Better Than Chocolate Read Online Free PDF

she
ever want to try and have a serious relationship? Her parents had had a great
marriage. It could be done. Every man out there wasn’t a Waldo or a Richard. And
just because she’d picked one Mr. Wrong didn’t mean she couldn’t find Mr. Right.
Although she was beginning to wonder what the odds of that were. She hadn’t
dated anyone since college who even qualified as Mr. Maybe. Sheesh.
    Look at it this way, she told
herself. Your life has nowhere to go but up.
    * * *
    Or not. At the office the next morning Samantha ground
her teeth as she sat at Waldo’s old desk, which was now going to be hers, and
sorted through a mountain of papers in preparation for meeting with Lizzy, who
had, thank God, consented to return. There was the mock-up for their spring
catalog that he’d insisted on looking at three weeks ago and then ignored. And
what did he need with a week’s worth of old newspapers? In another pile she
found several threatening letters from suppliers who hadn’t been paid. She’d
have to start calling them this afternoon, explain about Waldo’s death and beg
for mercy. Oh, and here was a week-old invitation from Cascade Mutual to come to
their open house and meet the new manager, Blake Preston, who, according to the
invite, was anxious to assist her in any way he could.
    Blake Preston? The former football hero of Icicle Falls High?
He’d been four years ahead of her in school and she’d been too young for his
crowd, but it was a small school and everyone knew everyone. He’d winked at her
a few times when they’d passed in the hall, like that was supposed to make her
day. It had.
    Yes, good old Blake had been a player both on and off the
field. But how the heck had he wound up as a bank manager? Banking and football
didn’t exactly go hand in hand.
    She frowned, remembering the jocks she’d shared classes with as
a college business major, not to mention the one she almost married. Guys like
that spent more time studying their playbooks than listening to what the
professor had to say in lecture hall. Some of those doofs should never have been
given a business degree, but they’d gotten one, anyway. Her doof not only got a
degree, he’d dumped her and gotten the richest girl in their graduating class.
(And a cushy job with Daddy, too.) Thank God she’d gone out of state for her
college education. At least she’d never have to see him and Mrs. Doof again.
Wherever he’d ended up, he was probably busy ignoring his company to play golf
and lunch with his old frat buddies.
    So what old frat buddy had given Blake Preston entrée into the
world of banking? Whoever it was, he hadn’t done Icicle Falls any favor. She
tossed the invite in the wastebasket and kept digging.
    One more layer of paper down she found a ticking time
bomb—another piece of correspondence from the bank, this one not so nice. Her
heart shifted into overdrive and she fell back against Waldo’s big leather
chair, sure she was going to have a heart attack. There, under the Cascade
Mutual letterhead, was a cold but polite missive informing her stepfather that
Sweet Dreams was behind on its loan payment. “As you are aware”—were
they?—“Cascade Mutual Bank has a strict ninety-day grace period regarding
overdue installment payments. This grace period has expired on your note in the
amount of…”
    Ooooh. The numbers danced in front
of her eyes like tiny demons. No, this couldn’t be happening! She read on.
    “Because Sweet Dreams Chocolates and Cascade Mutual Bank have a
long-standing relationship, we are extending the grace period until February 28,
at which time the aforementioned amount is due in full. It is hoped this matter
can be resolved as soon as possible.”
    Only if she started printing money in the basement. What in the
name of Godiva was she going to do?
    Hyperventilate! A bag, where was a bag? She couldn’t breathe.
She was going to be sick. She needed chocolate! Her cell phone rang. The ring
tone—Gwen