Great-Aunt Sophia's Lessons for Bombshells Read Online Free PDF

and wasting it!” Sophiasnapped, suddenly vehement. “Women’s Studies! Good Lord, can you think of a more useless way to spend her time?”
    “Yeah, but not a less appealing one. Would you rather she ran off to Hollywood to be an actress, like you did?”
    “At least I was out in the world. I wasn’t moldering in a library, trying to convince myself that anyone prettier than me was unhappy. What type of life philosophy is that? The girl is a coward.”
    “That’s why you were so hard on her?”
    “I had to see how deep it ran.”
    “What was your answer?”
    Sophia smiled. “We’ll see in the morning, won’t we? But I’ll bet you a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue that she stays.”
    Declan thought about it for a minute. “I always lose my bets with you, but you’re on.”
    They turned back toward the house, retracing their steps. It was dark now under the trees, small landscape lights along the path guiding their way. Strategically aimed uplights limned the branches of the older, wind-twisted cypresses. A glimpse of the house showed a warm orange rectangle of light spilling from the Garden Room, and the flicker of a shadow as someone passed in front of the window. So she hadn’t left yet. Declan felt a moment of pleasure despite the threat to his Johnnie Walker Blue and his uneasiness with the situation.
    He’d only ever heard Sophia make vague, disparaging remarks about her extended family, and he couldn’t fathom why she had invited Grace to spend the summer. No other relatives had ever come to visit, and his impression had been that she preferred keeping it that way.
    Nor had he ever seen her be so unpleasant upon first acquaintance.
    It wasn’t unusual for Sophia to take a young person under her wing—witness his own history with her—but he had the feeling that there was something different about her interest in Grace. Something unhealthy, even, and possibly harmful. Maybe those drugs Andrew was giving her were interfering with her thinking.
    He couldn’t trust his own take on the situation, though, given how much Grace’s appearance unnerved him. It was disturbing to see the ghost of Sophia’s features in a young, overripe woman who so obviously needed a good workout between the sheets. When he’d first met Grace on the stairs, he’d assessed her as “doable,” and in that moment when their eyes had met he’d known he could have her if he wanted. But she was Sophia’s grand-niece, and even worse, she was getting a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies. He’d downgraded her to “only if I was drunk,” although the lesbian subtext with Catherine had briefly revived his interest.
    “How is your love life?” Sophia asked, with uncanny timing. “Are you still dating the corporate attorney?”
    “Her, and a few others.”
    “Anyone special?”
    “One or two who want to be special, but no, no one serious.”
    “I’m beginning to worry, Declan. You’re thirty-four. If you don’t feel even the faintest urge to settle down . . .”
    “Then what?”
    “I hope you’re not one of those men who has to come to it the hard way.”
    “Shotgun wedding? They don’t do those anymore. It’s all paternity suits and child-support payments.”
    She shook her head. “I hope you’re not one of those who have to suffer a great personal loss before he can find the space in his heart to love a woman.”
    “I’ve been in love!”
    “Not since you were twenty. It’s not the same.”
    “But I love you . Surely that puts me in the safe zone?”
    She patted his arm.
    “You’re serious, aren’t you?” he asked.
    “You’re still young. I may be wrong.”
    “I’m not ready, that’s all. I’ve got too much to do. I’m still building my firm, and there’s the development project I’m trying to bring together . . .”
    “You’ll be down here a lot this summer, working on that project, won’t you?”
    “Ye-es . . . Why?”
    “I don’t want Grace to spend the next three months indoors, waiting on me