Party Girl (West Coast Girlz: Book Three) Read Online Free Page A

never was.
    “I asked her to.” He gave a one-sided shrug. “Course, she wouldn’t agree to it until I’d solved the mystery.”
    “Mystery?” Casey said, but not nearly as confidently as Chase had done.
    “Who set us up.”
    What? “You know who set us up?”
    Chase nodded and pointed toward the folder once more. “See for yourself.”
    Casey opened the file, but mostly all she saw was a big fat paper trail with so much electronic jargon that she had no idea where it led. She glanced up at Chase, shaking her head. “What does all this mean?”
    “What it means is...” Chase fingered through the papers, directing her attention to the name on one particular page. “Someone you and I both are familiar with sent you the email.” Chase leaned back against the seat and, by the looks of the smile on his face, he was rather pleased with himself.
    Ray Hudson. Seriously? Veronica had said she wouldn’t put it past Ray, but Casey wanted to believe he was more grown up than that. Apparently, he wasn’t. “Are you sure?” she asked Chase.
    “Positive.” He looked at the folder again. “I have the smartest techie around, telling me it’s him.”
    Great. That meant she’d dumped the peanuts into his beer for nothing. Chase was innocent. That also meant she was looking like a bigger fool than ever.
    Casey felt her dignity sinking toward the floor, and groaned. “I think I owe you a great big apology.” She looked away, feeling the humiliation burning her cheeks.
    “Well...it’s not entirely your fault,” he said with a hint of amusement.
    “ Entirely? ” she questioned him.
    “Not entirely. No.” He winked at her.
    Okay, so it was good to know that Ray was the culprit. That meant it was a relatively harmless prank, and not much more than her dignity had been harmed. But now it was time to go. Free herself from this humiliating situation.
    “Hey look...” Casey reached for her purse and pushed herself to the edge of the booth. “I appreciate that you’ve gone to all this trouble to figure out who did it and all, but I’ve got to get going.”
    He grabbed her wrist as she rose. “Why the rush? You came here to have lunch.”
    “Not with you, I didn’t.” She flashed him a fake smile.
    “Please...” He released her hand and gestured to the empty seat across from him. “Join me.”
    His smile softened his eyes and had an unexpected, albeit strange, way of melting Casey’s reserve. She sucked in a breath and blew it out, as if exasperated. “Well...” She sat back down. “I suppose having lunch with you is the best revenge I could bestow upon Ray Hudson.” Yeah, that would definitely get his goat.
    “That’s a good argument for us to have dinner, too.” Chase looked up at Casey, presumably to see if she was biting. At least that’s the way it seemed to her.
    “We’ll see how lunch goes,” she said, and reached for a menu.
    “Fair enough.” He picked up his menu and perched it in the air between them.
    Casey wanted to believe this was real. That he really wanted to go out with her. And this wasn’t some kind of demented joke. But would a judge be a party to something like that?
    She didn’t think so and for her own sake, Casey hoped not.
    The waitress came, Casey ordered the tilapia and Chase ordered a burger and fries. Then she brought them refills for their iced teas and chips and salsa to munch on while they waited for their food.
    “So...” He reached for a tortilla chip. “Am I stepping over the line by asking you to have dinner with me?”
    “Stepping over the line?” Casey shook her head. “I’m not following.”
    “Well I know you’re not married. Rosanna said.” He grinned. “But when I asked if you had a boyfriend, she was a little vague.”
    Casey giggled. “No one special.”
    “So we can date then?”
    “Date?” She laughed. “The one time someone tried to fix us up you acted like you didn’t even know who I was. Now you want to date me?”
    “I’ll have