Free She's All Tied Up: Club 3, Book 2 by Cathryn Cade Page B

Fitness locker room, staring dreamily into space instead of putting on her sandals, Carlie sat up straight, cheeks burning. “I’m…good.”
    Which she was, but she’d been imagining being very, very bad. Since thinking about being bad with Jake made her feel very, very good, she was going with her mood, not her intentions.
    “Great,” George said. “Got time to have lunch with your old man this week?”
    “Sure. What day’s best for you?”
    “How about tomorrow? Meet you at that Mexican place on Pacific?”
    “Dad, are you sure you have time to drive clear out to Forest Grove?” Although her workplace was in Forest Grove, from his office in Beaverton, this would not be a quick journey. Portland-area business people loved to lunch, and as they all hopped in their cars to do so, the highways connecting all the small towns melded into the metro area were crowded. Of course, since Portland was bursting with great restaurants, who could blame them? Carlie had been to La Fortuna before, and it was excellent.
    “Business call out that way in the morning. Should be done by noon.”
    “Great. I’ll get us a table.”
    She’d go in early and get some extra work done, then not feel guilty if she took over an hour for lunch. She didn’t do this often, so no one would say anything except Monica, the receptionist and office bitch. But since Carlie had given up on being friends with Monica after approximately one week of acquaintance, this would not bother her.
    “Table for three,” her father said. “Seth is joining us.”
    “Oh.” Foreboding jolted her out of her good mood. Although her father always managed to set up a lunch or other time with her after her mother had knocked her down emotionally, these times were just for the two of them. While she loved her brother, she had an uneasy feeling about his presence at this lunch.
    “We need Seth in on this one, sweetheart,” George Milton said, his tone firm.
    “Okay. Table for three. See you.”
    She put away her phone with a frown. Families—yeesh. Maybe she should move to Seattle…or farther. But, unless she did that before noon tomorrow, she couldn’t very well get out of the lunch without being a total bitch.
    She’d just have to hope that whatever Seth had to say wasn’t all about how Tiffany was stressed with the wedding plans, and could Carlie just suck it up, smile and agree with whatever Tiffany asked. For a guy who was not afraid to speak his mind with his family and apparently his colleagues, Seth spent a lot of time saying, Okay, honey, whatever you want to his fiancée. Being in love had turned him into a total sap. Carlie sometimes wanted to check to see if Tiffany was slipping Valium into his vitamins.
    Seth had graduated from U of O with a degree in business and accounting. He worked for Stark Bros., a firm in downtown Portland that handled the accounting for other businesses. Not an accountant, per se, he managed other accountants.
    He was handsome, personable and ambitious, so Carlie figured in twenty years, he would own his own firm or have taken over Stark Bros. Heck, with Tiffany behind him poking her manicured nail in his back, he’d probably do it in ten.
    Which was cool, because Carlie wanted her brother to be happy, and she wanted him to stay in Portland. For Seth, she’d get along with Tiffany, no matter how difficult that might be, and someday she’d have nephews and nieces to spoil rotten, buying them those annoying toys that made loud noises and had tons of teensy parts that got into carpets and thus vacuum cleaners. That was something to look forward to.
    Carlie reached La Fortuna a little early, and was escorted by a smiling teen with dark eyes and hair in a heavily embroidered Mexican dress, to a table by the windows. Carlie sat, smoothing a hand over her white dressy capris and belted, raglan-sleeve gauze top, navy with white polka dots and squiggly lines. She wore navy ankle-strap sandals and a navy headband held back her