Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) Read Free Page B

wait, I’m
already there.

Chapter One
 
 
    Well, that was
certainly entertaining and informative . Still shaking with frustration at Max’s
latest high handedness, Alexandria Stone glared at the old rotary phone, while
visualizing ways to strangle the man with the wire cord. Refusing to listen any
longer, she abruptly ended the call by slamming it down in its cradle. Praying
she was damaging his eardrum in the process, painfully. She silently thanked
her sister for not taking the time to update their father’s old office after
taking over on the ranch years before.
    Spinning around from
the oak desk in disgust, she stared out the window behind it. She hoped the
view of the pastures on the east side of The Looking Glass Ranch in Franklin,
Texas would erase the conversation with Max from her tired brain, even though
every word seemed to be permanently branded there. The spread consisted of over
ten thousand acres of luscious property rich with cattle, green pastures, and
timber as far as the eye could see. It was to no avail. The scenery wasn’t
stopping the raging headache she felt building behind her eyes.
    Even jury duty and a root
canal scheduled for the same day would be better than listening to a lecture
from Max. At least that would be more enjoyable than listening to him rant on
about how she needs to find a husband.
    The next time some
idiot tells her to indulge her grandfather because no conversation could
possibly be so one-sided… That her grandfather was just a ‘misunderstood old
man’, she was going to wrap said idiot in a colossal red bow and hand deliver
him to Max. The poor twit would never know what hit him.
    With Max, you learn
early on that when he speaks you can either agree with him, or you can shut up
and agree with him. There are never two sides to a conversation; there is just
his side. The word dictator always seemed to come to mind.
    Great way to start a
vacation, she thought. If the first hour was what she had to look forward to for the rest
of it. She was seriously considering high tailing it off the ranch as swiftly
as her size six feet would take her, and soon.
    Her “‘poor misdirected
life,’” as Max called it, was complicated enough without him lecturing her on
finding a husband so she could settle down and start a family. Being told she
wasn’t getting any younger stung. I’m twenty-four, not sixty-four and headed
for a nursing home, for cryin’ out loud! Moaning at her own witless joke,
she contemplated her life, knowing at times that she did feel middle aged.
Profoundly, she wondered when her life would truly start...
    God knows the glitz and
glamour didn’t impress her or matter to her anymore, if it ever did. She wasn’t
complaining, really. What was there to complain about? As careers went, she was
living most people’s fantasy, only, the loneliness was unrelenting at times
because of her unyielding work schedule. When was she supposed to have time for
a husband? She couldn’t even find five free minutes in the morning to look up
her horoscope in the newspaper while enjoying a cup coffee.
    If the right man would
just materialize, then maybe she would think about slowing down. Finding this
elusive man seemed to be her hang-up. Most men she dated socially saw the
picture she presented to the outside world as Maximillion’s granddaughter and
heir to the Stone fortune, or her persona on stage. They didn’t see the real
woman she was underneath the facade. She needed a man who would love her for
herself, not her bank account.
    When she had first
confided in her grandfather how she planned to be a singer like her mother, he
had just mumbled something about God punishing him. Despite his grumbling, he
helped her keep her identity confidential and out of the press, which caused
more problems than it solved. At the time, it sounded like the perfect
solution. Alex didn’t want to use her mother’s memory as a means to make it in
the music industry. She had strived to build