Holiday Escort by Julia P. Lynde Read Free Book Online

confused, Madeline. We haven't been close friends, but I was under a different impression about you."
    "I was too," I said with a small laugh. "Then I met Karen." I paused. "We haven't known each other very long. Anything I should know about her?"
    She was silent for a while. "I don't know her well. I only see her at these events. I get the impression she is very passionate about her work."
    We settled into the dancing. After two songs, Cor r ine gave me back to Karen. I sidled under her arm, wrapping mine around her waist, then turned so I could whisper towards her ear. "Do you need to schmooze more?" She looked down at me. "I would rather dance with you."
    "Two more songs, then schmooze a little, then more dancing?" Cor r ine and Ryan were standing near us, watching a pair of couples making a valiant effort to copy the tango we'd been doing. "Ryan, will it be tango all night?"
    He looked over and smiled. "No, but I think you could tango to everything in the play list."
    Karen pulled me back onto the floor, and it felt good to be in her arms again. I told her that.
    "Are you teasing?"
    "We should agree on a code for when I'm not teasing," I told her. "Right now, I'm not teasing. I enjoy dancing with you. You are warm and a comfortable lead."
    She didn't say anything to that.
    I got my two songs with her, then she pulled me from the floor and we roamed the house, schmoozing some more. I flirted lightly with her whenever we had an audience and outrageously when we were alone. She never outright laughed at the flirting, but I could tell she had a hard time controlling her responses several times.
    We were between schmoozing groups when Karen was hailed by a man . "I've been looking for you," he said. Then he looked pointedly at me.
    "David Jenkins," Karen said. "This is Madeline Burnet." She turned to me. "David is the I.T. manager at Kilador ."
    We exchanged handshakes. "Actually, you're the person my wife sent me to find," he said. Without ceremony he took my hand and began pulling me after him. I lost my hold on Karen's hand as I was tugged along behind David. He pulled me through two rooms before we found his wife, busily talking to two other women.
    "I found her!" he said, presenting me to his wife. She was five-five, short black hair, wearing a red dress, and I guessed to be about forty. David was a little older than his wife, tall, and rugged-looking.
    "It is customary to invite a lady to a conversation, David," his wife said. "Not drag her along behind you like an errant child."
    Karen caught up with us at that time. I glanced over at her and she was smirking at me.
    "Sorry," David said to me. "She told me to find you. I got carried away."
    "It's okay," I said, laughing lightly. Then I looked at his wife.
    She hit him on the arm and gestured with her chin at me. "Oh. Sorry. Madeline, may I present my wife, Laurie?"
    She and I shook hands, then she described why David had dragged me through the house.  "I was talking to Vicki, and she seemed impressed with your travel knowledge. Are you well-traveled?"
    I smiled. "I've been to a few places, perhaps more than most."
    "Don't let her fool you," Karen said. "She's been everywhere." I smiled.
    "David and I are talking about a trip next year," Laurie said. "He wants to go to Alaska."
    "Amazing place," I said. "It sounds like you aren't convinced."
    "I wanted to go to Paris."
    "Oh dear," I said. "So it's not like you're discussing the merits of two different rugged destinations but instead the City of Love versus the greatest wilderness America has to offer."
    Laurie smiled wanly .
    "I've been to both. What would you like to know?"
    "What would I do in Alaska?"
    I looked between the two of them. I settled on David. "You like hiking and camping and fishing and all that, right?"
    "Yes, and I've never seen a glacier."
    "How about you?" I asked Laurie.
    "They're all right," she said. "Is it pretty?"
    "Stunning, absolutely stunning."
    "I could sit at the lodge with a cup of cocoa