Changing Her Heart Read Free Page B

shown him that he wasn’t husband material, and he never would be.
    But Lacey was marriage material. Randy couldn’t help but think that her boyfriend was indeed one lucky man. Tonight, Randy had thoroughly enjoyed himself, but for tonight he was on borrowed time, and the lender had called in the loan. It was time to go home.
    When she dropped him off in front of his apartment building, a surge of melancholy for what could never happen coursed through him.
    Once inside, instead of settling down, Randy walked to the patio door to his balcony and looked out the window. They’d stayed at the restaurant so long that it was dark, and all the city lights were on. His suite faced downtown, so he had a good view from the seventeenth floor.
    Randy stepped out onto the balcony to take in the city below. He couldn’t make out specific details, but he could see the brightly colored lights of the mall in the distance.
    He gazed over the expanse of the city, paying particular attention to the high-rise towers in the downtown core, wondering which building was Lacey’s.

Chapter Two
    â€œI ’ll be back in two hours, Kate,” Lacey called as she stepped into the mall.
    As she began walking toward the mall center, Lacey glanced into the computer store on her way past, but she didn’t see Randy at work.
    Randy.
    Being out with him had almost felt like a date, except it wasn’t. He was only helping her select the right computer for Bryce. Yet, after going out with him only once, she couldn’t help but like him. In fact, he was almost too good to be real.
    Lacey had learned the hard way that when something seemed too good to be true, it usually was.
    She pushed thoughts of the charming salesman out of her head as she continued walking toward the mall’s feature display of the week. The police department had set up a display to raise public awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving and Lacey had volunteered to help give out information at the booth.
    Drunk driving had ruined her family and she didn’t want to see it happen to anyone else.
    Lacey didn’t remember her father being a heavy drinker, but at the time, her perspective had been that of a child. Most of his drinking would have been at night, after she had been put to bed. Most of her memories of her father were good, doing typical family things together. Usually their family was happy, but she did remember her parents arguing after her father had been out with his friends. She remembered him acting rather strangely when he came home, but she hadn’t known why. The only thing she knew then about her father’s drinking was that he “went out for a drink” with his friends after work on paydays. On paydays, he always came home acting more strangely than other days.
    It was on one payday that her father never came home again.
    Because he died in an accident that he’d caused, and because he’d been drunk, no insurance would pay on the policy—not the auto insurance, nor the life insurance, and there was no life insurance on the mortgage. Slowly and painfully, over the next year, their home was foreclosed on, their savings were eroded and their extended family was torn apart. Asshe grew up, Lacey’s most vivid memories were of her mother, crying, all alone, after she thought that Lacey and her brother and sister were sleeping.
    Lacey didn’t want the same thing to happen to anyone else, yet she saw it happening to Susan, her sister. No matter what Lacey said or did, she couldn’t get Susan’s husband, Eric, to see the risk he was creating for his family, and that if he died, the same thing would happen. Eric also wasn’t taking into account the strangers who would be innocent victims if he continued on his path to self-destruction.
    Eric insisted that he wasn’t a serious drinker because he didn’t drink every day. He often accused Lacey of trying to cause trouble between himself