Read Online Lone Star Wedding by Sandra Steffen - Free Book Online Page A

had her baby, and she had theirs. And she was so confused and so utterly tired. Why, lately she’d become as boring as Hannah. That was why she’d decided to come into San Antonio tonight. She’d needed to get out, to have a little fun. She’d been a long time without a man.
    Smoothing a hand down her narrow hips, she settled a demure smile into place and set off for the club down the street. It shouldn’t take her long to find what she needed.
    â€œPretty is as pretty does,” she whispered to herself.
    She wet her lips and eased her hips into a traffic-stopping sway. Pushing through the nightclub’s door, she glanced casually around. Music blasted, but she was more interested in the heads that turned as she entered.
    All she’d thought about for weeks was her troubles. Tonight, she just wanted to have a little fun.
    Tonight, Maria Cassidy felt very pretty, indeed.
    Â 
    â€œWhat was her name?” Hannah asked.
    Parker’s silence forced her to stop fiddling with the pink flamingo directly in front of her and look at him across the small table for two. He was wearing a gray suit and conservative tie. He had no business looking so utterly rugged and appealing.
    â€œHer name is Jolene. Divorce doesn’t change people irrevocably, Hannah.”
    A shudder went through Hannah. Ignoring her meal, she leaned forward, wishing there was some way to make Parker see that he was wrong. Divorce did change people. Oh, they usually recovered, but not without scars.
    She’d been thinking about Parker ever since he’d left her sitting on the stairs after their walk last night. She’d thought about canceling their dinner date for tonight, butshe hated to go back on her word, even if she had agreed to have dinner with him while she’d been speechless over the revelation that he’d been married.
    He’d said once was enough. Since Hannah wasn’t looking for anything less than forever, this could very well be the last time she saw him. First, she wanted to open his eyes to the possibility that he was wrong about divorce. She wanted him to realize that it wasn’t something people did without heartache. Couldn’t he see that most people mourned the end of a marriage? What he did for a living wasn’t illegal. She wasn’t so sure about unethical. She wished Parker didn’t view it as a swift and final ending. Pain and loneliness didn’t often end with the judge’s decree.
    So she’d kept her date for dinner, but she’d insisted upon meeting him here, at The Pink Flamingo. She wanted to be close to home. For some reason she felt that as long as she remained on her own turf, so to speak, there would be less risk to her heart.
    Spearing a lettuce leaf, she said, “ Is she pretty? Never mind. You don’t have to answer that. Your wife would have had to be pretty, wouldn’t she, Parker?”
    â€œThat depends. Was that a compliment or an insult?”
    She shook her head, because it was neither. It was just a fact.
    Parker Malone kissed like a dream, he had a quick wit and a sharp mind. He made her think, and he kept her on her toes. Tonight, she was being careful not to let him sweep her off them. Going back to her salad, she said, “Where is she now?”
    â€œLast I knew she’d moved to Cleveland.”
    â€œDo you miss her?”
    He lifted his glass of wine to his lips. “No.”
    â€œDid you love her?”
    He shrugged. “I thought I did. Later I realized it wouldn’t have mattered who the girl was. I’d finished college and had started practicing law. It was time for the next step. I took it. A few years later I took the next one and got a divorce.”
    â€œYou’re a cynical man, Parker.”
    â€œThat’s what she said.”
    Hannah wondered if Jolene had loved Parker. Probably. She’d read somewhere that women lived their lives through their hearts, and men lived theirs