Two weeks later, Laura rushed through the front door of Melody’s house. “Melody, are you home? It’s me!”
The dogs charged toward her from the back of the house, yelping in doggy ecstasy. Since Melody hadn’t had an art show that weekend, Laura had left the dogs home rather than take them to Brent’s.
“Yes, Chakra, yes Karma, I’m happy to see you, too,” she said, as she waded through their happy gyrations on her way to the kitchen.
“Hey there, stranger,” Melody said as she came into the kitchen through the back door. The dogs bounded toward her, eager to be petted. Melody bent forward to comply as she spoke to Laura. “What are you doing here on a Saturday?”
“Looking for some serving bowls,” Laura explained as she rummaged through a lower cabinet. “No, Karma, I don’t need your help.” Pushing the eager female out of the way, she dove back into the shelves of cookware. “Can you believe, after weeks of me nagging Brent to have some people over, he up and tells me this morning—this morning, mind you—that he’s invited the entire station over for fajitas at his house this evening. This evening!”
Moving on to another cabinet, she muttered to herself, “One would think a man with such a well-stocked kitchen would have a few bowls for serving chips. Or that he’d give me more than a few hours to prepare for a party.”
“So what’s the occasion?” Melody asked.
Backing out of the cabinet, Laura gave her friend a startled look. “Didn’t you watch the news last night? I left a note telling you all about it.”
“Oh, that.” Waving a hand, Melody headed for the refrigerator and poured a glass of ginseng tea.
“What do you mean, ‘oh, that’? Didn’t you watch it? Didn’t you see Brent?”
“Laura.” Melody looked at her as if she had a screw loose. “Brent’s on the news every night.”
“Not the national news. The network picked up his special report about Robby. It was on the national news!”
“I take it this is a big deal.”
“It’s a huge deal. Brent was so excited when he got home last night, you should have seen him.” Heat rose in her cheeks as she remembered exactly how “excited” he had been. He’d come through the door and swept her into his arms, laughing and twirling her about. They hadn’t even made it to the bedroom before they’d tumbled to the floor and he’d kissed her into mindless oblivion. Considering how preoccupied they’d both been with each other’s bodies the rest of the night, she supposed she could forgive him for not mentioning the party until the next morning.
“Ah-ha!” she exclaimed, finding some bowls she could use for chips and salsa. “Now, all I need to do is change clothes and get back to Brent’s before his guests start arriving—or before Brent has a nervous breakdown at the thought of hosting his first party.” With the dogs hurrying along beside her, she headed for her bedroom. “Honestly,” she called over her shoulder, “that man is worse than the entire Bluebonnet Homes Tour fund-raising committee when it comes to worrying over every little detail.”
Still, she could hardly complain, since she knew what a big step this was for Brent to open up enough to let people into his home.
“Speaking of Beason’s Ferry,” Melody said as she followed Laura to the bedroom, “I have a couple of phone messages for you.”
Laura’s heart lurched as she backed out of her closet. “Phone messages?” she asked hopefully. “From my father?”
“Sorry.” Melody gave her a sympathetic look. “They’re both from Greg.”
“Argh!” Laura growled and went back to rifling through her clothes. Selecting a brightly colored shorts outfit, she carried it to the bed. “What did he want this time?”
“Oh, nothing much, just to tell you he’s coming to Houston to see you—tonight.”
“He’s coming to Houston? “ Laura gaped.
“Tonight.” Melody had the audacity to grin. “See, I told you this would happen if you didn’t return his phone calls.”
Laura groaned. “I was hoping if I ignored him long enough, he’d take the hint and go away.” Stripping off her T-shirt and jeans, she pulled on the multicolored outfit. “Honestly, I don’t understand that man. I really don’t. He was never the possessive type while we dated. So why is he acting that way now?”
“Apparently, he thinks there’s a chance you’ll get back together.”
“Well, there isn’t,” Laura said.
“Are you sure?” The teasing note left Melody’s voice, and she sounded almost hopeful. “I mean, are you really truly sure you’ll never get back with him?”
