Tracie Peterson Read Online Free

catered and have Esperanza come to serve?” he suggested.
    Tess knew her housekeeper was due to come yet that afternoon. It would be easy enough to see if Esperanza wanted to earn some extra money keeping their kitchen for the party.
    “All right. I’ll take care of the details,” Tess replied.
    “You’re a doll. I’ll probably see you around seven. I’m playing racquetball with Justin after work.”
    Tess nodded, seeing she’d noted Brad’s game on her calendar. “Have fun.”
    “Say, do you want to go out to dinner tonight?” Brad questioned. “Kind of my way of making up for springing this business dinner on you at the last minute.”
    “Sure. Sounds like fun. Do you want me to make reservations?” Tess questioned.
    “Nah, I’ll take care of it. We’ll do something special.”
    “Trying to cheer me up?” she asked, half teasing, half serious.
    “Just letting you know how much you’re appreciated.”
    She smiled. “Ah, bribery.”
    He laughed and denied it. “See you at seven.”
    Tess hung up the phone and tapped her pencil on the notes she’d made. It would be short notice, but she was certain she could get Evangeline’s to cater her dinner. The owner had been so grateful for Tess’s help in relocating his mother to Ft. Lauderdale that he practically fell all over Tess whenever she appeared in his shop.
    Then the notes for Laura and Darren Johnson caught her eye. Laura had been a dear friend to Tess’s mother, while Darren and her father had begun their relationship throughbusiness. Tess’s father, Rudy Hersh, had been a big name in construction in the Kansas City area. It only seemed fitting that he should befriend an architect when he decided to bid on one of the city’s biggest renovation projects. It would be nice having Laura and Darren in the area, Tess decided. Almost as nice as having her folks around again.
    Rudy and Stella Hersh had been gone longer than Tess liked to remember. Her father had succumbed to a heart attack nearly a year after Tess and Brad had married. After that, her mother’s health had gradually gone downhill. Tess believed her mother had died of a broken heart, never having been quite able to find her niche after Rudy had died. How Tess missed them.
    Gathering up some information, she tried not to think about her parents or her desire to have a baby. There are just too many sad things in this world , she concluded. I hardly need to add to them with my own poor spirits .
    This was the way Tess generally did business. This was how she kept herself from sinking too low in self-pity. Her demands on herself were always greater than those anyone else placed on her. Other people might have allowed for her to have hurts and sorrows, but Tess refused to allow herself the luxury of such feelings. At least not for long.

CHAPTER 3
    “The flowers are on the table, Mrs. Holbrook,” the fifty-something housekeeper announced as Tess emerged from her bedroom.
    Securing a diamond stud to her left ear, Tess nodded. “Esperanza, would you mind zipping me up?” she questioned, turning her back to the woman.
    Esperanza quickly slid the zipper into place. “The food is ready and the table set. What time do you want me to serve?”
    The concierge from the downstairs lobby buzzed Tess before she could answer.
    “Yes?”
    “Mr. Holbrook is on his way upstairs.”
    “Thank you, Carlos,” Tess replied and turned to Esperanza. “I suppose we’ll want to eat in about thirty to forty minutes. Let’s give the men time to discuss their racquetball games and Wall Street victories before stuffing them with Evangeline’s seafood salad and tortilla soup.” Tess knew her husband and his business dinners well enough to know that this would be sufficient time for all formalities to be set aside.
    The condominium went almost instantly from its routine calm to a kind of overwhelming onslaught of activity. Tess found herself glad for the dressy appearance of her black sleeveless Donna Karan