Scott came and stood directly in front to her. He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. Together they gazed into each other’s eyes.
“I didn’t meet Linda that day,” Scott said. “I know you saw us, but what happened didn’t really happen.”
Diana didn’t say anything. She let Scott go on and explain.
“I ran into her at the coffee shop. I was hoping to run into you.” He paused a moment. Diana had intentionally looked for him at the coffee shop when the light turned red. She had not expected to find him kissing Linda.
“It was a friendship kiss,” he said as if he could read her thoughts. “We decided that our chance at a relationship had come and gone.” He looked at her a long while, his eyes traveling over her as if he needed to take in every detail of her features. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said.
“Me, too. I’ve missed you terribly.”
“I can’t tell you how hard it was for me not to run across this floor and haul you into my arms. It’s felt like years since I held you.”
“Maybe we could make up for it now,” Diana said.
Scott’s eyes narrowed. After a moment he moved away from her and went to a wall. Pressing it in a certain place, it opened and a panel came forward. Using a code known to him, Diana heard a motor begin to whir. The sound was muted. Scott looked away from her and she realized he was closing the door of the plane.
“Are we going somewhere?” she asked.
“Oh, yes,” he said, his head nodding at the same time. When the door was secured, he closed the panel and returned to her. Taking her hand, he said, “Let me show you around.”
They got as far as the bedroom before the tour ended.
* * *
A week later Teddy called Diana to take over a wedding. The consultant, Renee, had gone home ill. Teddy had another wedding to do, and everyone else was busy.
“Don’t worry about it,” she told Teddy. “I’ll get right on it.”
“What are you getting right on?” Scott asked when she hung up the phone.”
“Come on,” she told him. “We’re going to a wedding.”
“Really? Whose?”
“You don’t know them.”
Within a few moments, Diana was at the bride’s house and filling in for the missing consultant. The bride understood, but her mother wasn’t sure she wanted the change.
“I assure you, every detail will be promptly accomplished,” Diana assured her. “I’ve done this many times, and Renee is not at her best. You wouldn’t want the bride or groom to become ill on their honeymoon.”
That got her. She smiled. And the day began. The prewedding photos were done and they proceeded to the church. Diana rushed to complete everything and make sure everyone was ready.
When the bride started her walk down the aisle Diana was relieved. As she had promised, everything went well.
This was the part of the ceremony she liked best. The couple were about to begin a new life. And today was the beginning of it. They had everything going for them. Diana moved to the side. Scott, in the last pew, slid over to give her room. She slipped into the seat beside him. He smiled at her and took her hand.
“Are you done now?” he whispered.
She nodded. For this wedding, her responsibilities ended after the ceremony. The photos and reception were being handled by someone else. Still, Diana liked to stay until the end.
“We’re invited to the reception, and I agreed to attend,” she whispered.
The minister was at the part where the couple pledged their troths. Diana had looked that up once to understand what it meant. In today’s language, they were pledging their lives to each other before these witnesses and the Divine. This part made her eyes misty whenever she had time to sit down and listen to the words.
Holding Scott’s hand made the words seem more personal. She wasn’t sure why. She hadn’t thought of marrying, ever. She had no time for a husband and a family. Both required a lot of time, and she was not interested in a long-term relationship. But the two of them sitting side by side, holding hands and listening to the wedding vows, made Diana think she might like one day to be floating down the aisle on her way to a new life.
“You may kiss the bride,” the minister was saying as Diana returned her attention to the front of the church. For some reason she looked at Scott. His attention was on her, and she knew they both were remembering the kiss they had shared at the altar. Although it was at a rehearsal, that made it no less significant in her mind.
The entire congregation stood. The happy couple started up the aisle, wide smiles on their faces. As they approached Diana and Scott, she turned toward them. Scott stepped forward and pushed his arms around her waist, aligning her body with his. Diana forced herself not to gasp or let her weight sag into his body as it wanted to do.
The bridal party came next, followed by the guests. Diana didn’t move. She stayed in Scott’s arms. Eventually her head fell back on his shoulder and he kissed her neck. A spiral of electricity went through her with a shock as unexpected as her waking up floating on a boat in the middle of the ocean. She was unprepared, ignorant as to how to proceed. She needed help, and it appeared Scott was right behind her, supporting her, providing her with what she needed keep her body upright.
“Shall we go?” he asked. “Or would you like to be kissed in a church for the third time?”
His words pushed her out of his arms, and she stepped into the aisle. Scott caught her hand. They were the last to leave the sanctuary. The bridal party was coming in from the back to begin their photo session.
“Do you like attending all these weddings?” Scott asked.
