“Yeah, I should. But I keep hoping one day I’ll call you and you won’t sound so professional.”
“Stranger things have been known to happen. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll shock you.” I glanced at my watch. “What’s up? I thought you had patients all day.”
“I do. But my eleven-thirty is late.” Bryce explained.
“Oh.” I said as I took a sip of water.
“Cole just called. He’s taking the kids to a Yankee game tonight and has some extra tickets.”
“Nice,” I said as I scanned an email from Jennifer Warner which popped up on my monitor.
“He invited me and the boys. He only has three tickets. Is it okay with you if I take the twins?”
“Yeah, of course.” While most women would find it endearing if their husbands asked permission to do things that excluded them, it bothered me. I never wanted to be a controlling wife. I always wanted him to feel free to do things that made him happy. I’ve told Bryce it made me feel awkward a thousand times, but yet he still does it.
“I know you love going to a game, Cee. Would you rather go in my place? It’s totally fine with me.”
“No, thank you. Except for Violet, you guys will have a perfect boys’ night out. Anna’s not going, is she?” Unlike me, Anna would rather have a double root canal without Novocain instead of attending a sporting event.
“No, just Cole.”
“Count me out! I’ll hang with Anna. Totally more my speed.”
“She’s actually spending the night with her mom.”
I looked out the window. “Oh right. They are going to a charity fashion show and dinner. I forgot that was tonight.”
“Yeah, it is. I feel bad to leave you alone while I go out with the boys.”
“Don’t be silly,” I snorted. “I think I’m the lucky one.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Oh yes. I see a relaxing night with a bubble bath, a glass or two of wine, and probably a cheesy book in my future. Sounds perfect to me!”
After I hung up with my husband, it took me one hour to finish John’s website, two hours to lose my excitement for a quiet night alone, and three hours to work up the nerve to send a text.
Keith suggested I meet him in a small Italian restaurant in Inwood, which was about fifteen minutes from his summer rental. He assured me the restaurant was completely off the beaten path and I wouldn’t have to worry about bumping into anyone I knew. I prayed he was right because I was a nervous wreck.
Two weeks had passed since I saw him on the beach. We had been texting sporadically, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t keep him out of my mind.
As soon as I opened the restaurant’s door, the delicious aroma of sautéed garlic filled my nose. As Keith predicted, the restaurant was quiet. He was sitting at the bar, nursing a scotch and talking to the bartender. His eyes lit up when he saw me. I gave him a quick hug.
We didn’t linger at the bar long. He knew I was uncomfortable being in such an open area. He arranged for us to sit in the restaurant’s back room. There was only one other couple there. They were elderly, and the waiter just served them dessert. I think it may have been the wife’s birthday.
“How about a bottle of wine?” Keith asked as he scanned the wine list.
“Sure,” I said as I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
He ordered a California cabernet, which arrived at our table in what felt like seconds, which worked perfectly for me. I needed some liquid courage. “To old friends” Keith said and held out his glass for me to clink.
“Old friends, huh? That’s one way to look at it, I guess.”
“I can come up with a different toast if you like.” He looked at the ceiling as he rubbed his chin, “Oh, I know. Hmm… How about to the girl who can still take my breath away with one dazzling smile? Or…”
“Okay, that’s enough, behave, counselor.” I waved my finger at him in a faux scolding manner.
He pouted. Then his eyes lit up, and with a devilish grin, he said, “You’re no fun.”
Before I could come up with a witty retort, the waiter dropped off small pieces of fried eggplant, topped with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. Keith placed one on my plate, and then served himself.
He turned serious, “I’m so happy you called today. I never actually thought you’d agree to dinner, though.”
I took a bite of eggplant. It was delicious. “I know. I shocked myself too. But like you said. We are old friends, right? There’s no reason why we can’t catch up and talk, is there? I’m sorry I screwed everything up last time, running off like I did.”
