Page 41 of Love Everlasting

Cynthia’s face perked up. “Wonderful, then you owe me a dance.”

Ben bit back a groan. “Sorry, Cynthia, but I’d rather not leave Tess alone.” He turned to Tess, stomach lurching at the tight press of her smile. “Tess, you remember my colleague, Dr. Cynthia Andreyuk, don’t you? You two met last summer.”

Tess’s smile was so bright, it made the candles on the table look dim. “Of course, nice to see you again.”

Cynthia lasered Tess with a cool look, her lithe five-foot-nine in stiletto heels making Tess look like a little girl. “Ah, yes, you’re the sweet neighbor who bakes brownies for Ben.”

Bobbing her head, Tess patted Ben on the back like a bosom buddy. “Among other things or else the man would starve, wouldn’t you, Ben?”

Ben absently loosened his collar with a finger, his grin as stiff as Tess’s. Yep, and something tells me I will again ...

Cynthia sidled close to ruffle her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck. “Oh, I don’t know—we had some pretty long days in Libya as I recall, but we always managed to eat.” Slipping him a seductive wink, she bumped his hip with her own. “Among other things.”

Ben’s heart stopped the moment Tess’s body went stiff, her eyes dilating in apparent interest. “Libya?” she said with a rapt tip of her head. “You were in Libya?”

Cynthia hooked her arm to Ben’s, and he froze. All words fused to his tongue while she smiled up at him as if they shared a secret.

A deadly secret.

One about to explode in his face.

“Oh, only for a month,” Cynthia gushed, obviously caught up in the wonder of her very first medical mission trip. “But it was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.”

“I’ll bet.” Tess’s smile stretched so wide, Ben thought it might crack.

“So …” Cynthia pivoted to adjust the lapels of Ben’s suit coat. “Come on, Ben,” she said in a pouty tone, “how ’bout that dance?” She peered at Tess over a bronzed shoulder, her smile patronizing at best. “Your neighbor won’t mind, will you, Tess?”

Ben gripped Cynthia’s hands to remove them from his chest. “Cynthia, no—”

“Don’t give it another thought, Ben, please.” Tess snatched the chain strap of her evening bag from the back of her chair and slung it over her shoulder, jaw tight enough to snap. “I certainly don’t intend to.”

His stomach lurched as he reached for her hand. “Tess, wait—”

She jerked free, shoving her chair in so hard, the glasses teetered on the table. “He’s all yours,” she said with a quivering jut of her chin, constricting his gut when he saw a sheen of tears in her eyes. “For the rest of his miserable life.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Hey, you’re awfully quiet, Teach, or have I been talking your ear off?”

Shannon managed a smile as she glanced over at Sam while they waited at a red light. Although it wasn’t hard to do given the way he’d been bubbling over since they’d gotten in the car—like a boy at Christmas who’d just scored the latest Sony PlayStation with five of his dream-list games. Her smile tipped as she patted one of her ears. “Nope, ears still here, so I must just be tired, although happily so after hearing such good news.”

For Sam.

Not me.

The flash of his grin filled both the car and her heart as he veered onto the highway, from zero to sixty in under five seconds—both Sam and the car. A smile tickled at the edge of her lips.

“I’ve said it before, Shan, and I’ll say it again—you missed your calling as a shrink or counselor, my friend, because every single thing you’ve told me to do has worked like a charm.”

She expelled a quite sigh. She should be happy—Sam’s burgeoning romance with Jasmine was going as well as Princess Olivia’s with the playboy, well on track for their “Love Everlasting.” Chest expanding with the need for more air, Shannon leaned back in the leather seat with a wry smile. “Charms imply magic, Doc. I prefer to think of it as prayers and a healthy dose of self respect.”

His low chuckle vibrated like the chassis beneath them. “Well, whatever you want to call it, kiddo, it sure worked.”

For one of us, at least. Resting her hand on the open window, Shannon closed her eyes. How she wished the balmy breeze that fluttered stray wisps of her hair could blow the malaise from her mind as well.

His fingers skimmed her arm, and warm chills followed in their wake, having little to do with the crisp air or rush of speed in a Vette on a highway. “And it’s all due to you, Shan, the true ‘Doctor Love.’” Flipping his blinker to exit the expressway, he shot another grin. “Hey, you could go in business as the Date Doctor! You know, like in the movie, Hitch?”

Her lips curved as she shook her head, eyes still closed while she rested against the seat. “No credentials, Doc. One really bad relationship doesn’t exactly qualify on a resume. Besides,” she said, opening her eyes to pin him with a look, “after you, I’m going back into hiding.”