“I do,” she said, suddenly realizing the double entendre of her reply. Covering herself, she went on: “Giving a bride the perfect day makes me feel...” She stopped. They reached her SUV and both climbed in.
“Go on,” Scott prompted. “What do you feel?”
“I feel as if I’ve fulfilled her greatest wish. Sometimes the groom’s, too.”
“Don’t you ever want that for yourself?”
Diana was unprepared for the question. “I never really thought about it.” She was driving, but she looked aside, trying to find out where he was going with this.
“I know you aren’t looking for a long-term relationship. But since you attend several weddings a year, don’t you ever think of it being you in the bridal gown?”
Strange he should bring this up. She’d been thinking that exact thing only minutes ago, as they sat holding hands.
“Once or twice,” she admitted.
“Yet you are in a field where the men you meet are on their way to the altar.”
“There are the groomsmen,” she quipped. “Not all of them are taken.”
Scott remained quiet for a moment. In the wedding they had just left, several of the groomsmen were in her age bracket and unattached.
“But you went to MatchforLove.com. Why is that?”
She frowned. Scott leaned forward and looked at her from the passenger seat.
“While there are single men at these weddings, I’m very busy, and most of the ones I meet are either engaged or obnoxious,” Diana answered.
“Like me?” he finished for her.
“Like you.” Her smile took the sting out of the words. It felt good to be able to laugh at that now.
“I didn’t go to MatchforLove.com on my own,” she finally said. “Teddy convinced me to go.”
“Why?”
Diana sighed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell Scott the full story, but there was no reason not to. “Getting a business off the ground takes a lot of work,” Diana said.Scott nodded. “I’ve been working night and day for years trying to get the business to support itself. Every ounce of energy I had went into making m
y wedding planning franchise a success. Consequently, I have no time for singles bars, cafés or blind dates. Coaxed by Teddy, one night I went into MatchforLove.com and filled out the questionnaire. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. Even if it did, I was not obligated to respond.”
“Why did you respond to me? My profile reads nothing like yours. I didn’t leave a photo, so you only had a numeric email address.”
“I read what you were looking for in a woman. It was as if you’d read my mind. I thought I’d see if that was true.”
“Have you made a decision yet?”
“Let’s just say the jury is still out on that.”
Diana reached the reception hall and pulled into the crowded parking lot. She parked near the entrance to the parking lot. It was a method of advertising. People driving by would see the SUV and the advertising on the side doors. Since Diana had no responsibilities here, she didn’t need to have access to the equipment and materials she took to every wedding. However, if something happened that she could fix, she’d do it.
Ahead of them, a couple got out of their car, along with the two young flower girls.
Diana smiled at them in their perfect little pink-and-white dresses.
“Cute, right?” Scott asked, following her line of vision.
“Jacey and Merry.” She told him the girls’ names, spelling Merry’s.
“She was born during the Christmas holidays?” Scott stated.
Diana nodded. “December twenty-third.”
They watched as Merry’s dad came up and took both girls’ hands.
“I suppose with your business that’s not in your future, either.”
“What?” Diana asked.
“A husband and kids? They take a lot of time.”
“It’s a bridge, Scott.”
“Bridge?”
“As in one I don’t have to cross at this moment. Children change your life.”
“Are you saying yours will change? You’ll be able to let someone else manage your empire while you play homemaker?”
“Maybe, maybe not. At least while I breast-feed, I suppose I could release the reins.” She knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment the words left her lips. Scott’s eyes went straight to her breasts.
“Marriage isn’t on my mind. As I remember it, you said you weren’t interested in a relationship.”
“I guess that means we’re even.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” he quoted her. “Remember that uncertainty principle we learned about in school?”
“What does that have to do with us?”
“You never know when something will happen to change your life. You could fall in love tomorrow. And that could change everything you thought you wanted. The time line you think you own would be cut and pasted down on another road.”
“Anybody I know on that road?” Diana wanted to lighten the mood. Somehow they had gotten onto a subject that said more by what was not being said than by the actual words.
“Maybe...maybe not.”
* * *
Scott had been away overnight. He’d had to fly the corporate jet and several executives to a meeting. They were back. He’d be on the ground in ten minutes. He started his descent into the Princeton area. This height always reminded him of his dad. When he started to come down from the heavens and the earth was no longer somewhere under the clouds. When the trees began to fill in and you could see the green, but not define any roads or houses. It looked like rural Maine, where he learned to fly. Soon he’d see the lights of the city ahead. Usually there was nothing waiting for him except an empty hotel room and a paperback novel. Today Diana would be there. He couldn’t wait to get to her. He wanted to run through the airport and scoop her into his arms, rain kisses on her face until she could do nothing but laugh and return them.
