Where There's Smoke Read Online Free PDF

pharmacist into refilling the prescription and says that's sufficient.   She won't listen when I urge her to see another doctor for a checkup."
     
    He smiled wryly.   "That sounds like Jody all right.   Knows better than anybody about everything."
     
    "Please, Key, don't be critical of her.   Help her.   Help me."
     
    He cuffed her chin gently and said, "You've carried the responsibility alone for too long.   It's time I gave you some relief."   His lips narrowed.   "If I can."
     
    "You can.   This time it'll be different between you and Mama."
     
    Grunting with skepticism, he threw off the sheet and swung his feet to the floor.   "Hand me my jeans, please."
     
    Janellen was about to turn and reach for the jeans bunched up on the seat of the easy chair when she noticed the bandage around his middle.
     
    "What happened to you?"   she exclaimed.   "And look at your ankle!"
     
    He nonchalantly examined his swollen ankle.   "It was kind of a rowdy homecoming."
     
    "How'd you get hurt?   Is it serious?"
     
    "No.   The jeans, please."
     
    Still sitting on the edge of the bed, he extended his hand.   Janellen recognized the stubborn set of her brother's scruffy jaw and handed him his pants, then knelt to help guide his bare feet through the legs.
     
    "Your ankle's swollen twice its size," she muttered with concern.
     
    "Can you stand on it?"
     
    "My doctor advised me not to, he answered dryly.   "Give me a hand."
     
    She helped support him as he put all his weight on his left foot and eased the jeans up his legs and over his hips.   As he buttoned his fly, he gave her the naughty smile that had wreaked havoc on a legion of virtuous reputations.
     
    Janellen couldn't began to guess how many women her brothers had worked their magic on, especially Key.   She'd always entertained a fantasy of spoiling a mixed blend of nieces and nephews, but it remained an unfulfilled dream.   Key liked women, a wide assortment of them.   She saw no indication that he'd soon settle down into marriage.
     
    "You're pretty good at helping a man into his pants," he remarked teasingly.   "Been helping one out of his lately?   I hope," he added.
     
    "Hush!"
     
    "Well?"
     
    "No!"   She could feel herself blushing.   Key had always been able to make her blush.
     
    "Why not?"
     
    "I'm not interested, that's why," she replied loftily.   "Besides, no one's been swept off his feet by my dazzling face and form."
     
    "There's nothing wrong with either," he said staunchly.
     
    "But they're hardly dazzling."
     
    "No, because you've got it into your stubborn head that you're plain Jane, so you dress the part.   You're so " disdainfully, he gestured at her prim blouse, "buttoned up."
     
    "Buttoned up?"
     
    "Yeah.   What you need to do is unbutton.   Unhook.   Unstrap.   Get loose, sis."
     
    She pretended to be aghast.   "As an old maid, I take exception to such trashy talk."
     
    "Oil maid!   Who the hell ?   You listen to me, Janellen."   He pointed his index finger at the tip of her nose.   "You're not old."
     
    "I'm not exactly an ingenue either."
     
    "You're two years younger than me.   That makes you thirty-four."
     
    "Not "Okay, thirty-three.   Far from over the hill.   Hell, broads these days wait until they're forty to start having kids."
     
    "Those who do wouldn't appreciate your referring to them as bnads."
     
    "You get my drift," he insisted.   "You haven't even reached your sexual peak yet."
     
    Key, please."
     
    "And the only reason you're still a maid,' if you are "I am."
     
    "More's the pity is because you clam up and shy away from any guy who even thinks about getting into your pants."
     
    Janellen, stricken by his crudeness, stared at him speechlessly.
     
    She worked around men eight hours a day, five days a week, and occasionally on weekends.   As a rule, their language was colorful and to the point, but they monitored it when Miss janellen was within hearing.   When her