Must Like Kids by Jackie Braun Read Free Book Online Page A

sure. Still, he was changing the subject. “So, Danielle plays goalie?”
    “Yes.” Since it gave her something else to talk about, Julia added, “The game doesn’t start until later this afternoon, but it’s going to be such a nice day that we’re heading out early to meet up with some other families for a pregame picnic.”
    “A picnic, hmm? Grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, ants and the works?”
    Alec didn’t sound nostalgic so much as wistful, as if such a thing were beyond his experience. Julia supposed someone who had spent much of his adolescence at a boarding school hadn’t been to many picnics. Today’s get-together would be potluck. All of the team’s families would bring a dish, with the coach kicking in the dogs and burgers. Her contribution was a fresh fruit salad and juice boxes. From previous experience, she knew there would be enough food to feed a small army.
    She softened and was on the verge of inviting him to join them—as her client, she assured herself, not as her personal guest—when he said, “I’ll think of you while I’m having a late lunch in my bug-free, air-conditioned office.”
    Her goodwill evaporated as quickly as it had come. And he claimed not to be a lost cause. The man was hopeless. And so not her type. The previous night’s dream popped back to mind again. Whether he was her type or not that hadn’t stopped her from fantasizing.
    Irritated with herself and the inappropriate direction her thoughts kept taking, she made her tone purposefully brisk and businesslike when she said, “Getting back to the reason for my call, I’m emailing you the links to those articles I mentioned.”
    She punctuated her words by hitting the send button.
    “The ones you think I might find enlightening.”
    “Exactly.”
    “I’ll look forward to reading them.” His tone was maddeningly benign.
    “No, you won’t.”
    “But I will read them.”
    “See that you do.”
    After that crisp response, Julia bid him goodbye.
    * * *
    Alec listened to the dial tone hum for a full minute after she hung up. See that you do. What? Did she plan a pop quiz for later? And the woman claimed that he was all work and no play. Well, she was a royal pain in the backside. A pretty one with her classic features and slender build, but a pain nonetheless.
    Why then, he wondered, was he smiling?
    * * *
    By midafternoon, Alec had finished up his work and logged off his computer. The rest of the day, the evening in particular, loomed ahead of him, long and lonely. He could kill some time reading the articles Julia suggested. His lip curled in distaste just thinking about it.
    You don’t know how to have fun.
    He wanted to be able to discount the accusation since it had come from his mother. But the fact remained that it was Saturday and he’d spent the better part of the day in his office and had no plans for the evening.
    He hadn’t dated much since Laurel. There was no pining involved in that decision, as he’d been the one to break things off. He’d meant it when he’d told Julia that things had run their course. No, his continuing single status had more to do with the late hours he kept at the office and, well, plain old disinterest. He hadn’t met anyone engaging or exciting...bar Julia.
    Alec frowned. Did she even date? She’d managed to duck answering when he’d asked if she was seeing someone. He gathered up printouts of the articles she had suggested he read and tucked them into his briefcase to go over later. All the while, a question nagged. What kind of man would she prefer? The guy would have to like kids. That much was a given. And he would have to be comfortable around them. A family man. Not someone like Alec.
    He wasn’t her type any more than she was his, which was why he found it damned annoying that, later that evening while he was out to dinner with a young woman he’d met in the spring at a fundraiser, he found himself thinking about Julia.

FOUR
    Julia was the first to arrive at the