Free The Right Thing by Donna McDonald

his mouth saying he didn’t believe her one bit. “I’ve seen no evidence of that.”
    Thea sighed. She hated to be cruel to a man who had been a good friend, but there seemed to be no other way to communicate how serious she was other than to just be brutally honest with him.
    “I’ve got a thing for Gerald’s son. He’s only here for a few months, which suits me perfectly. I’ve decided to take a page from Gerald’s book and just dally with a man now and again when I get the urge. You are a great guy, but you won’t ever be one of the men I dally with,” she told him, using words meant to tease rather than hurt his ego.
    “Why not?” Tom said, surprised by her vehement denial of any possibility of a more intimate relationship. Thea was damn good-looking, not to mention she was as good-hearted as a woman ever gets. “I dally well, Thea.”
    Thea snorted. “I need friends more than lovers. I only seem to need to dally once in a decade. Friends and business partners I need all the time.”
    Tom sighed, realizing that Thea was never going to see him as a potential lover. “I see you’ve given this friend thing considerable thought.”
    “I give everything considerable thought,” Thea agreed. “You know I do.”
    “Yes, I know,” Tom said. “Okay. I won’t press you more about it.”
    He sighed and shook his head. “Well, just so you know where you stand in the rest of your finances, Delilah has enough life insurance to pay for funeral expenses. There will be some balance on the nursing home bill, but not a lot. You don’t have to pay that off. They can write it off the same as every other medical institution.”
    “Yes, I do have to pay it off,” Thea corrected. “Angus would want me to, and that’s all the reason I need. This is his business I’m running, and I am taking care of my mother-in-law’s debts. Gerald can’t do anymore than he’s already doing.”
    “I swear you and Gerald Reed are a pair. I’ve never known people with better hearts. His son’s going to fall in love with you, Althea Carmichael. Then you’re going to find yourself in a real dilemma,” Tom told her. “If the man is anything like Gerald at all, he won’t be set aside as easily as me or the other men who wanted to love you.”
    “Morgan is not going to fall in love with me,” Thea said. “He’s leaving in four months and going back to his job in Las Vegas. In the meantime, he will comfort me through losing Delilah, and I will think of him fondly for the rest of my life.”
    “You know what they say about the best laid plans,” Tom warned. “Some men take getting laid more seriously than women.”
    Thea hooked her arm in his as she walked him out.
    “Yes, but Gerald has taught me that you can love many people in many different ways and honor each relationship. If my Aunt Lydia hadn’t gotten to him first, I might have given Gerald a spin myself if he would have had me. Frankly though, I don’t think I have the energy to keep up with him.”
    Tom laughed. “Yeah, right. I know how you really feel about Gerald. You’re just trying to let me down easy. Is his son as good as his father?”
    Thea laughed. She had no idea what kind of man Morgan was, but he sure knew how to kiss.
    “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so. Morgan doesn’t seem to be nearly as nice as his father, but he has some redeeming qualities.”
    “Like what? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know,” Tom said, pulling away from her and walking to the door to the sound of Thea’s snickering laughter behind him.
    Leaving did not stop Tom Reynolds from being interested in seeing the man that had snapped Althea Carmichael out of her grief, and he wondered how to wrangle an introduction. If all Thea wanted from him was friendship, then Tom would at least be the best friend he could be to her.
    Who knew what would happen after the man left town? She might reconsider Tom’s offer then. And if that was the case, he needed to