Death, Taxes, and Peach Sangria by Diane Kelly Read Free Book Online Page A

women with abundant
     cleavage, excessive lip gloss, and biographies containing far too many exclamation
     points.
    Maddie, a blue-eyed blonde, was a “party girl!!!” who was sure she and Nick would
     “hit it off!!!”
    Kaitlyn was a green-eyed redhead who “enjoyed wine! Music! Dancing!” and thought Nick
     looked “sexy and fun!”
    Shea was an African-American woman with cute short curls. She was a “Dallas Mavericks
     Dancer and a big sports fan!” who thought she and Nick would have “an awesome time
     together!”
    No fewer than a third of the bios noted that the woman enjoyed long walks on the beach.
     Seriously? Dallas was three hundred miles from the nearest beach. That was indeed
     a long walk.
    “If I were you,” I told Nick, “I’d give Sergio a try. Look at those biceps. He definitely
     works out.”
    Nick shot me a look before turning back to Josh. “They’re all running together. Is
     there a way to sort them?”
    “How about by IQ?” I suggested, my sarcasm earning me another exasperated look from
     Nick. Hey, he was the one who said he wanted a woman with some brains.
    “Try sorting them by breast size,” he told Josh, earning himself an indignant grunt
     from me.
    “I thought you were an ass man,” I said. He’d told me so himself after a well-endowed
     reporter named Trish LeGrande had made me feel inadequate when Nick and I were working
     together on an earlier case.
    Nick eyed me again and shrugged. “Maybe my tastes have changed.”
    Ouch. That hurt. Like a knife in the heart. He wasn’t over me already, was he? Just when
     I’d decided to take a shot with him?
    Josh pulled up the next potential candidate and Nick sat bolt upright, his eyes wide.
    What was that about?
    Lu squinted at the screen. “Natalie. She looks like a nice girl.” Lu glanced up at
     Nick, then back at the screen, then back at Nick. “Wait a minute. Isn’t she that woman
     you almost married?”
    Nick nodded, his gaze still locked on the screen, a faraway look in his eyes.
    The knife in my heart turned and twisted, like a sharp corkscrew working its way to
     my core. I knew Nick had been engaged years ago, but he’d never talked much about
     it other than to say his job as a special agent had been a problem in their relationship,
     just as it was sometimes a problem in my relationship with Brett. Our jobs were demanding
     and risky and often took us away at inopportune times. Not everyone could deal with
     it.
    Nick’s reaction was strange. Did he still have feelings for this woman? And did she
     still have feelings for him? Of course she did. Why else would she have responded
     to his ad?
    Did Natalie want Nick back?
    I looked at the screen. The photo showed a dark-haired girl with sweet brown eyes,
     a scattering of freckles, and a figure that bordered between voluptuous and pleasantly
     plump. She was dressed modestly in a pink cotton blouse buttoned high enough to keep
     her cleavage completely under wraps.
    If ever there was a girl-next-door, Natalie was her. I was more like the girl down
     the block with bare feet and a frog in her pocket, hanging upside down from a tree
     branch.
    I looked back at Nick. He stood stock-still, as if transfixed.
    Dammit! I was about to dump Brett for him. Was he still hung up on his ex-fiancée? Was I
     about to make a big mistake?
    I couldn’t take it. I had to get out of that office. “Good luck with the dates,” I
     managed as I bolted from the room, blinking back tears of frustration.
    Just when I thought I had things sorted out they got all screwed up again.
    I’d better move fast or I could lose Nick forever and spend the rest of my life wondering
     what might have been.

 
    chapter five
    Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
    Tuesday after work, I stopped by a neighborhood Italian restaurant and picked up two
     orders of manicotti to take home. I was about to break Brett’s heart. The least I
     could do was fill his stomach first.
    Despite the delicious smells