Read Online The Best for Last by Maria Geraci - Free Book Online

beautiful, intelligent young woman, thank you very much for that. If marriage and kids are in my future, then I still have plenty of time.”
    â€œOh, Katherine, you did know I was lying about the young part, didn’t you?”
    â€œBye, Mom. We’ll talk next week.”
    â€œBut—”
    Kitty hung up before her mother could say anything else. Good grief !
    She stood up from the table and smoothed down her lime green pencil skirt. She was a professional, and she had a client to impress and all sorts of important things to take care of today. She wasn’t about to let herself get rattled by a phone call from her mother!
    She glanced around the crowded café to see most of the patrons looking at her with…what? Curiosity? Sadness? It was true, the past few days had been…confusing. But she wasn’t jealous of her own father, for God’s sake! Because how messed up would that be?
    Kitty put on her bravest smile, raised her chin, and walked out the door.

CHAPTER SIX
    T here were times in a man’s life when he realized he had to step up to the plate. To grow a pair, so to speak. Steve thought he’d encountered those times before. Like when he’d decided to join the army. Or when he’d taken a chance and started his own company. But all that had been child’s play compared to what was happening at the moment.
    â€œYou seem uncomfortable,” said the middle-aged woman with the black glasses.
    â€œJust a little,” he confessed. This place wasn’t what he’d expected. It looked like some cozy den tucked away in the back of one of the spec houses he’d built over at Dolphin Isles. At least there wasn’t a couch. Just a few overstuffed chairs and a desk. No padded walls.
    Dr. Joanna Carson, LCP, smiled at him. “That’s a normal reaction when you first start therapy.”
    He waited for her to say something else, but she didn’t, which meant the ball was in his court. “Yeah, I guess.”
    â€œSo let’s talk about why you’re here.”
    â€œLike I said, I want to figure out what mistakes I made in my past marriages so I don’t make them again.”
    â€œBecause you’re thinking of getting remarried?”
    â€œMaybe. I don’t know. It depends.”
    â€œDepends on what?”
    â€œOn what you tell me.”
    â€œYou don’t strike me as the type of man who sits back and lets other people tell him what to do.”
    â€œListen, doc—”
    â€œPlease, call me Joanna.”
    â€œOkay, Joanna, I didn’t come here to listen to a bunch of platitudes. I really need your help. I don’t want to fu—I don’t want to screw up this time.”
    â€œWhy do you think you need help?”
    If the next words out of her mouth were “ And how do you feel about that? ” he was out the door. When he’d walked by her office the other day on the way to the construction site, he’d taken it as a sign. He’d checked out her credentials online, but that still didn’t mean she wasn’t a quack. Maybe this had been nothing but a big mistake.
    â€œI’ve been divorced three times. Most people would say there’s something wrong with me.”
    â€œDo you think there’s something wrong with you?”
    â€œMy third wife told me the other day that I was a cold son-of-a-bitch.”
    â€œAre those your words or hers?”
    â€œMine,” he admitted.
    She kept her expression neutral. “And is that how you see yourself?”
    He hesitated. There was no good way to answer that question. Not without validating Terrie’s opinion of him.
    â€œLook, Steve, this isn’t going to work if you’re not honest. What is it about the idea of therapy that you dislike?”
    â€œIt’s just not for me.”
    â€œYet, you’re here. No one forced you to walk through my door the other day to make an appointment. Did