Read Online His Best Friend's Baby by Janice Kay Johnson - His Best Friend's Baby - Free Book Online Page B

have seen him stop on the way up the walk, because she said, “I hired a lawn service. I shouldn’t have let you do it as long as you did. I’m sorry.”
    So as he followed her in, he asked who she’d hired. After she told him, he merely asked whether she’d shopped around, and suddenly she was mad.
    “You know, I’m not quite as stupid as you seem to think I am. I made it on my own for a lot of years before I met Dean.”
    Uh-huh. Two or three years, maybe.
    “Did you ever have a lawn?” he asked.
    Eyes glittering with anger way out of proportion to the argument, she snapped, “Did I miss something? Is shopping for the best price to have your lawn mowed any different than shopping for someone to replace your garbage disposal?”
    “I just asked.”
    “No, you assumed!”
    “As far as I could tell, Dean took care of you.”
    She stiffened. “So you felt obligated to continue the job? Isn’t that a little above and beyond the call, Quinn? It’s not like you signed on to the job like Dean did.”
    His grip on his temper slipped. “And I have to ask myself a dozen times a day whether he had the slightest idea what he was doing when he signed on.”
    “You know, somehow I could tell. You never gave me any slack, Quinn. Not even for Dean’s sake.”
    He hadn’t seen that knife coming before it slipped between his ribs. But he wouldn’t let himself wonder if she was right, if he should have tried harder for Dean’s sake. What did she know about the kind of friendship that saved two lost kids, that gave each the bedrock to build a life on? She didn’t even have a friend close enough to call when her husband was murdered!
    Quinn gave her a scathing look. Funny time to notice she’d painted her toenails again. Pale pink. Nothing vivid, but a sign of recovery.
    “Maybe that’s because I was too good a friend to shrug and say, ‘Hey, guy. Learn from your mistakes. Divorce. Broken heart. Whatever. You’ll get over it.’”
    Voice crackling with anger, she said, “And you were so sure I was going to break his heart because... ” Then she shook her head and made a disgusted sound. “You know what, Quinn? I don’t care why you don’t like me. Unlike you, for Dean’s sake I tried to be friends. But I don’t have to try anymore. I’m grateful for what you’ve done, even though I know it was done out of love for Dean, not out of any sympathy for me. But I can manage on my own now.” She marched to the front door and held it open. “You’re a free man, Quinn. Consider your obligation canceled. Go back to your life.”
    He laughed in disbelief. “With pleasure!” Three strides and he was out the front door into the warmth of the June day, the scent of newly mown grass filling his nostrils. Hearing the quiet sound of the door shutting behind him, he only wished this was it, that he’d never see her again.
    But he knew better. Unfortunately for him, she’d be calling. She wasn’t stupid, he didn’t believe that, but her real-life skills were not what he’d call impressive. She’d get the paperwork for the sale of Fenton Security and not be able to make heads or tails out of it. Or her cute little BMW would break down some day, and who would she call? A scary sound in the night, and his phone would be ringing. Lucky him.
    He was just grateful that she would have enough cushion of money to let her go back to school—or take some time to find another husband. If Fenton Security had been in trouble and even the house had had to be liquidated to pay debts... Getting into his car and slamming the door, he shook his head. Got to love small favors.
    Right now, he’d just enjoy a brief vacation, so to speak. He’d hope for a week before she got over her snit and realized she needed him more than she resented him.
    * * *
    A WEEK TURNED INTO TWO before Quinn knew it. High-profile murders tended to suck up time in a big way, and this week’s was a doozy.
    A hot young rock star was in town to play the Key