Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,56
good, like all of us.”
Bernie looked at her warmly. “I told him it wouldn’t matter, whatever he’d done.”
“That’s like you,” Sari replied. She studied the other woman quietly. “He’ll tell you the truth. I know about it from Paul. He and Mikey both had hard lives as children. They grew up with people who weren’t good role models. Mikey went the wrong way. I think he’s trying to leave that behind him now. But...” She hesitated, noticing how Bernie hung on every word. “But he’ll have to tell you the rest. And you’ll have to make a choice.” She paused. She didn’t want to say it. “That choice may be harder than you think right now.”
Bernie drew in a long breath. “It’s too late for choices,” she said softly. “He’s my whole world, Sari. He’s...everything.”
Sari smiled. “Paul is mine. I understand. It’s just... Well, Mikey will explain it to you,” she finished.
Bernie studied her hands, poised on her purse in her lap. “He’s mixed up somehow with organized crime, I think,” she said without noting Sari’s sudden alertness. “I watched The Godfather, so I sort of know about that stuff.”
She didn’t know anything, not a thing, about the harshness and the blood and the savagery with which Mikey’s associates did and could act. Sari didn’t want to enlighten her, though. It was going to be up to Mikey. If Bernie truly loved him, they’d find a way to make it work.
“Paul says he’s never seen Mikey so happy,” Sari said, instead of voicing her thoughts.
Bernie beamed. “I’ve never been so happy, not in all my life.” She looked at Sari. “You know all about my family, about what happened. Will Mikey be able to handle it? I mean, there are people who went after Daddy, when he was alive, because of what my grandfather did.”
“Nobody’s ever come after you, and nobody ever will. If they even try, we’ll sic Mr. Kemp on them. He’ll handle it. Okay?”
Bernie let out the breath she’d been holding. “Okay.”
“And Mikey’s the last person who’ll blame you for something someone in your family did,” she added.
“I was notorious for a while,” Bernie said hesitantly.
“Only for a while, and never after you moved here with your dad,” Sari added.
“I suppose so.” She lowered her face. “I don’t want Mikey to be ashamed of me.”
“As if that would ever happen! Honestly, Bernie!” she laughed. “He’s crazy about you. It won’t matter.”
Bernie smiled. “Okay.”
“And the past doesn’t matter. For either one of you.”
“If I stay sick all the time, it may,” Bernie voiced her other fear. “I’ve got a weak immune system already, and the medicines I have to take for RA make it even weaker. I get sick a lot, especially in cold weather.”
“It won’t matter,” she said firmly. “Besides, Mikey could afford those outrageously expensive medicines that they think might help you,” she added with a smile.
“As if I’d let him do that,” Bernie began.
“Under certain circumstances, you would,” Sari drawled, and laughed at the expression on her coworker’s face. “Life is sweet. You’re just finding that out.”
“It’s never been sweeter, in fact.”
“So live one day at a time,” Sari counseled, “and let tomorrow take care of itself.”
“That sounds easy. It’s not.”
“Nothing is easy. But we get by. Right?”
“Right.”
“And if Jessie makes one more snide remark about how unhealthy you are, I’m going to encourage Olivia to pour coffee on her head!”
“Oh, don’t suggest that—Olivia would do it on a dare,” Bernie laughed uproariously.
“I heard about the coffee incident after I got back from vacation this summer,” Sari said mischievously. “Nobody had made coffee. Agent Murdock came to see the boss on a case, and he made coffee just for himself and turned off the pot. Olivia went to get herself a cup. It was barely lukewarm by then, but she thought she’d drink it anyway. She took a sip, spat it out, glared at Murdock, who was flushed by then, and she poured the whole carafe right over his head and his suit. Lucky it wasn’t hot!”
“Mr. Kemp came out of his office to usher Agent Murdock in,” Bernie recalled, laughing so hard she almost choked. “And when he saw Olivia with the empty pot and the full cup in Agent Murdock’s hand, he put his hand over his mouth and went right back into his office and closed the door. I swear, he laughed for five minutes.”
“What did Agent Murdock do?”
Bernie whistled. “He got up, in the ruins of his suit, stared at Olivia