Read Online Maxine by SUE FINEMAN - Free Book Online Page A

surrounded the bay, giving protection to the fishing and pleasure boats docked there. Businesses hugged the waterfront and homes covered the hillsides. Primarily a fishing village, Gig Harbor also catered to tourists who shopped in the quaint little stores ringing the harbor.
    While Angelo went down the street to shop for Cara’s clothes, Nick and Tony shopped for groceries. Nick scanned the list and smiled. Tampons. She actually put tampons on the grocery list.
    “What’s so funny?” asked Tony.
    “Nothing.” Nick scanned the shelves and moaned. “Sixteen million different kinds of the damned things.”
    Tony glanced around nervously, obviously embarrassed to be standing in the aisle with feminine hygiene products. “Jeez, Nicky. What if someone sees you?”
    “They’ll think I got lucky.” Nick picked a box and tossed it into the cart.
    Tony glanced at the cart, which was nearly overflowing. “Is that it?”
    “Almost.” Nick picked out two cartons of ice cream, rocky road and butter pecan. He usually bought the most inexpensive kind, but not today. This time he wanted the best, no matter what it cost. For Cara.
    <>
     
    The trip back with Tony was uneventful. Nick smiled when he saw Cara standing on the dock, wearing his baggy old sweats, curls blowing around her face, waving at the boat.
    “Will you look at her,” said Tony. “She’s looking better all the time.”
    “Yeah, she’s feeling better, too.” So much better, he was afraid she’d leave him soon. Funny how he couldn’t wait to hand her off to someone else in the beginning. Now she’d become an important part of his life.
    Tony sighed. “If I had a woman like that, I’d find a way to hold onto her.”
    If only he could. But Cara lived in a different world.
    Nick eased the boat up to the dock and Riley jumped on board, wagging his tail. After they tied up, Nick handed Cara the bags of clothes. “Angelo said your change is in the bag with the socks.”
    “How did the boat handle?”
    Nick grinned and set two bags of groceries on the dock. “Great. What are you going to name her?”
    “What do you suggest?”
    Only one name came to mind. He gazed into her eyes and told her. “Maxine.”
    She laughed that wonderful throaty, sexy laugh. Did she have any idea what that laugh did to him? Or that smile? Or those beautiful blue-gray eyes? No, probably not. Cara was the most unassuming woman he’d ever met. She wasn’t beautiful, yet beauty emanated from her. She seemed to think people liked her only for her money, but she was wrong. He liked her, he was crazy about her, but all that money built a wall between them. He learned a long time ago that there were two kinds of people in this world—the haves and the have-nots. And the two didn’t mix.
    He had to keep reminding himself of that.
    Especially when she laughed.
    <>
     
    Furious at not finding Cara in Spokane, Lance returned to Seattle to find another bill from the private investigator. The rent payment was late and the utility bills were all overdue. He threw the bills on the desk. “Damn you, Cara.” He needed money and he needed it now.
    Sally called that evening and told him that no one at the estate had heard from Cara, and Lance knew what to do. That house was filled with priceless paintings. The sale of one would keep him afloat until he found Cara, and he knew just the man for the job.
    Sally had had a run-in with Cassie, a cook at the estate, and Lance had promised to take care of the problem. He’d told Mr. Pettibone, Cara’s uptight butler, to fire Cassie two weeks ago, but she was still there. Time for a trip not only to fire Cassie, but to take control of the estate. He smiled to himself. Poor, confused Cara couldn’t do it herself.
    Minutes later, with Cara’s jet on the way to Seattle, Lance called an old friend, a professional art thief who knew how to choose the right piece and where to fence it to get the best price. Lance was determined to take what he wanted.