Prince Charming in Dress Blues by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online Page A

annoying.”
    He lifted one hand in mock exasperation and let it fall to the table. “No one understands me!” he proclaimed in a highly insulted tone.
    Annie laughed, and John was glad he’d been able to chase the shadows from her eyes. Annie Foster was getting to him in a way that no one else before her had. Listening to her talk about a childhood spent with parents who pretty much ignored her presence made him want to call his own mom just to say thanks.
    It also made him want to look out for Annie. To see that she never spent another lonely day.
    And admitting to that, even if only silently, gave him a hard jolt.
     
    “Oh, my God!” Lisa Jackson’s voice came over the phone line so loudly that Annie jerked the receiver away from her ear. Unfortunately, not quickly enough. She winced as Lisa continued. “John delivered the baby? In a blizzard?”
    “Actually,” Annie said wryly, “we were in the cabin. The blizzard was outside.”
    “Cute, girlfriend. Real cute.”
    Annie looked across the room at John where he sat on the couch, holding the baby and talking to her as if she really understood him. Something soft and warm wrapped itself around her heart, and a melting sensation pooled in her knees. So she sat down.
    “Is everything all right?”
    “Everything’s fine,” she told her best friend, smiling. “Jordan’s beautiful, and it finally stopped snowing. We may actually be able to drive down off the mountain by tomorrow or the next day.”
    If, she thought, the snowplow people were as efficient as the telephone company. They’d had the lines repaired almost as soon as the snow had stopped. And the minute the phone was working again, Lisa had called. She’d probably been dialing nonstop for the past couple of days.
    “How are you getting along with John?” Lisa asked, and Annie’s attention snapped back to the conversation.
    Hmm…she had to answer that question carefully, since John could hear every word she said.
    “Fine,” she said, and knew that wasn’t nearly what she wanted to say.
    She’d like to tell Lisa that John Paretti was kind and tender and funny and sweet and strong. She wanted to say that he made her go weak in the knees. That her heartbeat staggered whenever he smiled at her. She wanted to tell her friend how Jordan responded to the man and how good he was with the baby.
    But if she did say all of that out loud, it would make it real. So it was just as well, she thought, that she couldn’t say any of it.
    “Oh, yeah,” Lisa said, “’fine’ sounds like a good time.”
    John looked over at her and grinned. Annie’s heartbeat thundered in her chest. Fine with one man could be better than terrific with another one.
    “Fine’s not bad,” she said.
    “Oh, God,” Lisa muttered. “I can hear the sigh in your voice.”
    “No, you can’t,” she argued, though even she noticed she wasn’t denying the fact that the sigh was there.
    “Listen, honey, John’s a great guy, but—”
    “But?”
    “It’s just that you’re not his type.”
    Well that stung. “Is that right?”
    “Now, don’t go getting all offended on me.”
    “Did I say I was?”
    “No, but I heard it, anyway.”
    “Is there a problem?” John asked from across the room.
    “No problem,” Annie told him. “Lisa’s just having a psychic moment.”
    “Great,” he said, “ask her what we’re having for dinner.”
    “Oh, ha-ha,” Lisa said, obviously having heard John for herself. “Look, honey, you plus baby equals family. And that’s not something John Paretti’s looking for.”
    Not that she was interested or anything but, “And you know this how?”
    “Peter and John are good friends, and Peter’s always telling me about John’s way with women….” She paused for a long moment and chuckled as she said, “I think Peter’s living vicariously through John.”
    “Swell,” Annie said, glancing at the man whose gorgeous face was highlighted by the flickering light and shadow cast by