The Family Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

with Candy, a stunning blonde who’d parked herself at the bar. But his eyes kept veering toward Sara.
     
    S ARA HAD DONE PRETTY well all week, filling her days with work and activities with the girls to keep her mind off the man she couldn’t have, shouldn’t want. Each time she started to fantasize about Adam, she reminded herself that she deserved more than a love-’em-and-leave-’em kind of guy. The girls deserved people in their lives who wouldn’t end up leaving.
    Work had kept her extra busy. In addition to the David Taylor case, a couple more had come across her desk. It’d been one of those weeks when she’d eaten fast food on the run for too many meals and one day ran into the next.
    By the time another Friday afternoon had arrived, she’d spent the last few minutes of her shift staring at the top of her messy desk. And wondering what had happened to the world when even a small town like Horizon Beach had enough cases to keep two detectives and a dozen patrolmen busy.
    When some of the guys had invited her out for a wind-down drink after work, she’d uncharacteristically said yes. She really did need the down time before going home. After all, in addition to Ruby’s persistent assertion that Sara needed time for herself, Tana had told Sara that morning that she “needed alife.” She hadn’t said it in a mean way, more matter of fact, which was Tana’s usual way of approaching any and all things. She said what she thought without beating around the bush.
    But Sara wanted to draw the line on “getting a life” at hanging out at the Beach Bum, which is where Keith had chosen for the after-work drinks. She nearly backed out when she followed Keith into the parking lot and realized his destination, but she’d never been that big of a chicken.
    Instead, she followed Keith, Shawn Winters and her fellow detective, Peter Jensen, to the open table at the front edge of the bar. At least it was as far away from Adam as she could get and still be in the Beach Bum. Despite telling herself not to, she glanced toward the bar and wished she hadn’t.
    Adam was leaning in close toward a stunningly beautiful woman. From their laughter and a wink she saw Adam shoot the woman’s way, it was obvious he was on his way to his latest conquest.
    Well, good.
    Not good.
    Dang it, she couldn’t decide. What was it about him that made her veer toward crazy? And why now, when she’d known who he was for months? Because she kept crossing paths with him now? Because she’d been alone for so long? Because she’d seen him shirtless and being all heroic?
    A waitress brought beers for the guys and a rumand Coke for Sara. She sucked half of it down too fast and choked.
    “You okay?” Keith gave her a funny look.
    She nodded. “Yeah. Just thirsty.” And fighting the urge to find some reason to arrest the blonde at the bar.
    Sara tried to follow the conversations about football, the new barbecue place in town and the patrolman who’d been arrested in Pensacola for soliciting a prostitute—really she did. But her attention kept getting diverted to Adam and the woman, whose laughter managed to carry over all the noise in the bar.
    “Greene, why do you keep staring at the bartender?” Shawn asked her. “You like him or something?”
    She didn’t like the sound of the teasing, not when she’d worked hard to fit into what was still very much a man’s world. So she gave it back. “How could I like anyone else when my heart belongs to you?” She batted her eyelashes for extra dramatic effect.
    Peter and Keith howled, and Peter slapped Shawn on the back. Shawn picked a peanut out of the bowl in the middle of the table and flipped it at her. She dodged it and laughed. This outing would be good and relaxing if not for her hyperawareness of Adam. Before she slipped up and glanced at him again, she decided to give Shawn what sounded like a real answer.
    “He was one of the people I talked to about David Taylor. He had a prowler