Chapter Twenty-Eight
“You’re doing what?” Honey asked, her coffee pot thumped to the table.
“Sh. I knew I shouldn’t have told you.” Clara glanced around, hoping no one in the small restaurant had noticed Honey’s outburst. Tammy’s was crowded. “He’s staying in my suite. In the guest bedroom. He moved in two days ago when a couple got stranded in that blizzard. The highways are still too dicey to risk travel. They’re stuck here. They need car parts to fix their heater. I can’t ask them to leave.”
“What’s he like to live with?” Honey dropped into the opposite bench and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
“He’s neat and tidy. Polite.”Too sexy. Attentive. Good company. Too sexy.
“Not that, does he run around shirtless? Has he got a tight, honed body under those sexy dress shirts? Do you want to jump his bones?” she whispered.
“Oh. My. Gosh. Shut up.” Honey was usually discrete. She was off her rocker today.
“Answer the questions.”
“No. I mean he doesn’t run around shirtless, but I caught a glimpse once. Accidentally.”After a full day of trying. “He’s buff. Fit. Sexy.”
“You totally want to jump him,” Honey crowed.
Heat rose in Clara’s face. “Maybe,” she mumbled. “He’s not for me. He’s leaving.”
“His job is portable. I knew a forensic engineer once. He was always gone. Most of his work was away from home. Zane could do that from here. If you gave him an incentive to stay.” She grinned evilly and bugged her eyes out.
“Maybe,” Clara’s agreement was hesitant. “It doesn’t matter. We’re too different.”
“You don’t seem that different to me. Aside from you being from a small town and Zane being from the city. You should give it a chance. It could work. It did with Ira and me. Heaven knows, we’re nothing alike. Different as night and day.”
“You guys are perfect for each other.” Clara had heard their story. They had a relationship which built from an argumentative and rocky start into a mountain of strength and mutual support.
“You guys might be too if you gave him a chance. You should sleep with him. See where it goes. If it flames out, he was leaving anyway. If it doesn’t, he might be induced to stay.”
“It’s not that easy. He’s so … Never mind.”
“He’s so what? ’Fess up, girlfriend.”
“He’s so smart.”
“So what?”
“He’s a total brainiac. And … and I’m not.” She closed her eyes to hold back tears. She was already so far gone in love with Zane, she could picture herself with him. Forever. But she was too stupid.
“You aren’t dumb, no matter what your father told you. Unless you let your insecurity keep you from a man you’re clearly in love with. Don’t be foolish. Go for it. If Zane thought you were stupid, he wouldn’t be stealing those kisses you told me about earlier. Take a chance. See where it goes.”
“Fine.” Her agreement was a ploy to end the discussion. She had no intention of trying to build something with a man as smart as Zane. He was brilliant and he was leaving town. That put him right out of her league.
“Are you excited for the wedding, tomorrow?”
Clara’s shoulders relaxed with the sudden topic change. It was nice that her friend and cousin-in-law understood her anxiety and let it drop. “Yes. I can’t believe Riley and Tricia asked if they could get married at my Christmas party open house. I thought they were talking about a summer wedding, not a Christmas one. I’m excited to be included. Jane and Daisy are going to be the cutest flower girls.”
