What She Wants. Sheila Roberts
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Название: What She Wants
Автор: Sheila Roberts
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Серия: MIRA
isbn: 9781472074614
isbn:
“Well, all the better for me,” Kyle said gleefully. “I’ll have you guys fleeced by the time he gets here.” He rubbed his hands together. “I’m feeling lucky tonight.”
He proved it by raking in their money.
“Bernardo, you should just empty your pockets on the table as soon as you get here,” Adam joked. “I’ve never seen anybody so unlucky at cards.”
“That’s because I’m lucky in love,” Bernardo insisted.
His remark wiped the victory smirk right off Kyle’s face. “Chicks,” he muttered.
“If you’re going where I think you’re going, don’t,” Adam said, frowning at him.
“What?” Kyle protested.
Adam pointed his beer bottle at Kyle. “If I hear one more word about Jillian, I’m gonna club you with this.”
“Oh, no,” said a deep voice. “I thought you clowns would be done talking about women by now.”
Jonathan turned to see Vance strolling into the room, stylish as ever in his favorite black T-shirt, baggy jeans and sandals. In honor of the occasion he hadn’t shaved. Aside from the extra pounds (well, and that bald spot on the top of his head), he wasn’t too bad-looking. His sandy hair was shot with gray but he had the craggy brow and strong jaw women seemed to like even in a big man. They were wasted on Vance; he wasn’t interested. “Been there, done that,” he often said.
“We’re finished talking about women,” Adam assured him.
Vance clapped him on the back. “Glad to hear it, ’cause the last thing I want after a hard day’s work is to listen to you losers crab about them.”
“I wasn’t crabbing,” Kyle said, looking sullen.
Vance sat down at the table. “It’s that babe where you work, isn’t it? She got your jockeys tight again?” Kyle glared at him, but Vance waved off his anger with a pudgy paw. “You know, women can sense desperation a mile away. It’s a turnoff.”
“And I guess you’d be an expert on what turns women off,” Adam teased.
“There isn’t a man on this planet who’s an expert on anything about women. And if you meet one who says he is, he’s lying. Now, let’s play poker.” Vance eyed the pile of chips in front of Kyle. “You need to be relieved of some of those, my friend.”
“I think not,” Kyle said, and the game began in earnest.
After an hour and a half, Vance announced that he had to tap a kidney.
“I need some chips and salsa,” Adam said, and everyone took a break.
“Did you get the announcement in the mail?” Kyle asked Jonathan.
No, not this again.
“What announcement?” Adam asked.
“High school reunion,” Kyle said. “Fifteen years.”
Jonathan had gotten the cutesy little postcard with the picture of a grizzly bear, the Icicle Falls High mascot, lumbering across one corner. And of course, the first thing he’d thought was, maybe Lissa will come. That had taken his spirits on a hot-air balloon ride. Until he’d had another thought. You’ll still be the Invisible Man. That had brought the balloon back down.
“Yeah, I got it,” he said. “I’m not going.”
But Rand probably would. Rand and Lissa, together again.
Now his balloon ride was not only over, the balloon was in a swamp infested with alligators. And poker night was a bust.
Just like his love life.
Chapter Two
Poker night hadn’t ended well for Kyle. Vance, the old buzzard, had picked him clean. And that set the tone for the weekend.
Saturday was nothing but chores and errands. He filled the evening playing War on Planet X with a bunch of online gamers, which left him feeling unsatisfied. He was getting too old for this crap. He needed more in his life. It seemed like everybody was getting paired up but him.
He was even more aware of this fact when he went over to his folks’ house for Sunday dinner and learned that his baby sister had gotten engaged. Of course he’d seen it coming for months and he was happy for her. But now it was official—he was the last of the three siblings left unattached. And Kerrie was four years younger, which didn’t help. Neither did remarks like, “We have to find somebody for Kyle.” He didn’t need his baby sister finding someone for him.
He’d found someone. All he had to do was make her realize he was the man for her.
Well, the weekend was over and it was a new day. TGIM—Thank God It’s Monday. He walked through the glass doors of Safe Hands Insurance Company and into the lobby with its modern paintings, the strategically placed metal sculpture of two giant hands stretched out in a gesture of insurance paternalism, and plants that looked like they’d escaped from an African jungle. He kept his eyes front and center, because there, straight ahead, was the receptionist’s desk.
Behind it sat a vision. Jillian. She had long, reddish-blond hair that she tossed over her shoulder when she talked, full, glossy lips he dreamed of kissing, a perfect nose and sky-blue eyes. Blind sky-blue eyes. One of these days she was going to see him, really see him. Maybe even this morning.
He sure saw everything about her. Today she was wearing a white blouse that plunged in a V pointing to her breasts—as if a man needed any help finding them—and she’d worn a necklace made up of glass baubles to fill the gap between neck and heaven. She’d tucked her hair behind her ears, showing off dangly earrings that matched the necklace. She had a funny little habit of tapping her pencil on the desk as she talked on the phone, which she was doing now. The call only lasted a moment. She pushed a button and sent the caller on, probably to one of the bosses. Such an efficient woman.
Now she smiled as she caught sight of him walking down the hall in his gray slacks and his white Oxford shirt, his hair slicked into the latest style (at least according to the new barber he’d gone to at Sweeney Todd Barbershop—the one highlight of his weekend). He puffed out his chest and donned his best smile. He did have a good smile; even his sisters said so.
Oh, man, look at the way her eyes lit up at the sight of him. It was the hair, had to be. He forced his chest to swell to its fullest capacity.
Look at that smile. She had a great smile and she used it a lot. When a woman smiled a lot, it meant she was happy and easygoing. That was exactly the kind of woman Kyle wanted.
He was almost at her desk when he realized they weren’t making eye contact. She was looking beyond him.
Then he heard a rich tenor voice behind him say, “Jillian, you’re especially beautiful this fine morning.”
Ted Darrow, the ass-wipe. Kyle’s supervisor. Kyle could feel his smile shrinking even as he shrank СКАЧАТЬ