Read Online Love on Trial by Diana Palmer - Free Book Online

ordered for her. She took a long, deep swallow of it and willed her strung nerves to relax. She couldn’t afford to think about him like that. Hawke wasn’t a manageable boy like Mark. He was a man, and he didn’t play games. The chaste kisses she was used to wouldn’t come near to satisfying someone like Hawke; she knew that without being told. And, for her, anything deeper was out of the question. She couldn’t make that kind of commitment.
    Her eyes involuntarily sought him out. He was talking to someone now; a tall, skinny blond man with a mustache. Theirconversation was intent, and Hawke frequently nodded. The blond man finished his drink and left the bar. Hawke came back to the booth, carrying a tumbler of what was obviously scotch and water on the rocks.
    â€œWell?” she asked loudly, hoping that her nervousness wouldn’t show.
    He finished the drink in one swallow. “We’ve got to talk. Let’s go upstairs.”
    She gathered up her purse and followed him, away from the shuddering impact of the music. She didn’t want to go back to that lonely suite with him. Not yet, not feeling this kind of longing when he could read her expressions like the weather report. But, there was no hope for it. And she was curious about what had happened to make him look so solemn.
    Going down the hall, Siri sidestepped to keep from colliding with another couple and heard Hawke’s sudden, deep, “Well, I’ll be damned!”
    â€œThat depends on how good you are between now and the day your number’s up,” came the laughing reply from the tall, blond man who grabbed Hawke’s outstretched hand and shook it heartily. “Hawke Grayson! God, it’s been years! The only time I see you now is on the news or in the papers. You remember Kitty, don’t you?”
    Hawke grinned down at the petite little blonde hanging on to the tall man’s sleeve. “How could I ever forget your wife?” he asked. “Just as pretty as ever, too.”
    â€œYou lawyers are all alike,” Kitty said through a blush, smiling shyly at the husky, dark man.
    â€œRandy, Kitty, this is my partner’s daughter, Cyrene Jamesson,” Hawke said, introducing the couple to his puzzled companion. “Siri, these are the Hallers. Randy and I went through law school together. Our families were neighbors in Charleston.”
    â€œI’m very glad to meet you,” Siri said politely.
    â€œAh, that’s because you don’t know us yet,” Randy told her with a twinkling smile.
    â€œHonestly, Randy,” Kitty muttered. “Siri, you’ll have to excuse him, it’s spending so much time around crazy people that does this to him.”
    Siri grinned back. “I know all about crazy people.”
    â€œAmen,” Hawke said with a long-suffering expression. “Meet the poor man’s Lois Lane. Siri,” he explained, “is a police reporter.”
    â€œSo you report policemen.” Randy smiled blankly. “Good for you. Who do you report them to?”
    â€œIt runs in his family, you know,” Kitty said in a conspiratorial tone. “His grandfather was a ballet dancer.”
    â€œMy God, why did you have to shame me like that?” Randy groaned. “Conjuring up images of an old man parading in a pink ruffled tutu.”
    â€œHow would you like to come up to our suite for coffee?” Kitty asked quickly. “If you’re not in a hurry….”
    Hawke took Siri’s arm. “No hurry,” he replied. “We’d enjoy it.”
    â€œOf course,” Siri seconded, but her mind was on what Hawke had discovered in the bar.
    Â 
    Siri liked the Hallers. Randy possessed not only a keen wit, but an inquiring mind to go with it; a fact that became quickly apparent the minute he and Hawke began discussing law. Kitty was open and friendly and simply loveable. She and Siri found an instant rapport and spent