The Right Medicine by Ginny Baird Read Free Book Online Page A

fit is right."
    He smiled and all reason plummeted to her stocking-clad toes.
    "You know, we offer an unconditional guarantee."
    "I'll keep that in mind," she said, drawing her purse in at her side and turning quickly on her heels.
    What was happening? Why in the world were her palms so sweaty and her legs trembling? Marie shot for the exit before her feet could give way.
    She thanked him again for his help, then pushed her way out the door to the street. She breezed past the paper turkey hanging on the front glass wall of the eye doctor's office. Eye doctor, her foot. He was more like some kind of psychic. A seer who could look right through her... and into the deepest depths of her soul.
    No, that was crazy! That sort of thing never happened. She'd only just laid eyes on him, for heaven's sake. So what if he had a body to die for, and a heart-stopping lopsided grin? So what if he'd asked her to lunch, indicating both his immediate interest and availability?
    She was not available—that was the important part. Marie glanced down at the meager blue stone on her left hand that served as an engagement ring. One of these days, Cecil was going to save enough cash from serving lattes to buy her a real diamond... That would be shortly after he finally sold his book and hell froze over, she thought with a slow, sad smile.
    She knew she should have more faith in Cecil, but, after five long years, it was getting hard. If only he weren't so faithful, it would have been a cinch to look for someone else. But the trouble with all those someone else's was that she wasn't good enough for them. Just like Paul, they'd nail her heart, then chase anything in a skirt.
    Not Cecil. Good old, reliable, thirty-eight-year-old Cecil. Though he was only six years her senior, at times Marie swore he was pushing one hundred.
    Marie found herself wondering briefly about the age of the optician. Though he was probably a little older than she, there was a vibrancy in his eyes that spoke of youthful vigor. Enduring vigor. A relentless, animalistic...
    She stopped herself, shocked at where her mind was going. Right down to his form-fitting jeans and dockside loafers. Then back up again—past his rock-hard torso and unforgettable smile, to his unnerving, brilliant blue eyes.
    No! She wouldn't do this! As she'd learned from her disastrous affair with Paul, animal attraction only went so far... before the other partner started monkeying around.
    It was better this way. Better with Cecil. Though he might not be the most exciting man Marie had ever met, he was certainly the most dependable. Five years together and he hadn't cast a roving eye at a single other woman. They got along, had some laughs. And, even though he never could interest her in that deep-thinking literary fiction that always had him so enthralled, at least they both liked to read.
    He worked in the cafe, she sold books. He, after all, wrote books—even if he couldn't sell them. There was a strange logic to their arrangement. And a comfort, too. From one day to the next, Marie knew that Cecil would be there. And until today... that had been enough.
     
    David absentmindedly twirled his pencil, then tapped its eraser against his ledger. Someday soon, his boss Caroline was going to spend her profits wisely and hire an official accountant. In the meantime, David looked at his chance to serve as both optician and bookkeeper as an opportunity. Next year, when he planned to open his own shop, the financial experience would come in handy. Then, he sighed, any rules about employee-client fraternization would be self-imposed. Or, not.
    David knew it was wrong, really wrong, to hit on the women who came in here. And he almost never did. But when they handed him their cell phone numbers with a wink and a smile and a maybe-we-can-see-each-other-sometime look, it was pretty damned hard to resist. He was a red-blooded male, just like the next guy. And when they had legs like Suzanne, or breasts like