Read Commitment for Free Online Page A

managing to pull the derisive sound off with class and aplomb. If he didn’t have a weird prickly sensation tickling the back of his neck, he would have admired the effect. As it was, his Spidey -senses were all a-tingle.
    “You forget I’ve known you since you were a nerdy little intern trailing after Howard picking up his paperclips.” She nodded to a knot of guests standing nearby, flashing a gracious smile.
    “I was never nerdy.”
    She forged ahead, brushing past his objection and slicing through the crowd like a Coast Guard cutter. “He was very fond of you. I am too, but I’m tired of watching you pick up whatever Barbie Doll you think will turn heads.” He drew to an abrupt stop but managed to rein in his temper enough to keep from jerking his arm from her grasp. His eyes narrowed to slits. She simply smiled in response. “I understand. Men are horribly vain. Lord, Howard used to spend more time in front of the mirror than I did.”
    “I’m not vain.”
    “Aren’t you?” Sheila stared up at him with just enough wide-eyed innocence to set alarm bells ringing in his head.
    “I’m leaving.”
    She pursed her lips and dropped all pretense of innocence. “I can’t stand watching men I like making fools of themselves. It’s maddening.”
    Apparently, all pretense of teasing was behind them. “How exactly am I making a fool of myself?”
    “You’re not the young stud about town anymore, Tom. Now, I’ll admit there’s nothing more amusing than seeing an old fool chasing after young women, but I can’t bring myself to laugh at you. I’m nipping it in the bud now, before you become a cocktail party joke,” she said, tipping her chin up defiantly.
    “I’m only forty-six!”
    “You aren’t a joke yet, but soon you will be if you aren’t stopped.” She squeezed his arm and refused to let up. It probably would have hurt if he wasn’t already numb.
    First Sean, now Sheila. The attack hurt a little more coming from Sheila, though. He was used to ducking the shit Sean threw at him. He didn’t expect to be ambushed by his mentor’s widow, particularly after he’d shelled out five hundred dollars for the honor of attending the shellacking.
    This was the woman who hugged him harder than a sumo wrestler when he was made partner in the firm her husband founded. He glanced down at her tiny hand. It scared him to realize the same frail hand clutched his arm with nearly the same intensity when they lowered Howard McKenzie’s casket into his grave.
    “Who is she?” he asked at last.
    “You’ll see.” Her grip relaxed on his arm. She waved a greeting to a woman passing by. “She’s beautiful. Not one of those skinny colt-like girls you usually go for, though. She’s built like a real woman. Smart as a whip. Kind-hearted but strong. Exactly the type of woman you need in your life.”
    “Says you.”
    Sheila nodded to the bar, and Tom reluctantly began to move again. “She’s done some work for us at Haven House. The women adore her. It’s hard not to admire her. She’s built her business from the ground up, and she’s very successful. Like you, I think she sells herself a bit short on the personal front, but I hope that will change.”
    Her fingers bit into his sleeve again. For a split second he wondered if she’d leave a bruise. “Now, Tom, she needs a partner, not a knight in shining armor.” She searched the crowd at the bar. “My Maggie can rescue herself.”
    She opened her mouth to continue the lecture, but something beyond his shoulder captured her attention. The gleam in the older woman’s eyes melted into a warm smile. Her fingers banded around his arm like a shackle. “There you are!” Sheila extended a bejeweled hand, reaching past him to lay claim to her quarry. “Come here. I want you to meet a dear friend of mine.”
    Tom tensed, half-afraid to sneak a peek at Sheila’s choice. Instead, he fixated on her hand. Knobby, age-speckled fingers closed around equally dainty,