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A careful application of her makeup helped disguise the fact that she’d spent a good portion of the afternoon fighting back emotion. Carla thought she’d done a good job until Nancy came into the room to change, took one look at her friend, and declared: “You’ve been crying.”
“Oh darn!” Carla raced to the bathroom mirror. “How’d you know?”
“It was either the puffy red eyes or the extra makeup. Honestly, Carla, with a complexion like yours, you can’t help but tell.”
“Great. Now what am I going to do?”
Nancy inspected her closet, finally deciding on a pale-blue sleeveless dress with spaghetti straps. “The same thing I’ll probably end up doing. Smile and say how much you’re going to miss Mexico and how this has been the best vacation of your life.” She turned and laid the dress across the bed. “Now, that’s what you’re supposed to tell everyone else. What you say to me is the truth.”
“Philip claims he’s falling in love with me,” she declared, and sniffled loudly. Fresh tears formed, and she grabbed a tissue and forced her head back to stare at the ceiling, hoping to discourage any new tear tracks from ruining her makeup.
“And that makes you cry. I thought you really liked Philip.”
“But there’s something I didn’t tell you. Philip’s in law enforcement. He’s a cop.” She didn’t need to say another word.
“Good grief, Carla, how do you get yourself into these things?”
“I don’t know,” she lamented, pressing the tissue under her eyes. “Philip was so open and honest about it when he didn’t have to be, and when he suggested that we enjoy this week I couldn’t turn him down. He’s wonderful. Everything about him is wonderful.”
“Except that he’s a policeman.”
“And he’s amazingly like my dad. It doesn’t matter where either one of them is, the badge is always on. Even when we were shopping, Philip stopped and broke up a potential fight. Worse, Philip’s been stabbed once because he was careless.”
“Your dad was hurt not long ago, wasn’t he?” Nancy asked from her position on the end of the bed.
“Once. He was chasing a suspect, fell, and broke his arm.”
Nancy nodded. “I remember because you were so furious with him.”
“And with good reason. Dad’s too old to be out there running after men twenty years younger than he is.”
“Take my advice and don’t tell him that.” Nancy’s comment was punctuated with a soft laugh.
Carla decided that Nancy knew her father better than most people did. “Don’t worry, Mom said it for me.”
An abrupt knock on the door caused them both to glance curiously at each other. Carla’s watch told her it was forty-five minutes before they were scheduled to meet the men.
Since she was ready, Carla answered the door. “Philip!” she exclaimed. How good he looked in a suit and tie! And his eyes were the deepest gray she could remember seeing. One glance at her, and their color intensified even more.
“I thought you might be ready,” he said stiffly.
“Yes…I am.”
“Would you have a drink with me in the lounge? Nancy and Eduardo can join us there.”
He sounded as if he were preparing to read Carla her rights. “Sure,” she replied, and tossed a look over her shoulder to Nancy. “We’ll meet you in the lounge.”
Nancy arched both brows expressively. “See you there.”
—
Philip didn’t say a word until after they’d ordered their drinks. “I owe you an apology.”
Carla’s smile wavered only slightly as she reached for his hand. “You can’t be any sorrier than I am. I wish I could change, and if there was ever a man I’d do it for, it would be you. But you’ve seen how I am. I just don’t want our last hours together to be spent arguing.”
Philip took her hand and squeezed it tightly. “I don’t, either. We have tonight.”
“And tomorrow,” she murmured. But their flight was scheduled for the morning, and they’d be in the air a good portion of the day. Once they landed at Sea-Tac International Airport, Philip would catch a connecting flight to Spokane. They would be separated by three hundred miles that might as well have been three thousand.
