My Best Friend's Baby by Lisa Plumley Read Free Book Online

potential between-inventions playmate.
The women he dated weren't like Chloe. She was e.e. cummings; they
were Thoreau. She was mercury; they were iron. Chloe was bare feet
and ring-dings and touch football; they were designer shoes and haute cuisine and PTA fundraisers. She was the sizzle; they
were the steak.
    And Nick was the overworked inventor who
obviously needed to get out more.
    No wonder Chloe's dual-earring nudist
impression had affected him so strongly this morning. The sight of
her standing there with jewels in her hands and nothing but bare,
silky skin below had brought every part of him to attention. It
didn't take a genius to realize he needed a break, and his brain
had obviously been forced to take drastic measures to shove the
message through.
    Cool it, he commanded himself. Chloe's your
friend, not your fantasy woman.
    His non-fantasy woman stopped in front of
him, grabbed his sleeve, and thunked her forehead onto his
shoulder. "Let's go," she mumbled into his chest.
    Nick's other concerns vanished. When Chloe
did the shoulder clunk, it meant she needed him. "Awww, Chloe. What
happened?"
    She mumbled something into his T-shirt. He
got as far as, "Effram Griggs is a shirt-tidied, misery grist
beanie outback," before interrupting.
    "What was that part about his beanie?"
    She beat her fist softly against his
shoulder and made a frustrated sound. "I said," Chloe told him,
turning her head just enough to make her words heard, "that Effram
Griggs is a short-sighted, misogynist weenie-throwback with
delusions of grandeur and cigar stubs for brains."
    "He turned down your loan application
again?"
    "Again." Miserably, Chloe nodded against his
shoulder, giving him a mouthful of jagged-cut blonde hair.
    He blew it away and hugged her one-handed,
careful to keep his notebook wedged between his chest and her ...
curvy parts. Not even three inches of his chicken-scratched notes
could block the alluring tropical scents of her shampoo and
perfume, though. Too bad.
    "I thought I'd start to wear him down by
now!" She wriggled against him as though her frustration just had
to have an outlet. "You know, third time's the charm, and all
that?"
    "There's always next month," he murmured.
After her second loan attempt, Griggs had refused to consider any
applications she made with less than one month's time between
them.
    The arbitrary, power-hungry jerk.
    "I can't wait another month!" she
wailed.
    "Looks like you don't have much choice."
Nick squeezed her a little closer. "In the meantime, it's my job to
cheer you up. What you need is Kahlúa and coffee and sympathy."
    Chloe stiffened in his arms. A sniffle sound
came from somewhere near his collarbone, followed by something that
sounded like, "Kahlúa hurts."
    Which didn't make any sense at all. Taking
over Red's pet shop must have meant more to her than she'd let on.
Why else would Chloe reject their time-tested cheer-up remedy?
    "Ice cream?" Nick suggested. "A movie? A
racquetball game? You can pretend the ball is Effram Grigg's greasy
gray toupee-wearing head."
    Another sniffle, but hard on its heels came
a choked laugh. "Now there's an idea."
    "Wait, I take it back," he said with a grin.
"With motivation like that, you'd probably cream me. I wouldn't be
able to hold up my head in public."
    Chloe laughed outright at that. "Wouldn't be
the first time, you welsher." She twisted her fingers in his
T-shirt sleeve, then nestled closer and pressed her cheek against
his chest, soaking up comfort as easily as she walloped a
racquetball. "You still owe me a dinner from your last crushing
defeat, remember?"
    "I remember. One of these days, I swear I'm
revoking that ‘do-over' rule of yours."
    "Bully."
    "Cheater."
    "Pushover."
    Nailed , Nick admitted. If anyone
could turn him into an easy mark, it was Chloe. "Maybe," he said
aloud, "but Effram Griggs isn't. Running the only bank in town went
straight to his head fifteen years ago, and it's only gotten worse
since."
    She sniffled and raised