Claire Knows Best by Tracey Bateman Read Free Book Online Page A

“I’m sorry.”
    His jaw kind of drops like he can’t believe I didn’t throw myself into his waiting arms and cry, “Yes, yes, a million times,
     yes!”
    “Wait. You mean not at all? Or not now?”
    I smile and snuggle close. “Ask me again another time, and we’ll see. Okay?”
    “Not exactly what I was hoping to hear.”
    “I know. I’m sorry. I’m just not ready to make that kind of a promise. Not while everything is so up in the air with my career
     and now the house. Darcy’s baby.” Darcy’s baby? Since when did my ex-husband’s wife’s due date factor into things?
    “Scratch that last one.” I shake my head. “Am I nuts?”
    “A little.” He drops his hands from my waist and I can sense his irritation. “Let’s get you to my mom’s before she calls 9-1-1
     looking for you.”
    “Wouldn’t it be easier just to call my cell phone? Or yours?”
    “Yes, but you don’t know my mom that well. Yet.” He opens my van door and waits for me to slide under the wheel. “I knew you
     were going to say no.”
    Laughter escapes me. “I know. You wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”
    “Not true. If you’d said yes, I would have been the happiest man alive.”
    Leaning over, I kiss his lips softly and put my hand to his cheek. “And the most afraid.”
    “Maybe, maybe not.” He shrugs and I think he’s still stinging a little from my rejection.
    “We have time. We haven’t been seeing each other that long.”
    He gives me a serious look, apparently not willing to lighten the mood just yet. “It didn’t take me long to know you were
     the woman I wanted, Claire. I think I knew it from the time you had that crazy panic attack in the physician’s clinic last
     fall.”
    “The day we met?” To be honest, I fell for him that day, too. I decide to tell him so. It’s the least I can do after turning
     down his proposal. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. I was pretty smitten with you that day, too. Thought you had eyes
     just like Andy Garcia, and you know how I like him.”
    A smile tips the corners of his mouth. “I’ll make you forget all about him.” Reaching forward, he brushes my jawline with
     his thumb. I love it when he does that. “So, it was love at first sight for both of us.”
    “Apparently so.” Andy Garcia who? I move my head to the side a little and give him a flirty grin. I’m warming to the idea
     that he can’t live another day without me, wants to sweep me into his arms and take me to the cave.
    “Then why not just get it over with? Why live down the block from each other when we could join our households? It would be
     a lot easier all around.”
    Easier? Hmm. Not exactly what I was looking for. That line of reasoning is more like the practical Greg I know and it effectively
     douses the flame of spontaneity that had begun to rise from the ashes of my cynical heart. “Maybe I don’t want to just ‘get
     it over with,’” I say in a huffy tone. “I was married for all the wrong reasons the first time. If I do it again, I want to
     do it right. Under God and before my friends and family. I mean, good grief, even Linda and Mark went all out and they were
     just renewing their vows.”
    He takes a step back and I see beta male all over him. And that makes me even madder because I was really getting attached
     to Alpha Greg. “You want to join our households together just to make it easier? Easier for whom? I’ll have two more people
     to cook for, clean for, do laundry for. Sure—it’ll be easier on you. But I have a hard enough time keeping up with things
     now when I’m on a deadline.”
    Even while I’m spouting the words, I know that’s not fair. But golly, does he have to be so cut and dried about the most romantic
     day of our lives? Of mine anyway. Maybe I’m just a sad substitute for his late wife. If he can’t have her, maybe romance isn’t
     important.
    The creases between his eyes deepen with a frown and his eyes have grown stormy.