Free Moving on With Brock: A Passionate Second Chance Romance by Sandra Ross Page B

what? I’m going to find out who did put it there," she told her angrily. "This is so fucked up, and I’m going to find out who hates me enough to do something like that. I won’t be anyone’s victim anymore. It ends now!” 
    Carrie sighed, and with a worried look in her eyes, she patted her hand and nodded. "Okay, sweetie. Do you have a plan?"
    AN early evening a week later, Portia was wondering what the hell she had been thinking when she accepted Brock’s dinner invitation. 
    Yet, here she was in her bedroom, still trying to figure out what she was going to wear tonight. She just couldn't think of postponing even after what happened today. 
    She received an anonymous email that contained threats to her life. It mentioned Gideon, and that she was soon going to follow in his wake. 
    It shook her to her core.
    But as with the gift, she got angry and refused to let it scare her. Maybe it's because of what happened that she's was going on with this date. She could not, and would not, let anyone or anything disrupt her plans of moving on. This was the best way to honor Gideon's memory, that she moves on with her life and that she tries to be happy.
    Anyhow, she hadn’t even asked him where they were going to eat. That would have been a lot of help to her in choosing an appropriate outfit. 
    Well, I suppose I’ll just go with the simple black dress, she told herself. It fit her well, wasn’t too dressy, but was more stylish, and could work in just about any place they went. The V-neck showed off her cleavage nicely and the heels she paired with it did her legs justice. She picked up a red shawl at the last minute just in case it became a bit cool while they were out. Deciding to wear her hair down was the best idea, too, she thought. 
    At precisely 7:30, her doorbell rang. Portia peered through the peephole to see Brock standing on her front porch. When she opened the door, any doubts about her appearance vanished as Brock gave her a very flattering look. He was dressed much the same in casual dress slacks and a shirt. He wasn’t wearing a tie, opting instead for an open neck look with a blazer. 
    “Hi,” Portia said. “Let me just grab my purse and set the alarm.” 
    “When did you have the alarm put in?” Brock asked. 
    “I had it put in right after I moved in. I never even went back to the other house. It wasn’t possible. So when I moved in here, I had it set up." She sighed. "I needed to feel safe.” 
    “I was just going to say that it was a wise decision on your part, especially after what you went through.” 
    Portia smiled and they started down the steps toward Brock’s car. 
    He opened the door and she sank into the buttery leather seats and waited for him to get to the other side and the driver's seat. 

Chapter Four
    PORTIA and Brock had actually been acquaintances since high school. He was the brother of a former classmate. She met him again right after Gideon died. She had just been released from the hospital and she went to the cemetery to visit her late husband's grave a day later—foolishly alone. But the sun and the emotional turmoil upon seeing his grave had been too much. She'd fainted. 
    Brock was there when she came to. He ran to her after seeing her fall while he was laying flowers on the grave of his grandmother who also had recently passed away.
    Since then, they seem to be bumping everywhere and they would talk for a while, giving each other updates about their lives in summaries, then going each other's ways. But just recently, the bank where she's working as a manager just became one of Brock's clients. Brock was an excellent computer programmer and he and his team were working on their data base to make it more secure and give them ease of digital navigation when working with their customers.  
    Their small chats since then has become longer. She realized that she'd felt very comfortable with him from the start. He was a handsome guy, really, she also realized