Double Dealing (2013) by Linda Cajio Read Free Book Online

mustache, he asked, “How badly would I blow this truce, if I suggested we have dinner together tomorrow night?”
    He wasn’t wasting any time, she thought with disgust. She had enough sense to know that some companies would do almost anything to get the land they wanted, and Atlantic Developers was avery powerful conglomerate. Much as she wanted to avoid the headaches Atlantic could cause her, she admitted it was better to face the problem head on. That meant dealing with Jed. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I think the truce would hold up.”
    At his almost boyish grin, Rae sighed inwardly. She felt as if she’d just agreed to go three rounds with Muhammad Ali. If only she could load her glove with iron horseshoes.
    “Eight o’clock?”
    “Fine, fine,” she said, as she racked her brain for some solid ammunition. An anvil wouldn’t hurt. She barely noticed when he tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow and began leading her out of the ballroom.
    Jed was right in one respect, she decided. As Atlantic’s representative, he had a good deal of input into the company about the estate. If he recommended that the company should make a real effort to find another site, it probably would. Now if only she
could
get him on her side. If only he could see the estate as more than a viable piece of property …
    “Got everything?” he asked, then added, “Your purse. You don’t have your purse.”
    “I never bring one,” she said, as his words captured her attention. She patted the cape at waist level. “Those little evening bags are ridiculous, and I wind up having to hold the thing all the time. Instead, I keep what I need in a hidden pocket.” She chuckled. “Now that I’ve let out my secret, I’ll probably get mugged.”
    “Or else you’ll be taking the dogs everywhere you go,” he said, smiling wryly.
    Rae made a face at him. “They try that anyway.”
    As they walked toward the lobby exit, she admitted getting him to fall in love with the estate was really a silly idea. She had been forgetting that, for all the time he’d spent around the estate as a boy, he had no personal attachment to it. Still, Jed’s opinion
had
to be a deciding factor with Atlantic. He had handled the transaction with Uncle Merry, and he was still in charge of acquiring property for the marina complex.
    “Rae? Are you married?”
    Startled, she glanced up at him. He was grinning at her.
    “I thought that would get your attention,” he said. “Now that we’ve established that you’re not married—”
    “We have?”
    “Sure. No wild-eyed husband punched me out for that kiss.”
    She refused to answer that, and instead said, “What about you, Jed? Are you married?”
    He shook his head. “I almost was. It was right before I graduated from Villanova. One day the girl said, “I found the cutest house for us, and the patio is a great place for my sorority to meet.”
    “Oh, Lordy,” Rae muttered, as a vision of a pink-cashmere-clad cheerleader ran through her mind.
    He grinned. “After that, I made it a practice to leave her alone with my college roommate as much as possible. He could afford the patio.”
    She giggled. “You are a stinker, Jed.”
    “Yeah. I tell myself that every year at their anniversary party. On the patio.”
    Laughing, she shook her head. They reached the hotel’s revolving doors.
    “Any entanglements?” he asked, squeezing next to her and pushing the door around to the outside.
    “Once, almost. Like you,” she said, remembering. “It was the oddest thing. We were having a before-dinner drink at his place, and I went into the bathroom. He’d left the shower door open, and there was a damp shower cap hanging over the shower head. His initials were monogrammed on the cap. I kept staring all evening at his perfectly groomed hair, and giggling.”
    “He … he …” Jed burst into laughter, as they emerged into the chill night air.
    “I know. It seems like a dumb reason not to get