“Well, I did upset you. Have you made up with Meri by the way? I feel horrible I’m responsible for you guys fighting.”
I shook my head no. I took another bite of eggplant. “Don’t feel bad. I’m glad I finally learned the truth. She called me twice a day for over a week,” I rubbed my face. “She begged me to call her back so she could explain. I didn’t return any of her calls. She even called Anna a few times and asked her to have me call her back. I guess she got the hint because she stopped calling.” I took a sip of wine. “Am I the biggest bitch ever? I just can’t forgive her.”
“I’m not one to judge, but…”
I burst out laughing, “Oh really, your honor?”
Keith smiled wide and began to laugh too. “Yeah. So I guess I can judge. Since she messed with my life too, I think you went too easy on the bitch!”
I reached across the table and squeezed his hand. The waiter appeared and dropped off our salads. I went to pull my hand away, but Keith momentarily squeezed it harder and massaged it with his thumb, which sent a chill down my spine.
Sort of changing the subject, I asked, “Remember how you always encouraged me to stand up for myself at work?”
“How could I forget? You let…what was her name again?”
I took a bite of Caesar salad, “Barbara.”
“Oh, yeah. You let her walk all over you and give you all the crappy jobs. You never listened to me.”
“Is that what you think? Well, I’ve got news for you, I listened.”
He arched his eyebrows.
“It was about six months after we broke up. I was sad, lonely and in a general shitty mood. We had just been working on a presentation for two weeks straight, and we were almost done. She was such a control freak. She insisted on managing all the documents. She replaced our presentation file with her grocery list, which, by the way, included three bottles of prune juice. When she realized what she did somehow, it became my fault. She was wicked. She yelled at me in the middle of the office. Everyone heard her. My boss came out of his office to see what the commotion was. Very calmly I told her to lower her voice. I said I was sick and tired of her treating me like her punching bag and acting like I couldn’t handle any task with substance. I then reached into my desk and pulled out a floppy disk, which I handed to my boss. I walked over to her, and this time very loudly I said, you should be thanking me right now. I was afraid you’d screw this presentation up, given the fact you have been so busy fooling around after hours with Carl from the mailroom.”
“What?”
“Oh yes. She had a fling with an eighteen-year-old intern. She turned beet red when I announced it. My boss was so impressed with the presentation I got a promotion the next week, and she resigned two weeks later. It was great.” My smile faded, “If you only knew how many times that week I started to dial your phone number to tell you. I figured you’d be proud of me.”
Keith reached across the table and stroked my cheek. “I wish you didn’t hang up.”
The waiter cleared our salad plates.
“Yeah, me too. It’s sad. You encouraged me to stand up and be strong. Over the years, I did get tougher. I’ve met challenges head on. I stopped holding back my opinions, even when they were hard to express. I feel like a hypocrite. I’ve been trying to help Anna do the same thing. Now, as I sit here opposite you, I realize I didn’t really change at all. I still let my insecu
rities control me. Because if I was strong if I really was tough, why didn’t I ever complete the call?”
“I don’t know, doll. Can we leave the past in the past? Let’s just enjoy tonight. Okay?”
I smiled as the waiter appeared beside our table with a small cart. “Watch this,” Keith said. The waiter turned on a burner. He placed a few cloves of garlic in it a small frying pan. He added some fresh herbs and spices, butter, and olive oil. He sautéed for a moment or two and then added some liquor. The pan caught on fire, and he rotated it around until the flames settled. He then poured the mixture on Keith’s whole branzino and served it to him. Another waiter placed a bowl of penne with chicken and broccoli in vodka sauce in front of me.
Keith grinned, “I always loved a good flambé! Remember the time you flambéed grilled cheese for me?”
“Seriously. Am I ever going to live that one down?”
“Probably not. My apartment smelled like a chimney for three weeks.” He stuck his fork in my pasta, just like he always used to do. The small action felt comfortable and sexy at the same time.
