Free Not the Marrying Kind (Destiny Bay Romances - Forever Yours) by Helen Conrad Page A

“You know what I mean?”  
    She thought she might have an inkling and it filled her with a sick feeling of remorse.   Missy was such a sweet girl, but as scared as a kitten.   She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know what had made her that way.  
    “I just thought, maybe if she talked to you about what happened….”
    Regret choked her.   Ethically, she really couldn’t treat her cousin.   She turned to try to explain all that to Tag, but she read the pain in his eyes and she melted and took a deep breath instead.  
    “Listen, maybe I can take her out to lunch one of these days and we could talk and I could see what I think.”
    He gave her hand another squeeze.   “Thanks, Cuz,” he said, and then his face changed and Shelley looked up to see what he’d noticed.  
    Mickey had come out, smiling as she caught sight of them.   She gave Shelley a grin, then turned and looked at Tag.   The look that passed between the two of them took her breath away.   Now that was what she would call electricity!  
    She looked from one to the other in amazement, but for all they noticed, she might as well have been invisible.   She hadn’t known…she hadn’t realized…Tag and Mickey had a real thing for each other, didn’t they?
    Her first reaction was incredulity.   After all, Mickey had to be almost ten years older than he was.   But from the look of things, age was not an issue with them.  
    “Hi,” Mickey said to him.  
    “Hi,” he said back.  
    Silence—but the emotion was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.  
    Shelley cleared her throat and Tag’s head jerked as though he was coming out of a sleep-walking spell.   Mickey finally noticed her, too.  
    “Oh, hi Shelley.”   She blinked.   “Where’s that handsome man who was asking after you?”
    “Gone.   He…he was just…”
    “Passing through.   Yes, so he said.”   Mickey shrugged.   “Win some, lose some.”
    Tag made a restless move and looked around the crowded café.   “Where’s my girl?” he asked gruffly.  
    “Meggie?”   Mickey’s daughter was a favorite with anyone who saw her.   A bouncing cutie right out of a Shirley Temple movie, she supplied entertainment for everyone when she was around.   “She’s in the back.   I think she’s watching Curious George.”
    Tag slid off the stool and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.   “I think I’ll go say ‘hi’,” he said, and with a nod to Shelley, he started off toward the back room.  
    Mickey moved on to help a customer and Shelley sat where she was, marveling over the look she’d seen between her cousin and the woman he was so obviously smitten with.   How long had this been going on?  
    She looked back at where the others were still enjoying each other, but she wasn’t in the mood any longer.   A long walk on the embarcadero with the ocean spray in her face—that was what she needed.   She had a lot to think about.

CHAPTER FOUR:  
    We Meet Again  

    Robin was pouting, holding out a slick brown object on a fork. “Just one more chocolate-covered strawberry. Come on, I'll share it with you.”
    Shelley groaned, leaning back in her velvet-padded chair. “Not another bite. Really, I'll blow up like a blimp and float off if I do. I haven't eaten this much since the Thanksgiving when I was ten.”
    All the restaurants in the Bay Vista Grand served wonderful food, but the Boar's Head, where they were dining on this Saturday night, was especially nice.
    “That veal was as tender as fish, honestly. And that caper sauce ...” Robin swooned back in her seat, ecstasy written all over her pretty face. Shelley's roommate shared her type of build, but for some reason it looked very different on her. She'd been an athlete in school, always out for the track team or playing basketball, and it still showed in her bearing and casual manner.
    “Yes,” Shelley agreed. “Everything was marvelous. Everything except those slimy snails. Why