Traci On The Spot by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online

ears and screaming.”
    Just like old times. Traci grinned at Morgan over the rim of her mug. A cozy feeling nestled in her chest. “Nice to know nothing’s changed.”
    There he had to disagree. Again. A wholeworld had changed since they had sat here like this the last time. “But it has. We’re older. Reasonably successful—”
    “Not to hear your mother talk about it.”
    He knew what she meant. His mother heralded every win in court as if he had just singlehandedly preserved justice. “Or yours.”
    The wind was definitely getting louder. She took another sip of her coffee. The extra shot of warmth fortified her. “I guess they have a one-upmanship of their own going on.”
    There, at least, they were in agreement. But it was a friendly sort of thing between their mothers. Not like between them. He thought of the way they had taken an instant dislike to each other, much to their parents’ dismay. “I think we really disappointed them.”
    She set her mug down and leaned forward. Even in the fading light, his eyes were intensely green, she mused. “How so?”
    She was so close, he felt an overwhelming urge to touch his mouth to hers. The thought startled him. Morgan stared down into his almost empty mug. “I think they saw us winding up together.”
    Traci laughed, grateful she wasn’t drinking at the time. She would have choked. She sincerely doubted that her mother had ever thought of the two of them as a couple. Julia Richardson was far more perceptive than that.
    “Not if they were looking.”
    Fragments of a dozen different memoriesflashed through his mind. “I guess that does sound pretty crazy.”
    She didn’t quite like the way he said that. “Yeah, thinking I’d settle for you.”
    There it was again, that superior tone of hers. That hadn’t changed in more than twenty years. “I was thinking of it the other way around.”
    She sniffed and looked away. “You would.”
    His eyes narrowed. For a second, he was fifteen again. And she was thirteen. An annoying, bratty, know-it-all thirteen. “Yes, I would.”
    This time when she leaned across the table, her eyes were flashing. “What makes you think I’d want to be with you?”
    He rose in his chair, inch for inch. “What makes you think I’d want to be with you?”
    She waved her hand carelessly at him. “Nothing, except that for once you’d have shown more taste than to go mooning after a money-grasping Barbie doll.”
    All right, since she’d chosen to go down this path again, he’d call the shots. “And you’ve done better with your dentist?”
    He surprised her. It wasn’t like him to fight dirty. That was her domain. “You leave Daniel out of this. You don’t know anything about him.”
    Bull’s-eye. He’d gotten to her, he thought with a touch of smugness. He savored the tiny victory. “Word gets around. Your mother told my mother.”
    That didn’t make any sense. Anything hermother would have said would have been rosecolored. “My mother adores Daniel.”
    That might very well be true. When Morgan had called his mother last Friday, as soon as he’d read the cartoon, he’d been told that the man was practically sterling. But Morgan had also read between the platitudes.
    “From the description I got, your intended is as lackluster as liver.”
    Traci rose to her feet so quickly the chair almost fell over. She grabbed for it before it could crash to the side. Incensed, she came to Daniel’s rescue. “He is not. He’s an exciting, vibrant man.”
    Morgan wondered if Traci was trying to convince him, or herself. In either case, she wasn’t succeeding. He could see it in her eyes. “So, why are you having doubts?”
    Everything about her body language reminded him of a soldier preparing for battle.
    “I am not having doubts,” she lied.
    The higher her voice rose, the lower, calmer, his became. “Then why aren’t you wearing his ring?” A knowing smile took over. “Afraid a squirrel will mug you out here?”
    She