The Good Girl's Second Chance (The Bravos Of Justice Creek 2) by Christine Rimmer Page A

having ice cream with him and that child of his. She says that everyone says how...intimate you seem together, that it’s obvious something serious is going on between you.” Linda pressed her hand flat to her chest, and shook her head fiercely. “I do not believe this. Tell me that none of it is true.”
    Chloe just stared. God. She’d known this would be bad. But somehow, now that it was actually happening, all she could think was
What are we doing here? How could I have let it get his far? Why didn’t I back her down years ago
?
    The questions were all too familiar to her. They were the same ones she’d asked herself over and over about her ex-husband.
    “Well?” her mother demanded. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
    “You know, Mom. I don’t think I have to say anything. But I would like to know what happened to
you
? I just don’t understand how you got so messed up.”
    Another indignant gasp. “Excuse me?”
    “It’s not going to work on me, Mother. Not anymore. All your trumped-up outrage, your sad, small-minded ideas about who’s okay and who’s not. Your judgments about the right kind of people and the ones who just don’t measure up.”
    “Wait just a minute, now—”
    “No. No, I’m not going to wait for you to try and fill my head with more of your small-minded garbage and your snobbish, silly lies.”
    “Well, I have never—”
    “Stop. I mean it. I don’t want to hear it, never again. Quinn Bravo is a fine man and I’m not listening to one more word of this ridiculous crap you’re dishing out against him. Yes, I am seeing him. And I am
proud
to be seeing him. Also, you should know that I am redoing his house and I’m gratified that he and Manny Aldovino have confidence in my ability to do the job well. In fact, Quinn has asked me to marry him and I am seriously considering saying yes.”
    “Dear, sweet Lord. Have you lost your mind?”
    “No, I have not. I am perfectly sane, saner than I’ve ever been in my life before. And all that old stuff about Quinn’s mother and his father and his father’s first wife, all those ancient, ridiculous distinctions between the
real
Bravos and the
bastard
Bravos... Nobody cares about that anymore. Nobody but you—and maybe Monique Hightower and Agnes Oldfield, who both ought to get a life and stay out of mine.”
    “But you surely can’t—”
    “Wake up, Mother. Smell the Starbucks. I mean, look at it this way. Haven’t you heard? Quinn Bravo’s rich now. He’s made a big success of his life. You know how much you love a big success.”
    Linda Winchester paled. “How dare you imply that I care how much money a man makes?”
    Chloe knew she had lost it completely when she shouted, “I’m not implying it, I’m saying it straight out!”
    Her mother cringed and jerked back in her chair, as though terrified—which Chloe knew very well she was not. “There’s no need to shout,” Linda said with a wounded sniff. “And I would hardly consider beating other men to a pulp a ‘successful’ way to make a living. And what about that motherless child of his being raised by that strange old man?”
    “Manny is a wonderful person and he’s doing a terrific job with Annabelle.”
    “Oh, please. It doesn’t matter how much money he has. Quinn Bravo will never measure up and I raised you to know that.”
    “Enough.” Chloe stood. “What I know, Mother, is that I’m done. I’m finished. I’ve had enough of your narrow-minded, holier-than-thou, manipulative behavior to last me a lifetime.”
    Another hot gasp from her mother. “What’s happened to you? What’s the
matter
with you? You’re acting like a crazy person. I brought you up to be better than this.”
    “Stop. Quit. There’s just no point. I want you to leave now. I want you to leave my house and not come back until you’ve had a serious change in your attitude.”
    Something happened then. Linda’s gaze shifted away. When she looked back at Chloe, she