Read Online The Delacourt Scandal by Sherryl Woods - Free Book Online Page B

for, another supposedly chance encounter.
    “Fancy meeting you here,” she said.
    “Are you sure you didn’t plan it?” Tyler teased.
    Of course she had, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “You’re not the only man in here.”
    “Just the only one you’ve ever spoken to,” he reminded her, sliding onto the stool next to hers and ordering a beer. “Where have you been?”
    “Why? Did you miss me?” The flirtatious remark slipped out before she could control it.
    “Desperately,” he said lightly. “So what’s the deal? Have you started a new job?”
    Actually she’d been concentrating on the old one, but she could hardly share that little tidbit with him. “No. I’ve just been busy.”
    “Doing?”
    “This and that.”
    “Are you being deliberately mysterious, Maddie Kent?”
    “It’s a woman’s best weapon,” she informed him.
    “I didn’t know we were at war.”
    “We’re not. I was speaking generally.” She grinned at him and ignored the alarm bells blaring in her head. Unfortunately, she was getting used to the sound. It didn’t have the power to shake a little sense and restraint into her as it once had.
    “So, did you really miss me?” she asked again. “Tell the truth.”
    He matched her grin. “Nope. Too busy.”
    She tried not to feel deflated. “Doing what?”
    “This and that.”
    She laughed. “Okay, touché.”
    “Have dinner with me. We can catch up.”
    “You make it sound as if we’re long-lost friends who have years of separate lives to share.”
    “Sometimes even a couple of days can seem like a lifetime,” he said, his tone serious while his eyes sparkled with amusement. “Besides, we just met. We have been apart for years. There’s a lot to catch up on.”
    “You are an outrageous flirt, Tyler Delacourt. Any woman who takes you seriously needs to have her head examined.”
    “Then don’t take me seriously,” he advised. “Just dinner, a little conversation. Nothing dangerous in that, is there?”
    If only he knew, she thought, even as she nodded an acceptance.
    “Not here,” he said, tossing some bills on the bar to pay for their drinks. “It’s too noisy. There’s a littleItalian place around the corner that makes a lasagna that will bring tears to your eyes.”
    She laughed at that. “I almost never cry over my food. It ruins the flavor.”
    “Nothing could ruin this. Anna Maria deserves to be canonized for her lasagna.”
    As it turned out, he wasn’t exaggerating. The huge square of lasagna was by far the best pasta Maddie had ever put in her mouth. She didn’t have room for even half of it. Not that it went to waste—Tyler happily nabbed the remainder.
    “Do you have a bottomless pit for a stomach or something?” she asked, moaning. Her own stomach felt stuffed.
    “I’m not the one who filled up on garlic bread before the meal came,” he retorted.
    “It was too good to pass up.” She’d also had some crazy idea that the garlic might ward off any amorous advances, something similar to its effect on vampires, perhaps.
    She propped her chin on her hand and met his gaze. “How come you haven’t gone back to work? Didn’t you tell me you were planning to head back to Baton Rouge anyday?”
    “I was, but something came up at the office, and Dad coaxed me into pitching in here until my brother Michael gets back from his honeymoon.”
    “When will that be?”
    “It seems to change from day to day. I spoke to my brother just yesterday. He’d talked to Dad, who’d told him that I had everything under control. Michael was considering extending their trip for another week or ten days. Dad had already assured him that theirkids are having a blast staying on the ranch with Trish.”
    “My, my, he is good, isn’t he?”
    “Who?”
    “Your father. Sounds like he found a very clever tactic to get you to stick around indefinitely. Stir up a little crisis here, a little emergency there. Keep your brother conveniently out of town. Are you so