Nickeled-And-Dimed to Death Read Online Free PDF Page A

again.
    His wide smile faded a little when he recalled her parting words. Why was she suddenly free on a Saturday night? It sounded as if she’d had plans that fell through. He drew his brows together, contemplating the various possibilities. After a few seconds of pondering, he slowly grinned. Had that U.S. Marshal she’d been seeing stood her up? Or maybe they’d had a fight. Both of those scenarios worked for Noah, since either could provide just the opening he needed to woo Dev away from that hotshot Deputy Dawg.
    Whistling, Noah strode from the desk to the sofa, flopped down, grabbed the remote, and turned on the TV. After a few minutes of channel surfing, he punched the OFF button. Nothing on the screen captured his interest.
    As he looked around the room for something to do, it occurred to him that this was the only spot in his house that felt like home. When he’d bought the place two years ago, he’d allowed the decorator free rein. But after she’d finished and he’d written her a check for an obscene amount of money, he’d gradually added his own stuff to the den.
    Why had he even hired an interior decorator? Oh, yeah. It had been simpler than fighting his mother. Noah had never liked discord, and except for his willingness as a physician to fight for his patients, he prided himself on being a laid-back kind of guy. Although considering Nadine’s reaction to his engagement to Joelle, that decision certainly hadn’t been that of a man who wanted to avoid conflict. Or had it?
    Noah frowned. Maybe his girlfriend’s desire for marriage had been more of an immediate stressor than Nadine’s displeasure at the prospect. Joelle had certainly pressed for a commitment, stating her age—which he’d later learned was a lot older than she claimed—and her desire to have children. He’d fallen for her sad tale of growing up an only child, losing her parents when she was a teenager, and having no one in the world that she could call family. Too bad the whole story had been a lie.
    Truth be told, he’d been drifting, doing what was expected of him, neither happy nor sad, sort of numb. He hadn’t loved Joelle; he’d just settled for her. In fact, he’d thought he’d lost the ability to love. But the prospect of getting Dev back seemed to have jump-started his heart. Maybe she was what he’d needed all along.
    Leaping to his feet, Noah strode down the hall and into the spare bedroom that the decorator had converted into a home gym. He wasn’t picking up Dev for more than an hour—the dance didn’t start until eight—and he refused to sit around and think about the poor decisions he’d made in the past. Tonight would be a new beginning.
    He pushed the PLAY button on his CD player and the latest Black Eyed Peas album blared from the speakers. After stripping off his T-shirt, he pulled on fingerless leather gloves, lay down on the bench, and started his routine. He was up to two hundred pounds, and sweat poured off his face and body as the muscles in his arms strained to raise the heavy barbells again and again.
    He’d always been more the intellectual than the athletic type, but when he’d enrolled in a weight-lifting class in college, he discovered that the monotonous activity was oddly soothing. He hadn’t had time to work out in a couple of days, so it took him a while to get his rhythm, but once he did, his mind wandered.
    Skittering away from the subject of Dev—not wanting to jinx the evening ahead—he thought about the strange phone call he’d received that afternoon from the Shadow Bend Savings and Guaranty Bank president, Max Robinson.
    An Underwood had been on the bank’s board of directors since the institute was founded, and when Nadine had stepped down last month, it had been understood that her son would replace her. Generally, the board met once a month and reviewed various issues ranging from managing risk to allocating resources to compliance with relevant legal statues. Most of this