Read Online Courting Trouble (The Texas Two-Step Series, Book 3) by Kathy Carmichael - Free Book Online Page B

but he was making her nerves ping-pong around in her chest. So much was at stake here, at least for her and the state of her heart.
    "You're holding hands with a SLIder, Alec. It's short for people who have Street Light Interference Syndrome. I'm not the only person to have this problem. But it seems to be getting worse."
    Why didn't he say something? Why did he just sit there, waiting for her to go on?
    She'd rather get up and run for the nearest ladies room. That wasn't a real option, though, because sooner or later it would come to this again and he'd tell her sayonara. He'd say it had been fun and he'd disappear from her life as soon as possible. No one wanted to hang around with someone who was deluded—or worse, a professional jinx.
    She was almost too miserable to identify the sound when she heard Alec laugh.
    It was so startling, and so unexpected, that she looked at him without intending to do so. Had he not taken her seriously? She guessed not, since he continued to laugh and now slapped his hand on the table.
    When was the idiot going to stop the chortling? Everyone in the bar had turned to stare at him. At them. If there was one thing she really hated, it was being a spectacle, and Alec was making her one.
    "Alec, shut up."
    "So, why didn't you want to fly to Dallas?"
    He thought she'd been joking. What an "A" number one idiot he was. "Stop it, Alec, or I swear I'm going to slug you."
    "Why don't you magnetize me, instead? Surely that's a more dire threat?"
    "It was an accident! But if you're not careful, and you make me really angry—"
    "I know, I know. You'll make forks attack me."
    "Alec, I'm trying to be serious here."
    "Electromagnetically impaired? You call this cockamamie story serious? I've heard some good ones before but this takes the cake, Diedra. No one is a jinx. And if you really think you are, it's a self-fulfilling prophesy. Anytime anything goes wrong, you're the first to take the blame. If anyone should be mad, I should be that you'd think I'd buy into it."
    "I should have known better." Diedra stood but Alec took hold of her arm and gently pressed her back into the chair. For the first time, she allowed him to look her directly in the eye and that seemed to calm him further.
    "You're serious?"
    She raised both brows.
    "And you don't want to fly home because—oh, hell. The engine? You truly believe you did that to the engine?"
    Diedra bit her lip as the full implications of what she'd told him hit home. He stared off for a minute and looked back at her with amazement.
    "Whenever anything goes wrong, you're responsible? It couldn't possibly be coincidence? You're taking this bad-luck thing way too far, Diedra."
    "I've flown before without a problem, but since I've come home, my problem seems to be getting worse. I should have realized I might endanger other people, but I didn't think." It was everything she could do to keep a tear from leaking out of her watery eyes. She hadn't thought. Had that always been her real problem? She should have thought before she'd gotten on that plane.
    She'd been fortunate, though. The pilot had been skilled and landed them all safely. But she wouldn't make that mistake again. "So, do you believe me?"
    She felt every muscle in her body clench, waiting for his answer. Waiting for his reaction.
    "I'll grant that you're accident prone." He nodded. "I believe you think you're a jinx."
    "Then you understand why I can't risk another flight. I'll go see if I can find a rental car. If you fly back, then maybe you'll have found Meagan by the time I get in."
    "You're not going anywhere without me. Good heavens, Diedra, you're a walking catastrophe. You need me there just in case."
    Great, now he wanted to protect her. That was better than being labeled a loony, but it wasn't much better. "I've been able to take care of things by myself all these years, Alexander Charles, and I sure as tootin' don't need you to butt in now."
    "We'll argue about this on the way home, Diedra.