A Family Kind of Guy Read Online Free PDF

knuckles. “You and she had a thing once.”
    If you only knew. “A long time ago.” But it feels like yesterday.
    â€œOld feelings die hard.”
    â€œDo they?”
    â€œShe’s not married. Never been.” Jarrod twisted the knob and shouldered open the door. “It’s almost as if she’s been waiting for you.”
    Mason nearly laughed as he folded his arms over his chest. “My guess is that she’d just as soon spit on me as talk to me.”
    â€œStill blaming yourself for that accident?”
    Mason shrugged, as if he didn’t give a damn, but the muscles in his shoulders tightened like cords of a thick rope that had been wet and left to shrink in the sun.
    â€œHell, Lafferty, it wasn’t your fault.”
    Mason didn’t answer.
    Jarrod shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything, but you were bound to find out sooner or later. I was just letting you know that she’ll be back. She’s still a good-lookin’ woman—or so her old man brags—and still gonna inherit a pile of money, so if you’re not interested, I’m sure a lot of other men around these parts would be.”
    Jealousy, his old enemy, seeped into Mason’s blood. “Including you?”
    â€œMaybe,” Jarrod admitted with that lazy smile still fastened on his face. “You know it’s nice to keep it in the family, and now she’ll be my what? Stepsister?”
    â€œIf the wedding of the century ever comes off.” He knew that Smith was needling him, and yet he couldn’t take anything when it came to Bliss lightly. Even after ten years.
    â€œSee ya around.”
    â€œRight.”
    Jarrod left the door open when he left. Mason watched as his friend, wearing jeans, cowboy boots with worn heels and a faded denim jacket, sauntered out of the exterior office, stopping long enough to say a few words to Mason’s secretary, Edie, to make her blush.
    Jarrod Smith had a knack for breaking women’s hearts. Though he owed the man his life, Mason didn’t like the idea of Jarrod being anywhere near Bliss Cawthorne. She deserved better than to be another of Smith’s conquests.
    Oh, right, because you were so good to her.
    Frowning, he picked up his coffee cup and scowled as the weak, cold brew hit the back of his throat.
    Bliss Cawthorne.
    The princess.
    The one woman he could never quite wedge from his mind, even though he’d married another.
    In his mind’s eye, he saw her again at the edge of the cliff, slipping from his grasp. He heard the sound of his own terrified scream, felt that same horrifying certainty that she would be dead in an instant.
    But her old man had shown up just in time.
    Thank God.
    John Cawthorne had arrived on horseback, his foreman with him.
    â€œWhat’s going on here?” Cawthorne had shouted, then reached around Mason and grabbed hold of Bliss’s leg just as his own grip had given way.
    â€œHang on, Blissie—for the love of God, man, pull! Pull!”
    Mason’s ebbing strength had revitalized. Though pain jolted through his arm, he caught hold of her free leg and yanked. The two men dragged her back to the ledge, where she lay, eyes closed, blood streaming from the cuts on her head.
    â€œRide like hell to the truck, call the police and get a helicopter for her,” John commanded the foreman. Rain dripped from the brim of his hat; mud oozed around his boots. His face was etched in fear and his eyes, two smoldering blue coals, burned through Mason with a hatred so intense it nearly smelled. “You miserable son of a bitch, you nearly killed her.” He bent down on one knee and touched his daughter tenderly on the cheek. “Hang on, honey. Just hang the hell on.”
    The minutes stretched on.
    Mason was in and out of consciousness and barely heard the helicopter or the shouts from the pilots. Nor did he feel the whoosh of air as the rotor blades