Free A Tricky Proposition by Cat Schield Page B

thought of the chardonnay she and Jason had shared. How he’d fed her grapes and how she’d enjoyed his hands on her skin. “I wasn’t having any fun so I thought I’d come home.” Not the whole truth, but far from a lie. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you before you left town last week, but Terry wants to sell me his half of the practice. He’s retiring.”
    “How are you going to manage a baby and the practice all by yourself?”
    “I can handle it just fine.”
    “I think you’re being selfish.” Lily’s words, muffled by the refrigerator door, drove a spear into Ming’s heart. She pulled a bowl of string beans out and plunked them on the counter. “How can you possibly have enough time for a child when you’re running the practice?”
    “There are a lot of professional women who manage to do both.” Ming forced back the doubts creeping up on her, but on the heels of her failure with Jason this weekend, she couldn’t help but wonder if her subconscious agreed with Lily.
    What if she couldn’t do both well? Was she risking complete failure? No. She could do this. Even without a partner in her life to help her when things went wrong, or to celebrate the triumphs?
    She was going to be awfully lonely. Sure, her parents would help when they could, but Lily was moving and Jason had his racing and his career to occupy him. What was she thinking? She would have her child and the practice to occupy her full attention. What about love? Marriage?
    She brushed aside the questions. What good did it do to focus on something she couldn’t control? Planning and organization led to success, and she was a master of both.
    With her confidence renewed, she poured wine from the bottle Lily had opened. As it hit her taste buds, she made a face. She checked the label and frowned at her sister.
    “Since when do you drink Riesling?”
    “I’m trying new things.”
    “This is Evan’s favorite wine.”
    “He recommended it so I bought a bottle.”
    “Recently?”
    “No.” Her sister frowned. “A while ago. Geez, what’s with all the questions? I tried a type of wine your ex liked. Big deal.”
    Lily’s sharpness rocked Ming. Was her sister so upset with her that it threatened to drive a wedge between them?
    Ming set down her wineglass. “I’m going to run over to Mom and Dad’s and pick up Muffin. Is there anything you need me to get while I’m out?”
    “How about a bottle of wine you prefer?”
    Flinching at her sister’s unhappy tone, Ming grabbed her keys and headed for the door. “You know, I’m not exactly thrilled with your decision to move to Portland, but I know it’s something you feel you have to do, so I’m trying to put aside my selfish wish for you to stay and at least act like I’m supportive.”
    Then, without waiting for her sister’s reply, Ming stepped into her garage and shut the door firmly behind her. With her hands shaking, she had a hard time getting the key into the ignition of the ’66 Shelby Cobra. She’d chosen to drive the convertible tonight, hoping the fresh air might clear away all the confusion in her mind.
    The drive to her parents’ house was accomplished in record time thanks to the smoothly purring 425 V8 engine. She really should sell the car. It was an impractical vehicle for a mother-to-be, but she had such great memories of the summer she and Jason had spent fixing it up.
    After her spat with Lily, she’d planned to join her parents for dinner, but they were meeting friends at the country club, so Ming collected her dog and retraced her path back to her house. A car sat in her driveway. In the fading daylight, it took her a second to recognize it as Evan’s.
    Because she and Jason were best friends and she knew there’d be occasions when she’d hang out with his family, Ming had made a decision to keep her interactions with Evan amicable. In fact, it wasn’t that hard. Their relationship lacked the turbulent passion that would make her hate him for