Courting Trouble (The Texas Two-Step Series, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

pin, several small nails and a nut at Diedra's feet. What had the animal been up to? "I'm sorry, Alec. I'm back now. Do you think we should talk to the restaurant ahead of time so they'll be sure to seat us at the same table?"
    "I'll take care of it."
    After Diedra hung up, she found Tommy cowering beneath a potted palm. "What's wrong? You've been acting strangely all afternoon."
    She scooped up the fur ball. "Did the pin stick you?"
    Tommy blinked at her.
    Diedra ran her finger lightly over the cat's collar, looking for a puncture wound. As she did, another paper clip came off. What was going on? She slipped the collar off, and the cat seized the opportunity to escape from her arms.
    Good heavens. The collar had become magnetic. No wonder Tommy had bitten her. It had to be horribly uncomfortable, carrying around enough metal for a small junkyard. But how had this happened? She had a dim memory of rubbing a nail against a magnet once, and the nail became magnetic as well. What she couldn't figure out, though, was how that could happen to Tommy's collar.
    Just then, she heard the door buzzer. Someone was coming into the shop. She slipped the collar and her schedule into her skirt pocket and rushed out to greet the customer.
    She body slammed the doorjamb on her way.
    * * *
    Okay, so the woman was dangerous, thought A.C. He had no earthly reason to feel a sense of anticipation about seeing her again. No reason at all. It must be dread, not excitement.
    Yeah, dread could make your heart pound and your feet tingle. That left only one point still worrying him. He couldn't ever remember dread making him grin.
    Diedra had sounded so pitiful when she reminded him of his agreement to help. Not that it had happened often, but whenever he heard a woman using that sad, forlorn tone of voice, he was putty in her hands. What a wimp.
    He glanced at the mantle clock perched on the étagère beside his desk. It was almost time for Jeff and the fateful dinner. He'd already gotten Jeff's agreement to go out for dinner earlier in the day.
    Diedra had scheduled their supposed accidental meeting so nothing could screw things up. He was to leave the office with Jeff at exactly 6:45 p.m. Diedra's choice of a teppan yaki restaurant was a good one in that the seating was arranged around a grill and more than one party shared a table. He'd visited it at lunch and given the host twenty bucks to make sure they'd all be seated together. Jeff and Meagan wouldn't have a chance.
    He had been tempted to call Diedra and suggest a different place, though. Considering how accident prone she was, a teppan yaki restaurant offered a myriad of potential hazards. Other restaurants probably wouldn't be all that much safer, though, so he'd continued with the original plan.
    The problem now, though, was getting Jeff out the door on time. It was already forty minutes past six o'clock and Jeff still had a client in his office, Mimi LaPeugh.
    Mimi was actually A.C.'s client. He'd handled her last three divorces.
    When Jeff had returned from Denver, A.C. had been happy to offer him a position at his law firm. Jeff joining the practice had some downsides—Jeff wasn't the most responsible man in the world—but passing off ol' Mimi was one of the perks.
    She was attractive, but she had a brain the size of a bottle top. She oozed sex appeal and a man could find himself married to her before he realized the limits of her attention span—his credit-card limits.
    But A.C. needed to get rid of her, because otherwise he'd be in deep water with Diedra. This was one time he didn't want to foul up. Bringing Mimi might very well hamper their attempts to reunite Jeff and Meagan.
    A.C. left his office, tapped on Jeff's door and opened it. "Aren't you ready to call it a night?"
    "It's a night," cooed Mimi with a giggle.
    Jeff laughed. "We're just finishing up."
    The two of them didn't seem in any hurry to get out of their chairs. A.C. glanced at his watch. He had three minutes.
    He could