Laura glanced up, confused by the change in her friend’s mood. “Of course, I’m sure.”
“But what if you and Brent broke up? Would you go back to Greg then?”
“Absolutely not.” She nearly laughed at the notion. “You know perfectly well I didn’t turn down Greg’s proposal because of Brent. I turned him down because I realized we’d both be miserable if I married him. Don’t get me wrong, I think Greg’s a great guy, and he’ll make some nice girl a wonderful husband someday. I just hope he finds that girl soon, so he’ll leave me alone.”
Melody gave a rude snort. “If a nice girl was what he needed, he’d have done well to marry you.”
Laura studied her friend as she sat on the bed to change her shoes. “You okay, Mel? You seem a little down tonight.”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I guess.” Melody sat beside Laura on the bed. Sensing his mistress’s mood, Chakra laid his head in her lap. Melody rubbed his floppy black ear as he gazed up at her with big sorrowful eyes. “I guess I’ve just been feeling a bit old lately.”
“You’re not old.” Laura laughed softly.
“Maybe not, but lately I seem to spend more time talking to your ex-boyfriend than people my own age.”
“Oh, Melody, Greg’s only eight years younger than you, so it’s not like he’s a kid and you’re ancient.”
“I feel ancient.”
“Well, you don’t look it.” She hugged her friend’s shoulders. “You look great!”
“Thanks.” Melody managed a weak smile. “You know, it’s weird—emotionally, I feel like I’m barely ready to start adult life, and here mine is half over.”
Laura frowned, knowing she needed to get back to Brent’s but not willing to leave her friend in such a mood. “Hey, why don’t you put up the paints for one night and come to the party with me?”
“No.” Melody shook her head. “When I get on one of these downers, I’ve learned it passes more quickly if I just give in and wallow for a while. And the sooner you get out of here, the sooner I can start wallowing.”
“You sure?” Laura asked. “I could stay for a few minutes if you want to talk.”
Melody looked ready to say no, then sighed. “I just keep having all these crazy thoughts lately.”
“Like what?”
“Like, ‘Do I really want to spend the rest of my life alone?’” Chakra whined, and Melody resumed rubbing his ear. “When I left Roger, I thought I wanted freedom, independence, to escape the constraints of married life. Only lately I’ve started wondering if maybe the opposite was true. Maybe I left him because I was finally ready to be a wife.”
“I’m not sure I follow you.”
Melody shrugged. “Roger was more a substitute father than anything else, and I’d outgrown my need for that. I wanted, or want rather, a real husband: a partner, a spouse, a man who is both lover and friend.” She turned and looked at Laura. “You know what I mean?”
“Yeah.” Laura sighed, thinking of Brent. “I know exactly what you mean.”
“Well, at least you seem to have found a man who fits the bill.”
“I’m not so sure.” Restless, Laura went to the dresser to brush her hair.
“Oh?” Melody prompted, watching Laura’s reflection in the mirror. “I thought things were going great for two. Every time I see you together, he’s practically eating you up with his eyes.”
Laura toyed with the hairbrush, p
icturing the look that so often came into Brent’s eyes when he looked at her. Sometimes she felt as if the words “I love you” were on the tip of his tongue. Yet he never said them. How long could she wait to hear those words? Would he bolt if she said them first?
“Laura?” Melody asked. “Things are okay with you and Brent, aren’t they?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes, of course.” When her friend raised a brow, Laura sighed. “Well, maybe not perfect, but whose relationship is?”
“What’s the problem?”
A complicated question, Laura thought, with no clear answer. “Mostly, I guess, it’s that Brent isn’t interested in marriage. Now or ever.”
“Hmm.” Melody frowned. “How do you feel about that?”
“I don’t know!” Setting down the brush, Laura turned to slump against the dresser. “I thought I could accept it, but lately … lately, I think about marriage all the time. And children. When I was little, I used to dream about having babies of my own. Then time passed, and thirty got closer, and I convinced myself I could live without ever being a mother, without ever knowing how it felt to hold my own child in my arms. But these last weeks with Brent I just…”
“What?”
