Free The Best of Us by Ursula Gorman Page A

snort, “Daniel needs a real woman that knows how to treat a man. He needs someone mature and you’re like a kid sister to him. He has known you for years and has never shown any interest so why would he start now?”
    Carly and Mike were both left speechless, this woman had nerve. Carly had the ungracious thought that Glynna was definitely more woman than she was…a LOT more! She started to feel bad about the thought, but then Glynna spoke again and Carly changed her mind.
    “ Anyway, think about it. Once you realize that you need me here in the store, give me a call.” Glynna turned and left the store without another word. Mike and Carly sat there like bumps on a log and watched her leave.
    “ UN- believable,” Carly finally managed. The woman acted as if she were still the cute teenager, wearing the cheerleading skirt. Carly’s temper flared. “Showing skin? He needs a real woman? More mature?” She turned to face Mike who still looked stupefied. “It isn’t as if I still play with Barbie’s!’ Carly said outraged. “I am a real woman! The nerve of her!”
    Carly turned to look at Mike again, and after a moment, they both busted out laughing. The two of them sitting side by side laughing is what Daniel saw when he walked in the store.

    “ I didn’t get much of a chance to find anything out. There were some interesting conversations going on though. Apparently the woman that is running the store doesn’t own it. At least she didn’t claim it when I mentioned the new owners. Also, a woman came in about helping out, so it sounds like right now it is just the woman running it. We just need to watch for her to leave so we can get in.”
    “ I just don’t think that’s a good idea. We’ve already done more then we should have. We shouldn’t have pushed Jenna like we did. Things weren’t supposed to turn out this way.”
    “ Quit whining. We’ve come too far to stop now. We need to watch to see when she leaves. We need to get inside the apartment and search it.”
    He didn’t like it, but he knew he wasn’t going to win.

    Carly looked up as Daniel walked in, he didn’t look happy.
    “ Hey Danny boy,” Mike said still laughing.
    “ Hi,” Daniel didn’t look away from Carly. “Can you spare a couple of minutes?”
    “ I’m not real busy right now,” Carly turned to look at Mike, “Can you cover the store for a bit?”
    “ Sure, not a problem.”
    Daniel took Carly’s hand and led her to the door to Jenna’s apartment. He pulled the key out of his pocket and opened the door. He moved to the side to allow Carly to go ahead of him. While he watched her cute butt and worried about their up coming conversation, she was anxiously waiting to see if he would kiss her again.
    “ Why don’t you have a seat?” Daniel indicated the couch in Jenna’s living room. Carly sat down and waited.
    “ The other night,” Daniel had to stop and clear his throat, “The other night things got out of hand.” Uh oh, this was not starting out as she had hoped. Her smile faltered a bit as he continued. “I don’t know what happened and I have no excuses, I’m sorry.”
    No, no, no. This isn’t what he was supposed to be saying.
    “ I should never have kissed you like that. I had just started out apologizing and the next thing I knew, I was kissing you.”
    “ Did you know Glynna wasn’t at the ball?”
    Daniel looked puzzled at the question, “What? I never really thought about it.” He seemed confused.
    “ What were you thinking about?”
    Daniel didn’t know where she was going with this, neither did she. All she knew was he was ripping her heart out after giving her such joy and hope. She couldn’t understand why he had acted the way he did the other night if Glynna wasn’t there. Now with him dancing on her heart, she didn’t know which way was up.
    “ Carly, I’m trying to say I’m sorry. You’re like a sister to me and I don’t want to hurt you.”
    “ You know what Daniel; if you