Hidden Hearts Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Attorney, huh? So what do you want to talk to Viv about?”
    “That’s also not your business.” She pointed inside and played a hunch. “May I speak with her, please?”
    “That’s not Viv. That’s my grandma. She’s visiting from Palm Beach. Viv’s out of town.”
    She stared into her cobalt blue eyes. She had a strong jaw and CC had already seen a hint of dimples. But now she was lying—and enjoying it.
    “Where did she go?”
    “To visit her sister, I think,” Penn said with a straight face.
    Ding!
    She ignored the Droid’s alert. “She’s an only child,” CC countered, her gaze focused on the center of Penn’s amazing eyes, which seemed to darken the longer she spoke with CC.
    Penn gasped dramatically. “That’s right. How could I forget that?” She cleared her throat and leaned toward CC with a serious expression. “Actually, she’s visiting her very hot, very wealthy and much younger lesbian lover in Mexico. I don’t have any idea when and if she’ll return.”
    “Really,” CC said flatly.
    Ding!
    Penn looked at her purse. “You’re a very popular person.”
    CC fumbled for the Droid and silenced it. “My apologies.”
    “Not necessary. Now, do you have a problem with lesbians or the idea that Ms. Battle might be one?”
    CC sighed and checked her watch. “Not particularly.”
    “So you’re okay with women being with other women?”
    The look on her face made CC uncomfortable. She looked intrigued, and no one had looked at her that way in a long time. She was warm, and she couldn’t tell if it was the Phoenix heat or her rediscovered libido. When Penn glanced at her shoes, she realized she’d been tapping her foot incessantly.
    “Penn! C’mon, I’m going to take your turn if you don’t get your fanny back here,” the raspy voice yelled.
    She flipped her hair off her shoulder and smiled pleasantly. Two could play this game. “According to my last lover I rocked her world.” Penn’s jaw dropped. CC donned her sexiest smile. “What? You can dish it out but you can’t take it?”
    Penn laughed suddenly, revealing two perfect dimples. Then she closed the door.
    CC pounded and said, “I know she’s around! She’s probably inside with you. Who else but an old lady would drive a seventy-two Nova?”
    Penn opened the door and stepped into the portico. “How did you know that’s a seventy-two, and it’s mine, by the way.”
    “That’s your car? I would’ve thought the Beemer would be yours.”
    “Really? Despite how I’m dressed you really thought I owned a Beemer.” She motioned to her T-shirt and ratty cutoffs. CC sensed her nearness—and her difference. If she were asked to make a list of appealing qualities Penn would score two points for her dimples and eyes. Nothing else. She was uncouth, unrefined and poorly dressed.
    “Few women can identify a Nova and certainly not the year. So, how does a well-dressed and refined attorney identify a seventy-two Nova?”
    She shrugged dismissively. “I grew up on NASCAR. I like cars, and you seem like the kind of woman who’d be into them.”
    “Because I’m a butch lesbian.”
    “Well, no,” she sputtered. “I had no idea.” Few people flustered her quickly, and yet Penn had managed to rattle her in less than three minutes. Thank God I haven’t had to go in front of a jury yet. I’d die.
    “Then why,” she pressed.
    When she thought she wouldn’t scream into Penn’s cute and amused face she said, “I’m leaving now. Please make sure Ms. Battle gets my card and calls me as soon as possible. And you can tell whoever owns the Beemer that I think it’s a great car.”
    She turned to go as a new, raspy voice said, “Thanks, sweetie, I love my baby. I named her Bandit after that funny movie, Smokey and the Bandit .”
    The lady in the doorway grinned, but most of her face was hidden by a Diamondbacks baseball cap. Puffs of snow-white hair hung around her ears, and she wore a pair of jeans and a denim work shirt.