Just Around The Corner

“Or business cards tacked to them.”

“How many of them do you think there are?”

“I wonder every time I come here, but I have no idea.”

“A million maybe?”

“I doubt it. But I know it was a lot more than anyone wanted to lose when the place burned in ’87.”

“The walls were covered like this back then, too?”

“More so, from what I’m told. I guess the bills were four and five thick in some places.”

He looked so comfortable sitting there, sipping from the iced tea the waiter had brought. The perfect host.

Phyllis could hardly believe this was the same man she’d known in Shelter Valley. Or the one she’d driven up with.

He’d shed his jacket, revealing his broad shoulders in the denim shirt he was wearing. It was tucked into another pair of the snug-fitting jeans that had driven Phyllis to insanity that fateful Saturday afternoon.

His black hair and eyes were just as captivating. And those hands, resting so easily on the table…

She guessed it was time they returned to the business at hand. Before she forgot that all it could ever be was business.

“So,” she said, leaning forward, hands folded on the table. “Back to medical history. Any allergies in your family?”

“None.”

“You aren’t allergic to any medications?”

“Not that I know of.”

She could do this. Breeze right through without ever really focusing on what was going on. Just get the information and process it later.

“What about blood type?”

“I have one.”

Startled, Phyllis brought back her wandering gaze to land on him. He was grinning. The effect was devastating.

Phyllis smiled back. “I assumed so. You wouldn’t happen to know what it is, would you?”

“B positive.”

She was A positive, which would be just fine.

And then she ran out of questions.

The waiter finally stopped at their table on one of his many trips past. They gave their lunch order. He was having a burger. She’d chosen the taco salad. After that she just sat. And pretended there weren’t a million things she wanted to know about him.

She could tell herself that she should ask them in order to safeguard her child’s future. But she didn’t. She was a psychologist; she knew those tricks.

She was familiar with the various and often complex rationalizations the mind devised, rationalizations that let you do what you wanted when you knew you shouldn’t. Focusing on the one reason it was all right to proceed while ignoring the four reasons it wasn’t.

Such rationalizations had caught her once—and trapped her.

She wasn’t going to be caught again.

Not by the mind’s devices. Not by her own devices. And not by being vulnerable to the whims of the male ego.

She’d finally gotten beyond the pain of her divorce. Faced reality. Left useless dreams behind. She’d moved to Shelter Valley and found happiness. She loved the town, her work, helping others. She loved the way people in Shelter Valley made her feel. She finally had a life full of true friends and the things that really mattered.

And she had a baby on the way. She couldn’t afford to threaten all of that by doing something foolish—like getting involved with a man who had no place in her new life.

CHAPTER FOUR

MATT HAD NO IDEA how he and Phyllis had ended up sitting on her front step as the afternoon waned. He’d walked her to her door after their trip, she’d asked a question about the presentation he’d helped her with earlier that semester—said she was hoping to have a video made of it for some of her peers who’d attended the symposium. One comment led to another and suddenly, almost an hour later, he became aware of himself sitting there, having a real give-and-take adult conversation for the first time in years.

They still hadn’t broached the reason he’d called this meeting. And he wasn’t sure how, exactly, he should bring up the subject.

“What about dating?” he suddenly blurted as her questions about lighting-design techniques finally dwindled.

“No!” she exclaimed, her shoulders straightening, bringing her breasts into relief against the black velour covering them. “We already agreed there’ll be no involvement between us,” she added with a little less agitation.

Matt could almost feel the effort it took her to appear unaffected. So the good doctor had secrets, too.

“I meant you dating,” he said slowly, wondering just what those secrets might be. “Not us.”

“Oh.” She paused, her shoulders relaxing as she wrapped her arms around her knees. “Well, not that it’s any business of yours, but I don’t.”

“Don’t date?” If he wasn’t so detached, he might’ve been shocked. “Ever?”

“Nope.”

“Why the hell not?”

She pierced him with a look he’d have been hard-pressed not to challenge in another life. “This may come as a surprise to you, but not every woman needs a man in her life to be happy.” Her eyes dared him to argue with her.

“No, I guess lesbians don’t.”

“I’m not a lesbian.”

“I’m fully aware of that.”

She blushed. Looked away.

Matt bit back a grin.

And then quickly sobered as he remembered he wasn’t there to enjoy himself.