The Backup Plan Read Online Free PDF Page B

that hadn’t changed. “I thought I was clear enough. He’ll be back when he gets back. You know how it goes with us lazy, good-for-nothing Beauforts. We’re not much on timetables.”
    Dinah sighed heavily, which had a fascinating effect on the rise and fall of her barely clad breasts. Cord wondered if she had any notion of the raw sensuality she projected or just how close he was to summoning the energy to drag her straight into his arms and give her the kiss she was half-begging for. Probably not or she’d have hightailed it out of here, instead of pestering him for answers he would not give her. He intended to protect Bobby from his own foolishness.
    â€œIs Bobby due back tonight? Tomorrow? Next week?” she asked, her tone impatient.
    â€œCould be next week,” he said, then shrugged. “Maybe not.”
    â€œHas anyone ever told you how impossible you are?”
    â€œBefore you?” he asked.
    She scowled.
    Cord grinned. “Now that you mention it, I believe your mama said something very similar to me just this afternoon.”
    Her eyes widened, pleasing Cord with the fact that he could still surprise her. Shocking Dinah had been one of his primary delights back when she and Bobby had been dating. It had been a long time since he’d taken such pleasure in stirring a woman’s temper or her dismay.
    â€œWhere on earth did you see my mother?” she inquired.
    Her tone suggested he surely must have done something illegal to have such an encounter with an upper-crust paragon. If Dinah weren’t so cute up there on her high horse, he might be insulted that she couldn’t imagine any circumstance under which he and Dorothy Rawlings Davis would cross paths.
    â€œOut and about,” he replied mildly. “Charleston is, after all, a small town in many ways. In fact, I do believe that was why you were so anxious to leave.”
    â€œI left to attend college and pursue a career,” she said, her voice tight as her cool gaze raked over him. “Maybe that’s something you should consider doing.”
    He held up his beer and gestured around him. “Why leave? If you ask me, it doesn’t get much better than this—a roof over my head, a little money in the bank, a cool drink and up until a few minutes ago plenty of peace and quiet.”
    â€œThank heaven your brother doesn’t share your total lack of ambition,” she said.
    Her uppity little tone of voice was starting to get onhis nerves. He frowned at the comparison in which he came out wanting. He could have told her a few things about what he’d been up to, but why bother? She enjoyed thinking of him as a low-life. Why take that plea sure away from her when she’d just gotten back to town? It would be so much more fun for him watching her eat those words later.
    â€œPlease tell Bobby I’m home and looking forward to seeing him,” she said. “You can remember a simple message, can’t you?”
    â€œIf I put my mind to it,” Cord agreed. Not that he in tended to. Dinah Davis would eat his brother alive. Bobby didn’t need the aggravation. Of course, the last time he’d tried thinking for his brother and interfering in his so-called romance with Dinah, there had been hell to pay.
    â€œWell, try real hard,” she said.
    Then she sashayed back to her car, providing him with a fantastic view of her very fine derriere. Cord shook his head. Too bad she was so aggravating. Otherwise, he might enjoy tangling with her himself. In stead, he’d just content himself with keeping Bobby out of her clutches.

3
    â€œI don’t know how Bobby and Cordell could possibly come from the same gene pool,” Dinah told her friend Maggie as they sipped iced tea on the veranda of Maggie’s converted gatehouse a few blocks from the harbor in the historic downtown section of Charleston. “Bobby is sweet and kind and smart and ambitious. Cordell