The Relationship Coach Read Online Free Page A

Matt and said ‘yes. Oh God, yes.’”
    “Oh, honey, how romantic,” her mother said, her voice once again that soothing, sweet, give you diabetes, make you want to grit your teeth tone.
    “He’s a great guy, Lacey. I love him.”
    Lacey smiled and wondered when she could get Kerri alone to try to talk her out of this insanity.
    Lacey glanced at her mother and her sister. Yes, she wanted a great love, but she never wanted to inflict her children with multiple marriages. And her family seemed to be cursed with this affliction.
    ***
    Lacey dropped by the office to find her hardworking friend toiling away on a Saturday. She slumped in a chair across from Amanda, defeated.
    “My baby sister is engaged,” Lacey announced, shaking her head. Anxiety squeezed her heart, and wrung it out like the spin cycle on the washer.
    Amanda looked up from her computer monitor. “Do you like the guy?”
    “He’s okay. I’ve met him a couple of times and he seems nice enough. It’s just they have so much to do before they’re ready for marriage. Graduation, medical school, her internship, not to mention all the hours she’ll be studying or working.” She paused, the situation so unexpected, she still found it hard to believe. “Kerri says Matt will support them while she goes to school, but just graduating, he’ll be lucky to make forty thousand a year.”
    Kerri had a promising future as a doctor. She didn’t need marriage at this important juncture in her life.
    “What does Matt do?”
    “Accountant. He’s studying for his CPA license and hopes to do corporate tax accounting.” Lacey couldn’t stop thinking this was a mistake. A mistake they’d both lived through before.
    “There has to be some money in that.”
    “But not right away,” Lacey said. She wanted to somehow stop or at least postpone this wedding. “Kerri should stay focused and finish medical school. And I had to listen to all this crap from my mother that Matt and Kerri are destined to be together.”
    Memories of her childhood flooded her, a new step-father, moving, changing schools, the fights, the drama. “She had the nerve to tell me that Morgan women need men who bring out passion in them. I have never heard so much nonsense in my life.” Tears stung behind her lids and she refused to let them fall. “And she wonders why I became a relationship coach. So, other small children will not have to watch their parents marry time and again and have enough step-brothers and sisters to form a baseball team.”
    Amanda laughed a nervous kind of twitter. “It’s also what makes you good at your job. I’m sure you learned about human behavior from all those siblings.” She shrugged. “Besides, passion is not a bad thing.”
    “At the right time, with the right man-when you’re ready. Your life should not be ruled by men, emotions, passion, sex, or hormones. I’ve preached to my sister, telling her to set her goals in life and go for them.” She sighed, the sound weighted with sadness, loud in the small office. “You’re more qualified than my sister to get married right now. Your life is settled, but she’s still on the journey to becoming a doctor.”
    “It will work out Lacey. You know how engagements often end before the wedding.”
    “Yeah I know.” Amanda was right. She knew that, but she loved Kerri, and didn’t want to see her sister hurt.
    “Yet, I envy your sister. She’s found a man she is willing to marry. I just can’t seem to find the right man,” Amanda confessed.
    “You said things were going well with Jason.” Lacey was surprised that her friend seemed to have doubts. Had she been so wrapped up in her own drama not to notice her friend’s relationship had hit the skids?
    “The guy meets all my criteria. We’ve been dating for three months. We’ve had sex. Everything seems perfect,” Amanda said, yet there was something in her voice that wasn’t quite convincing.
    “Then why did you say that?”
    Her shoulders