Diagnosis: Danger Read Free Page A

“Small woman, surrounded by yelling kids?” He dropped his hand and sighed again. “I can’t even get near her.”
    “What you need is a night out with your wife, Rawlings,” Mike advised. He firmly believed that every woman needed a little romance in her life. Especially a wife. To allay the skeptical expression on Louis’s face, Mike offered his partner the services of his youngest sister. “Claudia would be happy to babysit for you some time.”
    Though he’d never been married, he knew what it was like to be in the center of a large family. His own had six, not counting his mother and father, or his grandmother when she’d lived with them. There were four boys in his family and two girls. And throughout all the ups and downs, good times and bad, his parents had managed to maintain a loving relationship.
    Which was why they had so many kids, he mused.
    His family was the reason behind his easygoing manner, as they had shown him by example that there was nothing that couldn’t be handled given time and the right approach. They were also responsible for his wanting to enjoy himself as much as possible before he finally settled down and committed to one woman.
    If he ever settled down and committed to one woman, he qualified silently. So far, none of the women he’d gone out with remotely filled the requirements he had for a life partner.
    Josephine and Salvatore DiPalma had marriedstraight out of high school and become parents nine months to the day of their anniversary. Though both said they wouldn’t change a thing and regretted nothing, Mike doubted if that was a hundred percent true. They’d gone from being children to having children, never taking time to be carefree, to be young.
    That wasn’t going to be the way he intended to play it. There were a whole lot of things in life he wanted to do and see before settling down and facing things like mortgages and pediatrician bills.
    Holding open the door that led to the stairwell, Mike glanced at his partner. Louis was obviously chewing on what he’d just said.
    “A night out, huh?” Louis echoed.
    Mike shrugged carelessly. “Night out, night in. You could check into a hotel with Jackie and pretend you’re not married.”
    “That would take a lot of pretending.” But it was obvious by the look in his eyes that Louis was warming to the idea.
    Mike laughed and clapped him on the back. “My money’s on you.”
    But Louis clearly didn’t want to dwell on his own humdrum life, even if a date with his wife was in the not-too-distant future.
    “So, what’s with you?” he wanted to know. “No Shelley tonight? Wait, it’s not Shelley anymore, is it? It’s Judith.” He shook his head again. “Or was that Lisa?”
    It was Elaine, but he wasn’t about to add another name to the mix. Despite all of Louis’s urgings, he was not the type who believed in disclosing intimate details of an evening. A lady deserved her privacy and he treated all the women he went out with like ladies. His upbringing demanded nothing less.
    “All history,” Mike told him.
    By design, after Brenda, his relationships were all pleasant and light. “Like a diet cookie with all the good things taken out,” his mother had once assessed in her concern that her secondborn would not follow in his older brother’s footsteps and find a woman to start a family with. “No substance, no flavor.”
    After nearly making a fatal mistake and reaching the altar with a woman who was all wrong for him, light and pleasant was just the way he wanted it. As far as he was concerned, his relationships had just enough substance. He and the women he dated never got too serious and enjoyed each other’s company until it was time to move on.
    And he moved on a lot. With no regrets. He enjoyed women’s company, and in turn, he made sure that they enjoyed his.
    Mike had a sneaking suspicion that they also enjoyed the danger he represented. The gun and his line of work generated that kind of aura.