An Offer He Can't Refuse Read Online Free PDF

apology?"
    Leaning against the back of her chair, she discovered she was smiling. "Apology?"
    "For the trouble I'm certain to cause you."
    "You won't cause me any trouble,"she scoffed.
    "You might be surprised," he warned.
    But she didn't take him seriously. Not when the worst trouble a design job had ever thrown her way was finding a fountain in the shape of a mammoth-sized sea urchin. She knew real trouble. She'd seen it, smelled it, been a part of it. "I'll take my chances."
    'Then you sound like my kind of woman. Still, is there something special you'd like from Las Vegas as thanks for the last-minute meeting?"
    "I wouldn't know what to ask for," she answered. "I've never been to Las Vegas."
    "Never?" He sounded shocked.
    "Never. My father cautioned me against gambling and gamblers a long time ago."
    There was a little pause. Then he laughed. It was low and intimate and the warm sound of it only added to Téa's certainty. Things were finally turning around for her. Not just for today, not just for her career. But for her
life
.
----
Four

     
"Ain't That a Kick in the Head"
    Dean Martin
    Return to Me
(1956-61)
    Whistling the cheery opening of a TVLand Andy Griffith
episode, Téa reached Johnny Magee's newly purchased property on El Deseo Drive. Its street frontage, two city blocks long, was screened by a twelve-foot-high wall of concrete block, the fencing material of choice in a climate that brutalized wood. He needed to contract with a landscaper as well, she noted. The intricate pattern created by the grainy, modular pieces was designed not only for beauty but for a practical flow of air, a purpose thwarted by the volunteer Mexican palms growing in profusion behind the wall. Their spiny fans thrust through the openings in the block as if to keep prying eyes out and dirty secrets in.
    Secrets.
    Her pursed lips sounded a sour note as the word crawled down her back. She couldn't help but think of her grandfather again. Or rather, she thought of that engraved invitation he'd sent. When she'd swung by the office to pick up the Magee portfolio, it had seemed to hiss at her from its place in her inbox.
    To drown out the memory, she took up whistling again, louder, and pressed her foot to the gas. Nothing was going to ruin this meeting, she promised herself. Checking her watch, she was pleased to see she was still early, as planned. That would give her a few minutes alone to polish the collected, capable first impression she intended to make on Johnny Magee.
    She turned into the driveway, following it past a tangle of overgrown vegetation and around a curve. Her foot shifted to the brake, slowing the Volvo as the drive dead-ended in front of a six-car garage. Other vehicles had beat her to the circular parking area, a gleaming Jag, a nondescript sedan, and a taxi-yellow moving van, its back gate lifted and ramp folded down. It appeared half-full of furniture.
    So much for a few minutes alone.
    Disappointed, yet curious all the same, she parked her car alongside the moving van then stepped around to its yawning opening to take a peek inside.
    From the dim interior came a feminine voice. "Téa?"
    She hid her guilty start by reaching for her sunglasses and sliding them down to squint toward the sound of her name. "Yes?"
    "Téa Caruso, what on
earth
are you doing here?" From out of the shadows, a woman strolled down the ramp of the truck as if it were a fashion runway, placing one strappy sandal in front of the other, heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe. "You're the last person I expected to see here."
    Téa pushed her sunglasses back and forced herself not to fidget. Lois Olmstead, she of the frosted-blonde hair, delicate features, and wrinkle-free wardrobe of a model for St. John resort wear, never ceased to make Téa feel rumpled and blowsy.
    It wasn't the other woman's fault, but one look from her and it was seventh grade all over again, the year Téa had gone from smug and chubby Mafia princess to a missing felon's fat daughter. In all