Heaven to Betsy (Emily #1) Read Online Free

yesterday. She’s in your mother’s Sunday school class, so I’ve heard all about what you’ve been up to, and I just can’t wait to catch up over coffee. Call me.” She released the card.
    When Hell freezes over
, I thought. I screwed my face up into its brightest smile. “Well, I won’t keep you then,” I said. “So nice to see you.”
    Off she went in one direction, and off I went in the other, seething. I should have been used to these excruciating reunions by now, but I wasn’t. I needed to rise above them. That, or scat back to Dallas. Neither option set my wick afire, to be honest, but I’d just do the job interview, and later I could reevaluate my life for the millionth time.
    It was only half a block to the Maxor Building, site of the Williams & Associates offices. The ten-story tan structure looked so native that it made me imagine it was once a Panhandle sandstorm that had blown itself out and stayed put. We had a lot of windstorms, but most of them blew through. The conditions in these parts were so rugged that many folks gave up and moved on like the storms. Only the toughest stuck around. The ones that left complained that all the cattle feedlots stunk—but that was just the smell of money, my dad had always said—and that the barren terrain was ugly. But not me. It was just different, in a vast way that was big on cloudless sky and Technicolor sunsets. It shouted of freedom and wide-open spaces. You could loosen your belt here, lean your head back, and draw a full breath. You could see a storm coming from a hundred miles away, and you could gallop a horse at full speed forever without stopping or turning unless you darn well wanted to. Those were the kinds of things you didn’t realize you missed when beauty closed in on you. Or on me, rather. When it closed in on me, in Dallas. I’d only left this place all those years ago because it was time for me to go, not because I hated it.
    I pushed the Maxor’s glass doors open and walked to the elevators. I got off on the sixth floor and set my chin as I scanned the hallway for the Williams & Associates offices. I found them, just to my right. My appointment was at nine a.m., and it was five minutes till.
    This was it. My first job interview in eight years. “You’ve got this,” I whispered to myself. I ticked off my qualifications in my head. I’d worked as a legal assistant at a top-notch Dallas firm. The Texas Board of Legal Specialization had board-certified me as a paralegal in civil trial law. I had a magna cum laude degree in political science from Texas Tech that would have led to a law degree if I hadn’t decided it was more important to marry my beautiful Colombian boyfriend. Ah, regrets. Well, despite my questionable personal choice, I was more than qualified for the job.
    A text buzzed on my phone. I fumbled for it and read the message. It was from my friend Katie’s brother, Collin:
Nick home safe. Katie asked me to let you know.
    I texted back quickly:
Thank God! Great news! How are you?
    I wanted to call Katie to tell her, too, but I held back. I didn’t know where the heck Nick had been. And, if he’d done something bad, I didn’t know what to say. I was partly responsible for getting the two of them together, and I didn’t believe he had it in him to hurt her. But that’s what I’d thought about Rich and me. I’d email her later, after I’d had more time to think about it.
    Honestly, though, just seeing Collin’s name pop up on my phone gave me a little buzz of excitement. Collin was a state cop in New Mexico, and he’d always had a crush on me, according to Katie. He was about as different from Rich as a man could be, which really appealed to me right now. I could do with someone who would make me feel good. Who was I kidding, though? Collin had
always
appealed to me. I just didn’t meet him until after I married Rich. I waited a second to see if he’d text again, but then looked at my watch. Four minutes till nine.