Read The Good Girl's Second Chance (The Bravos Of Justice Creek 2) for Free Online Page A

big.”
    “Hey. Balls to the wall. It’s the only way to go.”
    She made a decision. “I’m taking the next evening class.”
    “Am I a salesman, or what?” He got up. “Come on.” He put his big hand at the small of her back. Such a light touch to wreak such total havoc through every quivering cell in her body. “We’ll sign you up.”
    At the front desk, Quinn tried to comp her the class. She shook her head and whipped out her checkbook. Once she’d paid for the course, he walked her out the door.
    He caught her arm as the door eased shut behind them. “So, Chloe...”
    She was achingly aware of him, so close, his big, warm fingers wrapped lightly around her upper arm. He walked her forward several feet along the sidewalk and then pulled her gently around to face him.
    “Yeah?” she asked low, her voice barely a whisper.
    He stepped in closer and spoke for her ears alone. “The other night...?”
    Her breath tangled in her throat. “Yeah?”
    “You said just for that night, just that once. But you’re here and I’m looking in those fine blue eyes and I’m wondering, did you really mean that?”
    Her stupid throat had clutched up tight. She swallowed convulsively, and then shook her head hard.
    His brow rumpled in a frown, but the hint of a smile seemed to tug on his mouth. “I’m still not sure what you’re telling me here.”
    And somehow she found her voice again. “Sorry...”
    “Nothing to be sorry for. You just say it right out loud, whatever your answer is. I can take it, I promise you.”
    She cleared her throat to get her going. “Ahem. That night, I needed to find a way to give myself permission to do something I wanted to do but had never done before. That night, I needed to think of it as just that one time and never again. But since then...”
    “Yeah?”
    “Oh, Quinn. I wish I hadn’t said what I said. Because I’ve been thinking about you a lot. And it’s really good to see you again.”
    Those fine eyes were gleaming. “Yeah?”
    And she was eagerly nodding, her head bouncing up and down like a bobblehead doll’s.
    “So, then...” He started walking backward toward the doors.
    She resisted the urge to reach out and stop him—and also the one that demanded she follow him. Instead, she held her ground and asked hopefully, “So, then, what?”
    He stopped at the doors. “How ’bout Friday night? You and me. Dinner.”
    “Dinner...” How could one simple word hold so much promise?
    “Yeah.” He was definitely smiling now. “You know, like people do.”
    “I would like that.” She knew she wore a giant, silly grin. And somehow she had gone on tiptoe. Her body felt lighter than air.
    “Pick you up at seven?”
    She settled back onto her heels and nodded. “Seven is great.”
    A trim, fortyish woman in workout clothes approached the doors. Quinn opened one and ushered her in. Then, with a final nod in Chloe’s direction, he went in, too.
    That lighter-than-air feeling? It stayed with her. Her feet barely touched the ground the whole way back to the showroom.
    Strange how everything could change for the better in the course of one afternoon.
    All at once, the world, so cruel to her in recent years, was a good and hopeful place again. Suddenly everything looked brighter.
    Yeah, okay. It was just a date. But it was a date with a man who thrilled her—and made her feel safe and protected and cherished and capable, all at the same time.
    * * *
    That night, Chloe made chocolate chip cookies. Once they’d cooled, she packed them up into two bright decorator tins. She took them to the showroom the next morning. One she offered at the coffee table.
    The other she carried with her when she went to meet with Manny at Quinn’s house after lunch.
    “Cookies!” Annabelle nodded her approval. “I
like
cookies.” She sent Manny a regretful glance. “Manny’s cookies are not very good.”
    Manny told Chloe, “Never was a baker—or that much of a cook, when you come right