A rise of tears blurred her vision. “I just love him so much.”
In a quick, fluid motion, Melody left the bed and enfolded Laura in her arms. “I know, it hurts to love sometimes. It shouldn’t, but it does.”
“Especially when you can’t even tell the one you love how you feel. I’m so afraid he’ll run if I do.”
“Honesty is always frightening,” Melody said, “and usually carries a high price.”
“So what should I do?” She pulled back to search her friend’s face.
“Oh, Laura.” Melody sighed. “If I were twenty years younger, I’d say something like ‘Anything worth having is worth taking risks for,’ or ‘Sometimes we have to go through a little pain to get to the happiness on the other side’.” She shook her head. “Unfortunately— even though I believe both those things—I’ve learned that going after what you want always comes with a bigger price tag than you expect and no guarantee that you’ll be satisfied with what you get in the end.”
“Have the risks you’ve taken paid off?” Laura asked.
“Some. Not all. But then, none of us gets to win all the time.” She tucked Laura’s hair behind her ear in a motherly gesture. “The game of life just doesn’t work that way.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Join the club.” Melody laughed.
Before Laura could comment further, a knock came at the front door. Karma and Chakra took off in a noisy imitation of the guard dogs they were supposed to be as Laura stared at Melody. “You don’t think that’s—”
“Greg!” Melody’s eyes went round as she laughed in a complete lack of sympathy for Laura’s predicament.
“What am I going to do?” Laura whispered.
“You could start by answering the door.”
“I can’t do that!” She glanced toward the window, wondering if she could crawl out, sneak around front, and make it to her car without him catching her.
“Don’t even think it,” Melody warned as the dogs bounded back into the room. “Just answer the door, tell him you don’t have time to talk, and leave.”
“How about if you answer it and tell him I’m not here.”
“Only one problem with that: Your car’s out front.” Melody reached for the dogs. “I’ll put these two away while you answer the door.”
“Thanks a lot,” Laura groused as she watched Melody try to sweet-talk the dogs into the other bedroom. Dragging her feet, she went to the front door, assuring herself she wasn’t a coward—she was just giving Melody time to lock up the dogs.
With a sigh of resignation, she glanced through the peephole and saw Greg standing on the front porch frowning at his feet. Habit forced a smile to her face as she opened the door. “Hello, Greg.”
“Laura Beth.” His face lit up when he saw her. For a moment, he stood drinking in the sight of her. Even though he no longer interested her in a romantic sense, she had to admit he looked handsome in the lengthening shadows of early evening. In deference to the warmth of September, he’d worn a golf shirt and slacks, much the same attire Brent preferred. Somehow, though, Greg didn’t fill the clothes out quite the same way.
“I was, uhm…” His expression turned sheepish. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be here, I mean, since you didn’t return my calls. You did get my message that I was coming, didn’t you?”
“Yes, well, I just got it a second ago.” She felt a twinge of guilt for all the calls over the summer that she hadn’t returned. “The truth is, I was just on my way out. Brent and I are giving a party this evening, and I really need to go.”
“Oh.”
His face fell in disappointment, and she felt as if she’d just kicked someone’s dog. “I do have a minute, though, if you’d like to come in?”
“Yes.” The light leapt back into his eyes. “Yes, I would, if that would be all right.”
Trying not to sigh out loud, she motioned him to follow her into the living room. “Can I get you anything?”
“No, I’m fine.” He glanced around in overt curiosity to see where she lived. From his furrowed brow, she assumed he didn’t care for Melody’s decor.
“I, uhm, just need to get something from the kitchen.” She started in that direction, and he followed as she went to retrieve the bowls she’d left on the counter. “So…” She glanced nervously about, wondering where Melody was. Considering that her friend and Greg struck sparks off each other like two pieces of flint, she almost hoped Melody didn’t join them. “How’s everyone back home?”
