Free Trouble Comes Knocking (Entangled Embrace) by Mary Duncanson Page A

make him understand, my skin tingled to feel him gather me close and tell me it would be okay.
    Frowning, he faced me. “You know who my father is. You know as the son of a senator I can’t have any sort of drama in my life, not like this. Not someone who lied to me through our entire relationship and might be holding who knows what else back from me. Not with my own goals in mind.”
    I knew what he wanted. The life of his father, a political career, power, influence.
    “I’m sorry, Bobby. I…I love you. I didn’t want to keep anything from you.”
    The stony set of his jaw and the way he held his shoulders razor-straight should have given me a clue I wouldn’t see him again.
    I didn’t truly believe it until I left Dee’s a couple of days later and found myself locked out of the apartment we’d shared. He’d left a key to a storage facility and a note telling me where to find my things and that he couldn’t be in a relationship with a liar.
    It had been less than a year since that happened. I couldn’t imagine Bobby changing all that much, least of all enough for me to trust him with Ana, my best friend, my sister.
    But knowing Ana, if I told her not to date him, she wouldn’t. And she would resent me. We’d drift apart; we had before—and I couldn’t let that happen again. Like it or not, my loyalty was to my friend, and my job was to protect her, even if it was from herself.
    Standing, I brushed the lint from my pant legs. “I’m coming out.”
    I could tell from the relief in her sigh that she’d been just about ready to walk away. Ana would go a long way toward getting me to forgive her once we were talking, I didn’t need her to plead for forgiveness now.
    After opening the door, I helped her up from where she’d been sitting on the floor.
    “I’ll break it off if you want me to,” she said, her eyelashes glistening.
    “Absolutely not. You’re one of the toughest, meanest women I know—he’s getting exactly what he deserves.”
    She laughed. “He is a little whipped.”
    “He brought you your wallet.”
    “He brought me my wallet.”
    We laughed together, though this time more a chuckle and less something we would spend a lot of time rehashing later. I closed my eyes and took another breath, my chest aching from the pain I knew she’d one day feel. When he hurt her, I’d be there. “I wish you could have fallen for someone I didn’t have a past with, but you’re right—the heart wants what the heart wants. I know you would have my back, and I have yours.”
    We headed downstairs to find Aunt Dolores pulling the lasagna out of the oven. She popped in the bread and set the pasta on the stove to cool. “So you girls are done kissing and making up?”
    I rolled my eyes and stole a tomato from the salad. “Bobby gone?”
    “He came long enough to drop off my wallet,” Ana responded, lips thin and cheeks sucked in.
    I smiled, hoping it was enough to reassure her. “We’re done. But I don’t think I’m quite ready for a sit-down dinner with him yet.” Probably not in this millennia. Or the next.
    Dolores grumbled as she sliced into the lasagna. “Well, my niece might be the forgivin’ sort, but you just let his boy bits get anywhere near me with a knife…” She made a wild swipe in the air before letting the knife land on an uncut carrot, cleaving it in half. “That boy don’t deserve neither of you. He’s no good. Mark my words.”
    I agreed but would not say so in front of Ana. I’d have to talk to Dee later. “No castrations tonight, please. And what in the world did that carrot ever do to you?”

    “Still nothing?”
    I hated giving Eli such boring news, but really, what was I supposed to say? I was suspicious of a woman who didn’t work there anymore and a guy who was probably fine but happened to be dating my work friend? Oh, and by the way, I don’t have time to spy anymore because my possible-but-probably-not relationship with John was confusing and awkward