Carrots: A Shelby Nichols Adventure by Colleen Helme Read Free Book Online Page B

approach, she didn’t even try to straighten up.
    “There she is,” she said with fake concern. “Chris told us about the robbery. Are you sure you’re all right?”
    She was thinking that it was too bad I didn’t die. She could imagine ‘consoling’ Chris in his grief, and once she had her hands on him it would be easy to seduce him. All it would take was one kiss, and she’d have him begging for more. Especially once he saw her naked. She’d worked hard to get her body to look this good, and now that she’d seen me, she knew there was no competition in that department.
    I felt my hands tighten into fists. I’d never hit anyone before, but I’d always figured I could do it if I was mad enough. As I got closer, alarm tightened in her eyes, and she stopped drooling over Chris. She thought I looked kind of crazy, and shrank back into her chair. I stood over her, struggling to get my anger under control.
    “Look, honey,” Chris said. “It’s your favorite. Sit down and have some. It’s really good.” He pushed the crème brûlée toward me, and I let him pull me down into my seat. He could tell that I was furious, and was trying to distract me from making a scene. He didn’t understand what was wrong with me, and it was scaring him. He was also angry with Kate, but he didn’t think she knew what she was doing.
    I looked into his beautiful dark eyes and felt myself relax. “Thanks honey,” I said. “It looks really good.” I gazed into his eyes for a long moment, wanting him to know I wasn’t talking about dessert. He chuckled, suddenly thinking about kissing me right then and there. I couldn’t have been more pleased, especially since Kate was watching.
    “Well, I’ll see you on Monday,” she interrupted, trying to get Chris’ attention.
    “Yes,” I answered. “Don’t forget our lunch.”
    “Looking forward to it,” she said sweetly, and left to find her date.
    Chris knew I was upset about Kate, but it bothered him that I seemed so volatile. He’d never seen me angry enough to almost hit someone. Then it struck him that maybe the stress from the robbery had changed me. Since that incident, I had been acting strange. I wasn’t my normal self, and it worried him. He wanted to ask me if I’d made the appointment with a psychologist, but didn’t want me to think he thought I was crazy.
    I ate my dessert and tried to decide what to do. Should I tell him what was really wrong with me? If I did, how would that affect our relationship? If I didn’t, would he know I wasn’t being honest with him? Maybe I could say that I was having premonitions, like I told Dimples. How would Chris react to that? Toning down the truth would probably be better than telling him I could read minds. Knowing I could read his thoughts might be too much. I knew I wouldn’t like it.
    By the time we got into the car and began the drive home, I still didn’t know what to do. He didn’t either, so he focused on something else. “Kate is kind of hard to take sometimes, but she really is a good lawyer.”
    I didn’t know what to say to that. He took my silence as disagreement and forged on. “She’s very professional at work, as well as organized and efficient. And she doesn’t seem to mind being the ‘go to’ person for us.” Although when he thought about it, it was probably more for him than anyone else.
    “Don’t kid yourself,” I couldn’t keep silent. “She’s after you and you know it.”
    “I do not.” He was offended. “Don’t make something out of this that doesn’t exist.”
    “Oh? And the way she’s acting doesn’t make you uncomfortable?” I had him there.
    “Yes it does, but I don’t think she knows what she’s doing. She’s so open and friendly that a lot of men take it the wrong way. She even complained about it to me. I don’t think she realizes the effect she has on men.”
    “Well, that’s where you’re underestimating her. She knows exactly what she’s doing.” I