacey looked at her watch and sobered when she saw the time. In thirty minutes she would need to give Nick her answer. “Oh God, what if this screws everything up? I couldn’t live with it, you guys. He’s been there for me through so much, and I just don’t know what I’d do without him.”
    Mary looked at her with thoughtful eyes. “You know, he has been there for you, and you’ve been there for him. Has it ever occurred to either of you that maybe you guys are already halfway to being a couple?”
    Lacey dropped her fork. Patty swung her gaze toward Mary then back to Lacey. No way could she prevent the heat from searing her cheeks.
    “You are way off there, Mary. We’re just friends. Nick is just doing me a favor, there’s nothing more to it. I know it.”
    Mary shrugged, but Patty frowned. “If it were me, I’d want that confirmed.” “What do you mean?”
    “Lay it all on the table. Make him tell you he’s only helping you before you slip between the sheets.”
    Lacey nodded vehemently. “Yeah, good idea.”
    “And don’t go into this thing thinking he’s only doing you a favor, hon,” Patty continued. “If he’s offering up his…services, you can bet he’s thought about this before. Probably more than once.”
    Lacey licked her lips nervously, willing the waiter to bring her another diet cola— her version of liquid courage. “He said as much.”
    Patty and Mary both leaned close. Patty asked, “Come again?”
    Lacey tried to act nonchalant, as if they were talking about the weather, clothes, books, anything but sex with Nick Stone. It wasn’t an easy sham to pull off.
    “He said he wanted me. That he wasn’t just doing me a favor, because he wants me naked, in bed, and all his.”
    “Damn. That’s hot,” Patty groaned, as she began to fan her face. “That’s just so damn hot.”
    Anne Rainey

    Mary started fidgeting, as if the conversation was making her a little bit warm too. Hmm, maybe Mary wasn’t quite the goody-goody she always acted.
    “Well, I’m not sure how this thing will play out, but I do need work on my…bedroom skills, or else Evan wouldn’t have bothered with Christy.”
    Patty waved the words away. “That’s just crap. Evan was a weasel, and you deserve better. Period.”
    “Evan was always eyeing Christy. I never did much care for her. She seemed to enjoy the way he stared at her. If she were a true friend, she would have told him to go suck an egg.” Mary’s words in her defense surprised Lacey.
    Wow. That was the thing about Mary. Just when Lacey thought she had her friend figured out, she went and mixed it up again.
    The three of them had met at the gym. Both women had come in looking to shed a few pounds and they’d hit it off. They weren’t clients of hers personally. Neither of the women made the kind of money that would afford them a personal trainer. Even though Lacey had offered them both a personal discount, they still declined, stating they were too lazy for that kind of commitment. Two years had gone by and they were still close friends.
    While she knew a great deal about Patty’s life, she knew very little about Mary’s. Patty worked at a local grocery store and was happily engaged to a wonderful man. They wanted to get married in the fall and start right away on having kids. Mary lived alone. She worked as a Chiropractic Assistant, and from what Lacey could see she didn’t date much. She’d often tried to get her to open up, come out of her shell, but it never seemed to work. Mary had been raised in an extremely strict household, with sickeningly rigid parents. She never offered any other information. She supposed, given the way Mary grew up, she should cut her some slack, but sometimes her I’m-better-than-you attitude
    wore on