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She realized in these moments when she let her guard down how much she missed Geoff. Witnessing just how solicitous Blake was to Alex, the obvious love the two had for each other and the tender (and now passionate) way they looked at one another, aroused feelings she had tried hard to keep buried.
She recalled seeing them exit the bedroom half-clothed the other day. She felt not so much an awkwardness but a small bite of envy.Would I ever know those feelings again? Or was I destined only to write about them in my books?
God, these were questions she preferred not to ask. Emotions she preferred not to acknowledge, let alone deal with. She had submerged them, the loneliness, the grief, the longing to be loved by a man.
She had hoped they would simply disappear. But they hadn’t. They had only grown fiercer and would occasionally—like right now—explode unexpectedly to the surface of that sea of emotional turmoil, threatening the core of her daily living.
Of course, there was a reason why she hid them so well. If she actually dealt with them, she was afraid she would begin to question absolutely everything that was left of her life. And quite frankly, there wasn’t much.
Except her writing. She clung to her writing like the passengers of the Titanic had clung to their life rafts and shards of the ship. She saw her life as the Titanic, and she was drowning fast in icy cold water.
Chapter 15
Kenn Cooper had just settled into his recliner with a beer, clicked on the sports channel, and was prepared to have a perfectly lazy Saturday afternoon. The fall term would begin soon and any hope of another day like this was far in the future.
Then the phone rang. “I sure hope this isn’t my mother.” He picked up the phone and looked at the caller ID before answering. He figured he could let it go to voice mail if it was his mom.
The number wasn’t his mom’s but Deb Dilley’s. “Why would she call me at home? Don’t tell me Dr. Chare needs something.” He let it ring two more times as he considered whether to answer. His conscience got the better of him.
“Deb, what’s so important you had to call me at home?”
“You what?” He bounded out of the recliner, clenching the phone. “Did you just say you accepted a dinner invitation on my behalf?” He took a deep breath. “And just now telling me about it?”
“Yes, sir.” Deb’s whispered response was barely audible.
“How could you? Deb, I swear…” He had no words. His plans of doing absolutely nothing had just imploded. The audacity of that woman.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Cooper, it slipped my mind.”
“How in the hell can something like that slip your mind?” He took a deep breath, as he tried to make sense out of the insane situation.
“I don’t know what you’re doing even accepting social appointments on my behalf. You’re the history department secretary, not my personal one.” He ran a hand through his hair.
How dare Deb call him at home—on a Saturday no less—and tell him he had to be at Rob’s—he looked at his watch—in less than two hours. Holy crap!
“You could have left me a note, you know?”
“Yes, I suppose I could have.”
A dinner party at Rob’s. Even though Deb didn’t mention it, he knew there would be a fourth person at the dinner table. Some woman Rob, or more precisely his wife, had handpicked for him. It was her not-so-subtle way of playing matchmaker. Didn’t he and Rob just have this conversation? Didn’t he say he wasn’t interested?
His experience told him it would end less than successfully. And right now, he certainly wasn’t interested in being set up with some strange woman. Then he remembered he still had Deb on the phone.
“Deb, this is a serious transgression. You know darn well it’s too late for me to cancel, even though I want to. I’ll deal with you Monday. In the meantime, I need to get ready.” He clicked his phone off, not caring to even end the call politely.
He sat for a moment. While he normally disliked Rob trying to set him up, this instance was particularly repugnant. Honestly, he admitted to himself, the only woman he wanted to see was the one he met at the bookstore.I can guarantee she’s not going to be there.
He wasn’t sure what word described his longing to see her again. Was it curiosity? Infatuation? Obsession? The truth was in the short couple days since he met her, he thought about her more than he cared to admit.
He pushed all of that out of his mind and mentally braced himself for what awaited him.
****
When Kenn arrived at Rob’s, he was relieved to discover there were no other guests. He took a seat in the same wingback chair he always sat in for his visits. Rob and Nan sat on the couch. “Glad you could make it,” Rob said.
He laughed, explained how he didn’t get the message until just a few hours ago. “Frankly, I thought you were trying to set me up with someone again. I’m glad to see it’s just the three of us.”
Nan coughed and nudged Rob in the ribs. “Well, to be honest, there is one more person coming.”
