Family Affair Read Free Page A

disliked the way her heart reacted. This man was dangerous in more ways than one. The less she had to do with him, the better.
    He seemed to be waiting for her to invite him to stay for coffee and chitchat. The thought was tempting. It would be nice to have someone to be neighborly with, but the lesson she’d learned from Peter had sunk in.
    “We do seem to share a love of cats,” Jack added, as if this were grounds for a long-standing friendship.
    “I like Cleo,” she said pointedly. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” This time she held the door open for him.
    “It was nice talking to you, Lacey,” Jack said with a boyish grin that was potent enough to topple her resolve to limit their relationship. “I’m hoping we can become good friends.”
    Lacey didn’t miss the emphasis on good . The last thing she needed or wanted was friendship with a known Casanova. Not when she’d been fool enough to marry one who’d ruthlessly left her for another.
    Since she hadn’t summoned the gumption to ask for a raise, she found it even more difficult to explain to her neighbor that she wasn’t interested in a man who kept women on the side.
    Jack left then, to Lacey’s intense relief. She scooped Cleo up in her arms and held her tight, as if her beloved cat had had a narrow escape. Cleo, however, didn’t take kindly to being pressed against a wet blouse and squirmed free, leaping onto the carpet. She made her way to the seat of the overstuffed chair, her favorite spot for a catnap, and curled up contentedly. It might have been Lacey’s imagination, but Cleo seemed completely at ease and thoroughly satisfied.
    Just as Lacey was about to turn on the television, the phone rang. It was probably her best friend, Jeanne Becker. Jeanne had been one of the first people to befriend Lacey after her move to San Francisco. She worked as a dental assistant and was single, like Lacey, but had been dating Dave steadily for nearly a year. However, neither seemed to be in any hurry to get engaged. With so many friends divorcing, they both wanted to be very sure they were taking the right step.
    “Well?” Jeanne asked. “Did you ask for your raise?”
    “No,” Lacey confessed.
    “Why not?” Jeanne demanded. “You promised you would. What’s so difficult about talking to Mr. Sullivan?”
    “I have no defense. I’m a worm.”
    “What are you so frightened of?” Jeanne asked after a thoughtful moment, as if there were something deep and dark hidden in Lacey’s childhood that kept her from confronting her employer.
    “I don’t know,” Lacey admitted. “It’s just that Mr. Sullivan is so . . . so intimidating. He’s got these beady eyes, and when I ask to talk to him, he looks at his watch as if he doesn’t have any time for me and asks how long it will take. And by the time he goes through this little routine, I’ve lost my nerve.”
    “Don’t you know the man’s psyching you out?”
    “Yeah, I suppose,” Lacey murmured, disheartened. “But knowing that doesn’t do any good. My talk with Mr. Sullivan isn’t the only thing that went wrong,” she added. “Cleo’s in heat, and the neighbor’s cat stole into my apartment, and I found them . . . together.”
    “Oh, dear, it sounds like you’ve had a full day.”
    “It gets better,” Lacey said. “The guy who lives next to me suggested we be neighborly.”
    “You mean the hunk who’s been asking you out for the last six months? I met him, remember?”
    Lacey wasn’t comfortable thinking of Jack in those terms, but she let her friend’s comment pass. “Yeah. He owns Dog, the cat who had his way with Cleo. And before you ask, I did get the name of his cat right.”
    “I could like this guy,” Jeanne said, laughing softly.
    “You’re welcome to him.”
    “Lacey! Honestly, when are you going to let bygones be bygones? Peter was a rat, but he’s out of your life. The worst thing you can do is blame other men for what happened between you and your