But there were formalities first. He shut down the plane’s engine, and the attendants opened the doors. There was no ambulance waiting, but there were certain measures required by the FAA. The ground crew took care of them. Scott left his bag, which hadn’t been opened during this trip and went into the gate area.
He saw Diana the moment he walked into the small airport. She started toward him. His legs moved, and they were running toward each other as if they hadn’t seen each other in years instead of the few hours they’d been apart. He liked seeing her there, liked knowing that she waited for him. He finally understood his friends when they talked about having someone to come home to. He could see himself coming home to her.
Her smile was wide and her arms were out. He closed his around her and swung her around. Then he kissed her in full view of anyone present. Slipping his arm around her waist, he started walking toward the exit.
“Miss me?” he asked.
“Not much.” She laughed.
He loved that laugh. He loved everything about her.
“What did you do while I was gone?”
“I sold another franchise.”
“That’s wonderful. Tell me about it.”
“It’s in Denver. And that means I’ll have to make several trips there over the next few months.”
“Aren’t you lucky that you know someone with an airplane?”
He only had a flight bag and didn’t need to wait for luggage. The business provided him with transportation to and from the airport, but today he preferred to go with her.
“Where shall I drop you?” she asked as they went to her car.
“You didn’t come all the way out here to take me home,” he told her.
“It’s not that far.” She flashed him that smile that gave meaning to his day. The top was down and her hair flew about in the sunshine. Scott kept his hands down so he wouldn’t run them through it and possibly cause an accident.
“I have news for you.”
“Oh, good or bad?”
He frowned. “I’m not sure.”
She glanced at him, seeing the confusion on his face.
“My sister is coming to visit. Well, she’s coming for a meeting in Philly, but she wants to come up one night and have dinner.”
“That’s great. It’s good to keep in touch with family. Are you two very close?”
“Thick as thieves,” he said. “But she’s not coming to see me. She wants to have dinner with you.”
Diana looked at him as long as the road would allow. “Why?”
“I told her about you.”
“What did you say?” Her tone was cautious.
“Only good things.”
They reached the turnoff for her house before they got to his. Diana turned right and parked in her driveway.
“When should I expect this visit?” she asked.
“Next week.”
As soon as she stopped the car, the July heat made its withering effect felt. Inside the air was cool and comfortable. Scott took Diana in his arms and kissed her soundly.
“I’ve thought about that for two days,” he said.
“Then you should do it again. One for each day.”
He did. She smelled of jasmine soap and sweet skin. Scott kissed her deeply. He slipped his arms around her and pulled her slender body into his. He’d missed her more than he wanted to admit. Scott had spent all the time except that of flying the plane thinking about her and what he wanted to do with her. Diana’s arms climbed over his shoulders and she joined him in the kiss. It was a long time before they parted.
“I love this dress,” Scott told her. He touched the spaghetti straps on her shoulders and pushed them down her arms.
“Why?”
“Because all I need to do is release this zipper.” He pulled it from the top to its base. He listened to low crunch of the teeth coming apart. “And it falls off.”
“Unlike your clothes,” she said,
unbuttoning the top button on his shirt. “It takes a lot to get you out of them.” With each word she released a button until they were all open. She pulled his tie from his neck and draped it around her own.
Scott bent and kissed her. Her bra was strapless, and his fingers found and released the catch at the back. Her breasts were caught in his hands. Her skin was soft and warm, and Scott wanted to take her there. Diana’s hands, on the belt at his waist, stilled as sensation burst within her. Hooking her fingers in the waistband of his pants, Diana pushed them down. He stepped out of his shoes and the clothes pooled at his feet.
Scott kissed her neck and continued finding naked skin until he reached her breasts. As his tongue lathed her nipples, they tightened and stiffened. Scott had been away only two days, but he couldn’t wait any longer for Diana. And from the way she was climbing over him, she couldn’t wait, either.
Chapter 11
The main street of Princeton wasn’t very long. Except for the students who came and went with the semester changes, it was impossible to live there and not see the same people constantly. So when Diana spied Linda Engles going into the coffee shop, she knew it was time to talk to her.
She’d been angry when she spoke to Linda in the ladies’ room, but Diana refused to be vindictive like Linda. And she would not hold a sword over her. Ordering a coffee, she strolled over to Linda’s table. She was reading a newspaper and sipping a latte.
“May I sit down?” Diana asked.
Linda looked up and did a double take. She said nothing as Diana took the seat in front of her.
“What do you want?” Linda’s voice was fearful and her eyes darted around the coffee shop checking if they were within hearing distance of anyone.
“I’m not here to make a scene,” Diana told her. “Or to issue threats.”
Linda folded the paper and turned in the seat to fully face Diana. She knew the woman expected some type of altercation, despite Diana’s words.
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