Read Online Grady's Wedding by Patricia McLinn - Free Book Online Page A

her hand. She plays to the death.”
    “Look who’s talking,” Bette interjected, then turned to Leslie. “I never knew sailing could be a contact sport until I went out with Paul last spring. He told me we were going sailing with Grady, but what he really meant was we were in one boat and Grady was in another and then each tried his damnedest to sink the other. I was expecting skull and crossbone flags to be unfurled any moment.”
    “Just a little friendly competition,” said Paul, but with a grin lurking. “Right, Roberts?”
    The odd tension had left Grady. Even before he chuckled and started an anecdote of the boyhood competition he and Paul had indulged in, Leslie knew the conversational diversion his friends had constructed had served its purpose; he was back to being himself.
    She didn’t doubt that Grady had been disturbed. She didn’t doubt his friends had stepped in to both give him time to recover his equanimity and to direct the conversation away from whatever had triggered his reaction.
    She was surprised by his reaction. And she had no clue what had triggered it.
    * * * *
    She’d outsmarted herself, and Grady took full advantage of it.
    After a dinner that turned out surprisingly well despite the chaos of six chefs bumping into one another in a one-person kitchen, the rain-cooled air prompted them to settle in the living room.
    He deliberately chose a corner of the love seat, then watched Leslie pick a chair at the opposite end of the conversation area—not far in the compact arrangement.
    He recognized the exact moment she realized that sitting opposite him meant she looked right at him, and he looked right at her.
    But he refrained from making obvious eye contact as the talk flowed. From plans for the next day—all agreed to let the day develop as it would; “Paul’s favorite kind of plans,” teased Bette, “no plans.”—to the success of Paul’s exhibit to Michael’s work as an aide to a senator from Illinois to Bette’s arrangement to make her longtime assistant a full partner in Top-Line Temporaries.
    “It’s ideal. Darla says that with her youngest child going off to college this fall, she wants to go full steam ahead with her career so—”
    “But she’s too smart to work the kind of hours you were working,” interjected Paul.
    “Are you saying I wasn’t smart?”
    “I couldn’t ever say that, since you picked me. Let’s just say you were in need of some diversion.”
    “And you are very diverting, Cousin Paul,” contributed Tris, catching the peanut he tossed and popping it in her mouth.
    “To get back to what I was saying,” Bette resumed sternly, but with a smile, “Darla’s going to run Top-Line full-time the first few months while I stay home with the baby. After the first of the year, I’ll go in a couple days a week, and work from home through the computer linkup Grady’s setting up for us.” Grady was aware of Leslie glancing at him, but when he looked at her, she’d already turned back to Bette. “That way I can spend more time with the baby.”
    “Have you decided on names?” asked Michael.
    Grady slipped away from the current of the conversation. Was Leslie surprised he knew enough about computers to help Bette set up? Not very flattering. Even less flattering, was she surprised he would help?
    He stared at her, and gradually awareness of her discomfort surfaced. Too bad, he thought, tuning in enough to know the talk still centered on the baby. On the creation of a family that Paul and Bette were embarking on.
    A family. Paul and Bette having their own family.
    A sourness trickled through him. He’d never felt this before. He wondered, dispassionately, if this was what envy felt like. If so, he understood a lot better the bitter expressions of some who’d looked at his money, his looks, his lifestyle. Not a pleasant sensation at all.
    Not that he wanted to get married. He wasn’t ready. Far from it. Still, to have a family . . .
    He jerked his