The Best Way to Lose Read Online Free PDF

Melissa, is a nurse onthe maternity ward at the hospital. She’s been checking in with me regularly since she went on duty this afternoon, so I have the inside story on how he’s doing.”
    “I see,” Pilar murmured stiffly and lowered her gaze. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going upstairs. There’ve been so many people at the hospital, I’d just like to be alone for a while.”
    The front stairwell doubled back on itself to climb to the second floor of the house. Both Trace and Cassie silently observed her departure until she rounded the landing to go up the second flight. The imported crystal chandelier suspended from the ceiling of the large foyer gleamed on the polished mahogany railing that zagged up the stairwell.
    A long, troubled sigh came from Cassie, drawing Trace’s glance to her as she started toward the kitchen. “I don’t like to see her that way—all held in. I had a feeling they were too happy, that some kind of crash had to happen. You should have seen the two of them together.” She smiled absently, remembering. “They were always holding hands and snuggling on the sofa. Every day was a honeymoon. Your father saw to that. She’s a sensible, practical girl, but he kept her caught up in a romantic dream, all soft lights and violins. I think he was afraid she’d stop loving him if he didn’t court her every minute.”
    “It might be a good idea if you fix a tray and take it up to her later,” Trace suggested. “She didn’t eat anything at the hospital.”
    As she pushed open the door to the kitchen,she gave him a wry glance. “You still don’t talk much, but you manage to say a lot. Sometimes I find it hard to believe you’re a southern boy.”
    “You do enough talking for both of us, Cassie,” he countered dryly.
    Talking was a favorite southern pastime, engaged in by most of its native sons and daughters, but Trace was not loquacious by nature. There were a lot of situations he probably could have talked himself out of if he’d tried.
    “And there’s some things a woman has an instinct for knowing without being told. Those things I keep to myself.” It was a rather enigmatic comment that created an opening in the conversation, but he chose not to fill it.
    He lowered his long frame into one of the high-backed wooden chairs around the cloth-covered table while Cassie sliced him a large piece of the frosted cake and poured each of them a cup of coffee.
    “Have you spoken to Cal lately?” Trace asked, referring to her son. “I looked him up the last time I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago. That’s quite a new grandbaby you have.”
    The conversation drifted around her family. Cassie did most of the talking while Trace ate his cake and washed it down with the strong black coffee. Cassie was never idle for long, preparing a small plate of sandwiches to take up to Pilar in between sips of coffee and the never-ending dialogue. When she hadfinished with her family, she started bringing him up to date on some of his old friends.
    “You’re a terrible gossip, Cassie,” he declared with a smiling shake of his head at the extent of her information and carried his plate and cup to the sink.
    “My mother told me long ago that she had no use for gossip.” An amused glint appeared in her eyes. “She was absolutely right. The minute I get it, I just pass it on to the first person I see. It isn’t worth keeping to yourself.” She picked up the tray she’d fixed for Pilar. “I’ll just run this upstairs.”
    “I’ll come along with you.” He moved ahead of her to open the kitchen door. “It might turn out to be a long night, so I think I’d better get some sleep while I can.”
    Accustomed to snatching sleep at odd hours, Trace had problems dozing off that night. He tried to blame it on the absence of the thundering engines of a towboat vibrating his bed, pretending that he slept so lightly because of the stillness of the house, the slightest noise disturbing him. There