Be Your Everything [All for Love] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Read Free

cried. Crying doesn’t get you anywhere, Heather. It only makes you look weak. Thanks, Mom. You should know. Weepy Wanda. Holy crap. Squaring her shoulders Heather smiled again, a real smile. Moesha squinted at her and smiled back. Whatever. This day had been just chock-full of surprises and Heather gave herself permission to pleasantly anticipate the afternoon. If Matthew came back, she’d look her fill again, advice taken. If not, she’d work on her college application. The opportunity to do both was mind-boggling. Excitement churned in her belly. From tears to joy. Insane. Like her mom. No, never like her mom.
    Her thoughts flashed back to Moesha admonishing her, insisting she was as good as every other woman. “But not as good as every man , Eesh?” She teased her liberated friend.
    “Honey, you don’t compare apples and oranges.”
    They finished their meal quickly. Heather averted her eyes from the blued steak Moesha inhaled with obvious relish and worked on her goat cheese spinach salad. She’d need to brush her teeth before returning to her desk. If Matthew was still liaising, she didn’t want to smile at him with green, leafy material stuck in her teeth.
    After a quick walk back to their building to catch the first available elevator, Moesha got off at her floor and Heather rode in silence with a few other employees to the fourteenth floor. She practised elevator etiquette with the best of them, peering at the numbers as they clicked off on the display, avoiding inadvertent eye contact. The door whooshed open and she stepped off, turning left to hurry to the ladies’ room. She didn’t dare be late. Mr. G wasn’t always on time, but she had left a few minutes early for lunch. Best to be back a few minutes early.
    After using the facilities Heather checked her teeth before locating the travel toothbrush she kept in her makeup bag. Her hair needed a little arranging and lipstick freshened. The woman staring back at her from the mirror didn’t look any different than the one she saw every day. But she felt different. Good grief. Romance novels. They’d softened her brain, and she was thinking seriously about college, moving on, and living her dream. And she might just dream about one Matthew Bourke, the night time kind of dreams. Heather already had the daytime one aced. She again felt as though she was on the cusp of something.

Chapter Two
     
    “Please tell Mr. Topp I appreciate him sending you. And of course you are welcome at any time to examine the system. We owe it to our clients to make any improvements. I’ll have Heather give you what you’ll need.” Irritation laced Grayson’s tone.
    Manny, he reminded himself that he was Matthew Bourke in this role, might need more from Heather Graham than the other man would ever know. The file on Grayson’s secretary painted a typical secretarial type, working for Grayson only this past year or so, and unlikely to be aware of the situation. The fraud had been perpetuated over a longer time period, carefully and cautiously. If that young woman hadn’t been murdered…well, Grayson’s perfidy might never have been picked up on until he was on the run.
    Meeting Heather Graham in person once again demonstrated how file data rarely told the whole story. The black and white grainy photo hadn’t done her justice, either. Heather Graham looked immature, unformed in the picture, hesitant and shy. Manny Baker, aka Matthew Bourke, had dismissed her, or at least banished her to the back of the investigation. He never dismissed anyone totally.
    And after meeting her today, well, his senses pricked. If that sexy little siren with the so-at-odds innocent baby blues hadn’t come across that way in her paperwork, then she might just be more to Grayson than they thought. Him and Bryce. Manny and his partner had made some preliminary assumptions. Heather didn’t have any connection to Meredith Fox they could determine, not even a casual friendship outside or inside the