Johnston - Heartbeat Read Free Page B

think you should, Lisa. Roman must be very worried right now. He’s a reasonable man. When you talk all this over in a calm, rational—”
    Lisa pulled away. “My mind is made up. There’s nothing to discuss. I’m not quitting, and that’s final!”
    Maggie squeezed Lisa’s hand reassuringly. “All right. Nobody says you have to quit. I’m sure you and Roman can work something out. Maybe he can cut back on his hours, or you can cut back on yours.”
    Lisa leaned back and said, “I don’t want to disappoint you, Maggie. Not after all the help you’ve given me.”
    “The only thing that would disappoint me is if you and Roman weren’t able to resolve your differences and live happily ever after.”
    “Life isn’t a fairy tale,” Lisa said soberly.
    “How well I know that,” Maggie murmured. Cinderella and Prince Charming hadn’t made it.
    “I guess I’d better leave,” Lisa said, rising on obviously shaky legs.
    “You shouldn’t be driving in your condition. I’ll give you a ride home and pick you up tomorrow morning.”
    “I couldn’t impose like that!” Lisa said.
    “Call Roman and tell him you’re on your way home while I put on some clothes.” Maggie disappeared into the bedroom where she threw on some Levi’s, a T-shirt, and boots and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. When she returned to the living room, Lisa was talking to Roman on the phone. Maggie didn’t intentionally eavesdrop, but she heard enough to realize the Hollanders were already well on the way to reconciling their differences.
    “I’m sorry, too,” Lisa said. “Maggie is bringing me home, so you don’t have to worry about me driving. I . . . I feel the same way. I’ll see you soon.”
    When Lisa hung up the phone, Maggie cleared her throat. “I couldn’t help overhearing.”
    The beatific smile on Lisa’s face made Maggie’s throat clog with emotion. How wonderful to be in love—even with all the heartaches and pain that inevitably came along with such powerful feelings.
    You had love once and squandered it. You had everything and threw it away.
    Maggie swallowed painfully and said, “Let’s get you home. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
    “Thanks for everything, Maggie. You’re a true friend.”
    Maggie treasured the compliment. Friendship paled when compared to the love between a man and a woman, or a mother and her child, but considering Maggie’s past, it was likely to be all she would ever have. “Thanks, Lisa,” Maggie said. “That means a lot to me.”
    Until she could find a way to break free of the hold Porter Cobb had on her life, she was suspended in a waking nightmare. Appearances, she had learned, could hide a great deal. No one else suspected her of keeping secrets. No one else knew the truth about her.
    The sad thing was, Maggie still believed in fairy tales. She still dreamed of happily ever after. Unfortunately, her Prince Charming had come and gone . . . and taken her heart along with him.

Chapter 2
    In his opinion, she didn’t look like a lawyer. Especially not one who negotiated life-and-death disputes. Nothing about her was the least bit staid-looking or reserved or serious.
    The female standing at home plate, baseball bat in hand, wore butt-baring cut-off Levi’s, a pink T-shirt ripped out at the neck that hit her about midriff, and battered Nikes with droopy white workout socks. One look at her long, slender legs, flat stomach, and small but completely-adequate-for-him bosom, and Jack Kittrick realized it might be easier than he’d thought to forget his troubles for an afternoon.
    Of course, none of the Wainwright & Cobb lawyers had worn suits to the firm’s spring picnic at Brackenridge Park, in the heart of San Antonio. A few were dressed like him, in Western hats and shirts, Levi’s, and cowboy boots, but most of them looked like the conservative top five percent of a top ten law-school graduates they were.
    Jack ignored the trickle of sweat crawling down