“Fine, I guess. Though they all miss you. Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask me if I’ve heard from you. Except for your father. Whenever your name comes up in conversation, he changes the subject.”
She frowned, saying nothing, though a twinge of pain struck her heart.
“I take it you two still aren’t speaking?” Greg asked.
“No.”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “Look, Laura Beth, I know you’re in a hurry, so I’ll get right to the reason I came. I’ve done a lot of thinking these last months about the things you said. You were wrong, you know, when you said I had no faith in you. I have the utmost faith in you, on every level.”
“I appreciate that, really, but—”
“No, no, let me finish.” He took a deep breath. “I realize Beason’s Ferry isn’t the most exciting town in the world, but I also know you weren’t always so anxious to leave it. When I first met you, and you still managed your father’s office, you seemed happy. So I started thinking, maybe all you really needed was some renewed sense of purpose in your life, a real job, instead of just charity work, that would make you feel less restless.”
“Greg,” she sighed, feeling the tension build behind her eyes. “I came to Houston to find more than a job.”
“I know, just hear me out.” He shifted his weight. “When we were dating, we uhm, talked a lot about the pharmacy, and well, you always had a lot of good ideas about how I could improve business. Like the espresso bar. I never would have thought of putting that in, but it’s paid off really big. And so I’ve been thinking, even though things haven’t worked out for us personally,” his eyes finally lifted to hers, “how would you like to be my business partner?”
“What?” She gaped at him, startled and flattered and, for one unexpected moment, tempted. Only moving back home would mean giving up Brent and her new job and friends. Her shoulders slumped. “Greg, I—”
“You don’t have to answer right now,” he said quickly. “Think about it, and maybe tomorrow or sometime next week we could get together and talk.”
“Talk about what?” Melody asked from the doorway, and Greg whirled to face her.
“Greg just asked me to be his business partner,” Laura said.
“Oh, that’s rich.�
�� Melody laughed. “And clever. Very clever, Gregory.”
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” He went poker stiff.
“If you can’t win her with a wedding ring, dangle your business before her, is that it?” Melody smirked.
“That was not my intention at all,” Greg said with an excess of indignation.
“Yeah, right!” Melody snorted.
“Laura Beth happens to be an excellent office manager who has inventive ideas on how to improve business.”
“Why, you slime.” Melody eyed him up and down as if discovering a mutant form of insect. “That’s the whole reason you wanted to marry her, isn’t it?”
“Not the whole reason, no, and I resent you suggesting such a callous motivation.” Greg’s face turned so flushed, Laura wondered if Melody was right. The thought cut deep, that he’d wanted her as a business partner more than he desired her as a woman. But it certainly explained their less-than-heated love life.
“For your information,” Greg persisted, “I have the deepest admiration for Laura Beth as a person.”
“Admiration!” Melody scoffed. “For your information, it takes more than that to make a happy marriage.”
“So you’re the one who’s been filling her head with all these ideas about relationships between men and women, as if all that matters is physical attraction, and—and lust!” His gaze swept to the oversize shirt Melody wore open down the front. Beneath, a sports bra and bicycle shorts boldly displayed her body.
“You got something against a little honest lust?” Stepping toward him, Melody pulled the shirt further open to plant a hand on one hip. “As a pharmacist, you of all people should know the benefits of a healthy sex life.”
“Guys,” Laura tried to interrupt as Greg stumbled through some convoluted retort. “Uhm, guys?” She tried again as Melody fired back with a scathing rebuttal. “If y’all will excuse me, I have a party to get to.”
Neither of them spared her a glance as they went toe to toe and nose to nose. Deciding she’d heard more than enough, Laura scooped up her bowls and headed for the front door. Behind her, she could still hear them arguing and didn’t know whether to laugh or do some hollering herself. Had Greg’s marriage proposal really been so self-serving? Even if it had, surely his ulterior motive hadn’t been intentional. Greg was not the type of man to consciously use anyone. Still, this furtive proof that he had never really loved her bothered her. It bothered her as much as what he’d said about a relationship needing more than lust to survive.
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