One More Night with You Read Online Free PDF

Joey sank onto the cushions and pillows she scooted her chair away from the desk and moved it directly in front of her skittish client.
    â€œWhy ditch the desk?” Joey asked.
    â€œThe desk gives the impression that I hold a position of power over whomever’s on the other side. I hold no power over you, Josephine. You’re free to leave at any time, but I hope you’ll allow me to say my piece.”
    Joey rested the cane across her lap then absentmindedly laid a throw pillow on top of it. “Go ahead.”
    â€œIs that a habit, concealing your stick?”
    â€œWilla, I underwent psychiatric evals after the shooting. I’m sure you’re aware that’s standard protocol for folks in law enforcement. I don’t need a touch-up.”
    The woman conceded with a nod. “The Blues are my friends and since you’re rather important to them, I feel it’s my duty to impart some wisdom here. It’s highly unlikely that you’re unmatchable. But you’re searching for something even you aren’t sure you really want, as though some part of your past is unresolved.”
    â€œTrust me, short-term is what I want. I’m independent—set in my ways, as Papá would call it. I have a house, a demanding job with long hours.”
    â€œWhat about relationships?”
    â€œCommitment’s too restrictive for me. I have a pretty good thing going. Completely free to share my body.”
    â€œAnd your heart?”
    â€œThat’s not up for grabs anymore. I don’t feel safe anymore.”
    Willa watched her steadily, and as the years began to roll back to a night in a parking garage—violence that hadn’t taken Joey’s life but had killed some part of her all the same—the room started to close in.
    Get out. Now. Blurting some excuse, she jostled the pillows aside and got to her feet. “Going forward, Willa, streamline this for me, okay? No itty-bitty steps, no internet courtship. Just get me in contact with the guy and I’ll face-to-face him.”
    â€œAre you certain you’d feel safe?”
    Not entirely . But she had to take control of some aspect of her life. If not this, then what? If not now, then when?
    â€œJust set it up, Miz Willa. I can handle my life from here.”
    * * *
    â€œWell, this is anticlimactic.” As challenging as it was to continue up the steps to the Clark County Library—instead of surrendering to her gut’s plea to bail on the stranger Dating Done Smart had dredged up for her—Joey couldn’t keep the complaint sealed between her glossy Naughty Nude lips. Leaving now was an option, but one she wouldn’t take. Since she hadn’t parked the Camaro on Flamingo Road, she was far from escape and closer to the fate she’d agreed to days ago when notification came that she apparently wasn’t undateable. Plus, risk-lust compelled her to at least get a look at him. She owed herself that.
    But as far as blind dates went, this one was already off to a lackluster start. The man had suggested a library, of all venues. Not that she didn’t appreciate such a place—because, hello, a building full of books!—or that she wanted a cliché meal-and-a-movie kind of afternoon. It felt too intimate...and strangely familiar, which was entirely illogical.
    She’d attempted a blind date only once before, at age twelve. Considering how hellishly that experience had played out, it was sort of astonishing that she rallied enough courage to try it again now. So careless she’d been to sneak off her family’s ranch and take a bus from El Paso to Corpus Christi to sing with a local country-star wannabe her friend Honey Sutherland had met while on a 4H Club field trip. So silly she’d been to have stars in her eyes and grown-up dreams of French kisses and music-making with some guy she didn’t know, all because Honey had said he was awfully cute and drove a truck and