“So I’m dying to know. Did you ever get any better at cooking?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I did.”
“So you can manage to boil water now, huh?”
“I sure can! And, wait for this! I can even make pasta.”
“Impressive,” he said as he took a bite of fish.
“Don’t underestimate me, Councilor. I can cook surprisingly well, considering how I used to. I can’t lie, though. Bryce does most of the cooking. He gets home earlier than I do so he usually gets dinner ready for us.”
Keith’s smile morphed into a frown at the mention of my husband’s name.
“Sorry. I guess I shouldn’t have brought him up.” I took a sip of wine, empting my glass.
Keith reached for the bottle and poured me some more. “Don’t be silly. You can talk about him. You’re married. He’s a part of your life. It would be weird if you didn’t mention him.”
“I guess,” I poked around my pasta searching for a piece of broccoli.
“So how long have you two been hitched anyway?”
“About four years.”
“Hmm.” He took a sip of wine. “I expected longer. I figured someone would have snatched you up way before then.”
I wanted to keep things light. “I guess life is full of surprises, huh?” The truth of the matter was I dated a lot. I just didn’t give any of the guys much of a chance. I was beyond picky. I found something wrong with every single guy. I once broke up with someone because their middle finger was longer than their index finger. Sometimes it took me one date, and other times it took me a couple of months to find a fatal flaw with the man. If I was honest, I think I kept comparing them all to you. Eventually, I came to my senses. I realized I was chasing a dream. Fortunately, Anna didn’t give up trying to fix me up. Bryce was the fourth or fifth man she set me up with. She introduced us exactly at the right time. I was tired of being alone, and Bryce was such an easy guy to spend time with. He was handsome, sweet, funny, kind and really made me feel special.
“So what about you. Did you ever get married?”
Slowly he shook his head. “No.”
I leaned in, “Did you ever get close?”
“I’ve been with my fair share of women, but nope. I never got close to tying the knot.”
“How come?”
He put his fork down and ran his fingers through his hair. “Because no woman I ever dated came close to you.”
I swallowed hard.
The waiter appeared and cleared away our dishes. I was thankful for the distraction. Without asking, Keith ordered us both cappuccinos and a cannoli to share. I was impressed he remembered my two favorites.
I stirred some artificial sweetener into my mug and stared into Keith’s eyes. I smiled as I tried to move onto safer subjects. “No matter how hard I try I can’t wrap my head around the fact you’re a judge. Do you wear a black robe and have to bang a hammer on a desk?”
His aquamarine eyes shinned. “It’s called a gavel, doll. And yes, I do bang it on a desk.” He took a sip of his cappuccino, “Actually it’s my favorite part.”
“Ha! I knew it!” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “But seriously. I can’t believe you gave up practicing law.”
“I know. Sometimes I can’t believe it myself. It wasn’t an easy decision to make.” He frowned. “I had a great career. You know for years Wally was known as the youngest member of the firm to make partner until he lost his record to me!”
I took a piece of cannoli. “Now why aren’t I surprised? You sure worked hard enough.”
“Yeah, I did. And if you thought I worked hard while we were dating you should have seen how hard I worked after we broke up. I was a machine.”
I took another bite of the cannoli. I knew I’d regret it later. It’s been years since I had one last. They were so fattening but so delicious. “So why did you leave?”
“I didn’t like who I had become. I made a wicked living, which was great.” He flashed me a sad grin. “After a while making money mattered less and less to me. I realized I was fighting just to win. It didn’t make a difference if I believed in what I was fighting for or not. My opinions stopped mattering. I wanted to be a lawyer to fight for what was right. I wanted to make sure people like my mother weren’t taken advantage of and were protected.”
“Hmm. Pretty noble.”
“I don’t know.” He took a sip of cappuccino. “If only I’d realized sooner, maybe. I represented some not so great people over the years successfully. There were many nights my conscience wouldn’t let me sleep because of the verdicts I’d managed to get.”
