Read Online Asking for Trouble by Rosalind James - Free Book Online

agree.
    “Alec,” Desiree said. “You didn’t buy this at a store.”
    “Let’s just say I called ahead.” He took the thing carefully
out of its case and put it around her neck. “Merry Christmas.” He gave her a
kiss. “You’re beautiful. Thanks for marrying me.”
    And that made Susie cry again, joining Mira, but then, Mira
had cried about five times already that day. Joe guessed that pregnancy really
did make women emotional, because he didn’t remember her crying this much the
year before. She’d cried at Alec and Rae’s wedding, but everybody’d done that,
everybody except him.
    Of course, Rae had to stand up and take her turn looking in
the mirror. “I am seriously overdressed for this event,” she said. She was
wearing camel-colored slacks and a brown sweater, and the pearls stood out
against the knit fabric as if they were lit from within. “We’re going to have
to get opera tickets or something, Alec.”
    “No, we’re not,” he said. “I hate opera. I’ll take you out
to dinner someplace really nice, how’s that?”
    “It had better be someplace really nice,” she said, fingering the rows of pearls.
    “I can probably manage that. How about coming over and
giving me another kiss? Don’t I get a thank-you?”
    “You get a thank-you,” she assured him. “You just needed to
let me look first.” And he did get it.
    And, Joe thought, he’d got it wrong again, or rather, he hadn’t
dared to get it right. He’d thought hard, as he thought every year, about what
to get Alyssa. He’d wanted to give her jewelry, because he knew as well as Alec
did that that was what you bought a beautiful woman. He wasn’t the most
romantic guy, but even he knew that. Jewelry was the best, when it was
appropriate. Which it wasn’t.
    But seeing the look on Alyssa’s face as she admired Rae’s
necklace, he wished he’d forgotten about what was appropriate and done it. He
hadn’t made quite as much from their partnership as Alec had—the CEO
always got the most, that was the way it worked—but he wasn’t too far
off. So, yeah, he could have bought Alyssa just about any necklace in the
world. If it had been right. Which it wasn’t.
    So he’d given her a box instead. Well, not just a box. A
carefully prepared case of emergency supplies for her car, because he’d seen
her car, and at some point, she was going to need emergency supplies. He knew
she wouldn’t have the right things in there, so he’d given them to her. A complete
tool kit, flares, a red signal flag for her antenna, a big Maglite flashlight
and a smaller one, extra batteries, a wind-up flashlight/radio combination in
case the batteries didn’t work, a first aid kit, a compact sleeping bag in case
she broke down someplace cold. Everything he could think of, and he’d had the
case specially made to hold it all, with dividers, so she could find things fast
in an emergency.
    It had been too big to put under the tree. He’d had to go
back into Alec’s bedroom for it, when it was time.
    “You’re clearly thinking I’m going to break down at any
moment,” she’d protested when she’d gone through it all.
    “Anyone can have an accident,” he’d said. “Anyone can have
an emergency. I just thought it was better if you were prepared. Because do you
have that stuff?”
    “Well, no,” she’d admitted. “I have a flashlight. Not sure if
the batteries work, though. I haven’t checked in a while.”
    Which had made everyone laugh, and which had given Joe a
little glow of satisfaction, because he’d been right, she’d needed it all, and
having it would make her safer. It might not be the most romantic present, but
it was what she needed, and didn’t that count?
    So, yeah. He’d felt pretty proud of it, but it wasn’t a
pearl necklace.

 
 

Moving On Up
    “I have an announcement to make.”
    That was Alec, and Alyssa looked up from her heaping plate
of Christmas dinner. She was definitely going
to have to take a walk