Read Online Just the Man She Needs by Gwynne Forster - Free Book Online

Teddy went to bed, he usually worked. But on this night, he couldn’t summon the will. He went back to the phone and dialed his grandfather’s number.
    “This is Jake Underwood. What can I do for you?”
    “How are you, Granddad? This is Ashton. Everything all right?”
    “Everything’s fine. When you coming down here? Damon’s studying for his finals, Cade’s solving the world’s problems somewhere, and I need to do something about this riding school.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Either we expand it or close it. I have about two dozen requests that I can’t fill right now, because I need at least three more grooms and three mares. We have enough stallions. You know that most of our students are women and girls.”
    “You shouldn’t have responsibility for this, Granddad, but with Damon busy till June or whenever he passes the bar, I don’t see an alternative.”
    “I didn’t suggest that it’s too much for me, and it isn’t. I’m saying we need to make a business decision.” Ashton didn’t like the idea of his eighty-three-year-old grandfather holding down a full-time job, but Jacob—or Jake as he was known—Underwood had always worked and claimed he was happiest when his mind and hands were fully engaged.
    “All right. Teddy and I will be down this weekend, and maybe Damon can get away for one day. I’ll speak with him. Cade probably won’t be home for another week.”
    “We know where Cade stands. He always thinks big, so he’s going to say we should expand, but we need to study it.”
    After hanging up, Ashton reviewed his accountant’s report on Dream’s finances, decided how much additional stock he would purchase, closed his computer and flipped on the television. He didn’t want to watch television. He wanted Felicia. After pacing from one end of his room to the other, staring out of the window and retracing his steps, he went to the telephone and his fingers did the work for him.
    “Hello?”
    He sat down on the edge of his bed and let peace flow over him. “This is Ashton. I did not intend to call you tonight, but since you won’t leave my mind, I had no choice.”
    “Hi, Ashton. If that’s true, I’ve merely been repaying you.”
    “Are you suggesting that you’ve been thinking about me?”
    “No, I am not suggesting that, Ashton. I am stating it as a fact. Was Teddy awake when you got home?”
    “You bet. He wouldn’t have considered going near the bed. He and I have a pact. He keeps his promises and I keep mine. And his memory is infallible.” He didn’t care what they said to each other as long as he could talk with her. “Teddy is currently counting the days until Sunday.”
    “What happens Sunday?”
    “I’ve promised to play the piano for him, and that means playing it until he gets tired or sleepy.”
    “Do you play well?”
    “I chose between an M.B.A. and a graduate degree in music. I went for the M.B.A., because I love to eat, but I’m a pretty good musician. I just promised my granddad that Teddy and I would see him this weekend, and I don’t know whether that piano at home is tuned properly, but it will have to suffice. A promise is a promise.”
    “Where’s home?”
    “My granddad lives in Rose Hill, Maryland, and that’s still home for my brothers and me.”
    “Did you call to cancel our dinner date for tomorrow, Ashton?”
    “Is that a polite way of asking me why I called you? I don’t mind telling you that I’m still dealing with what went on between you and me today. I called you because I needed contact with you, because any contact was better than none. Does that answer your question?” The sound he heard could only have been that of Felicia sucking in her breath. He believed in honesty; she asked for it and he gave it to her. But he didn’t expect her to back down easily.
    “Are you still going to be circumspect when we meet tomorrow?”
    He couldn’t help laughing. “When we meet, yes. But if you have the effect on me that