“I always knew deep, deep, deep down inside you were a big softie,” I joked.
“Yeah, you used to give me way more credit than I deserved. Something else happened that prompted a change in me. A colleague got really sick.”
He paused for a second and looked around the room, which was now empty except for a busboy standing in the back by the bathrooms playing with his cell phone.
“Jacob was only a couple of years older than me. He jumped around from firm to firm and made a huge name for himself. Our firm was courting him for years. I honestly never thought he’d join us, but finally about five years ago we made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. And trust me, he was worth every penny of his exorbitant salary.”
The waiter dropped off our check and Keith handed him his credit card without glancing at the bill.
“Thank you.” I said and Keith just waved his hand.
“Jacob was a workaholic. We spent a lot of time together slaving over case files. Like me, he won case after case. It was awesome. Then he started having some health problems.” Keith’s eyes clouded as he robotically signed the credit card slip. “He started having stomach issues and lost an enormous amount of weight. He assumed it was stress. Unfortunately, it ended up being pancreatic cancer. He died a few months after his diagnosis.”
“I’m sorry.”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah, me too. He was a really great guy. I spent a lot of time with him near the end.” Keith rubbed his temple. “It was sad. He didn’t have anyone else. Like me, he lived just to work. It wasn’t until he lay dying that he realized he never actually lived his life. He had so many regrets. It was then I knew I had to make some changes in my own life. I didn’t want to end up like him.”
I reached across the table and squeezed his hand again.
Keith looked at his watch, “It’s getting late. You should be getting home.”
He stood up, as did I. He placed his hand on the small of my back as we walked out of the restaurant into the hot, humid night.
“Which one is you?” he asked when we reached the parking lot.
“The mommy-mobile” I said as I pointed to an Audi SUV parked next to a BMW sports car.
“Convenient. Right next to me.”
I walked over to my car. I leaned my back again
st the driver’s door. Keith stood very close to me. I looked up into his eyes and my stomach gave a flutter. “Thanks for tonight. Dinner was great. I really had a great time.”
He inched a little closer to me. “So did I.” He reached over and tucked a strand of my hair, which the wind was blowing into my eyes, behind my ear. Then he tilted my face up gently.
I opened my mouth to speak. Before any words could come out, Keith put his index finger against my lip to stop me. I pulled his hand away slowly. And when I did, he kissed me, long and deep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CECELIA
Why was it whenever you were already running late, you get stuck at every red light, I wondered as I dialed my office’s phone number. Even though the receptionist should be at her desk by now, my call went to voicemail.
“Mary, it’s me. Cecelia.” I impatiently tapped my horn as a car tried to cut me off. “I’m stuck in traffic. I have a meeting scheduled with,” I paused as I tried to remember my perspective client’s name, “A Clarence Mitchel? He’s supposed to be at the office at 9:30. I’m not sure if I am going to make it there in time, but I should be close. Can you please make sure he’s comfortable, and apologize for me. I’ll call you again when I get closer.”
As soon as I hung up the phone I heard a loud pop just as I hit a pothole, hard. “Shit!” I yelled as I punched my steering wheel. I tried to accelerate, but my car barely budged. I somehow managed to maneuver it to a side street, a block before the parkway’s entrance. I didn’t have to get out of my car to know, I had a blowout.
Considering I was a fairly intelligent woman, one who could actually rock a power drill better then I could bake a cake, when it came to cars I was utterly clueless. I knew I needed to call in reinforcements.
“What’s wrong?” Bryce asked by way of a greeting.
I hated to call him during the day. “Did I get you with a patient?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered something softly, and then louder to me, “what’s going on?”
“I was just about to get on the Meadowbrook Parkway. I hit a huge pothole. I got a blowout. I never remember whom I need to call. Is it Audi roadside assistance or their service center?”
Plan Cee (Secrets, Lies, and Second Chances Book 2) Page 12