Evolving Dreams (New Beginnings Series) (10 page)

“Look, I want you in my life. I consider you my ‘present’ girlfriend as opposed to my ‘past’ girlfriends,” he laughed. “I want to see you every morning out here on my deck and at my dinner table in the evenings as we talk about our day. And I want to take you out and meet each other’s friends. I want this to be a real relationship. Maybe it will be different than my past relationships, but it already feels better than they did and I don’t want to lose you.”

She smiled with relief. “I guess we just have to be honest with each other and keep the lines of communication open. Right?”

“Right,” he agreed. “How do you feel about goodnight kisses after dates? Pro or con?”

“I’m pro-goodnight kisses.” She rose from her seat and dropped to her knees beside his chair, leaned over and kissed the side of his mouth.

Trace smiled, pulled her onto his lap and gave her a proper, lingering goodnight kiss, then pushed her away before it got too out of hand. She hugged him close then they went inside, said “goodnight” and went their separate ways.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Meg jumped into the passenger seat of the Jeep as Trace swung her overnight bag into the back before hopping into the driver’s seat and starting the engine. It was Friday and they were headed north to the Old Town section of San Diego where Monte and Tatiana had checked into their hotel. Meg and Trace were joining them for drinks and dinner and Meg was going to stay the night in their suite with them. Tatiana had insisted and Meg knew she was going to be grilled, but ‘Tiana couldn’t ask a bazillion questions about Trace while he was sitting right there.

She glanced over at him as she put on her sunglasses. “You got in late last night. I never even heard you. But when I woke up on the couch around two, I had a quilt magically tucked around me.”

“Huh! Imagine that.” Trace had come in around midnight the night before and found her sound asleep on the sofa—nail polish, cotton balls and other more mysterious paraphernalia strewn over the coffee table—with the TV playing quietly in the background.

“Did you have fun last night? Do anything interesting?”

“We played some poker and had a couple of beers. I broke even so it could have been worse,” he laughed and glanced over at her. “By the looks of things my evening wasn’t as exciting as yours.”

“Hey! Mani/pedi night can be
very
exciting. I had a new shade of nail polish.” She wiggled her fingers at him.

“Mmm, brown.”

“Not brown . . . ‘Russet Bronze’—perfect for fall. It’s so weird seeing all of the Halloween decorations—pumpkins, witches—and there’re no falling leaves. Here it is October and it doesn’t even look like fall here.”

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “I miss it. Fall’s my favorite time of year.”

“Mine too! Something else we have in common.”

“Hey, I DVR’d the end of the movie that was playing when I got home. You fell asleep and I thought you might want to see the rest of it. When I got home there were a lot of people in old-timey clothes wringing their hands around some dude wearing a nightshirt in bed.” He looked at her with mock concern, “It looked really serious.”

She slapped at his arm. “Very funny! That was Tom Bertram . . . he pulled through, by the way. And Fanny and Edmund shook off Henry and Mary Crawford and eventually got together. So . . . all’s well that ends well!”

“I guess you’ve seen that movie before, huh? Let me guess . . . Jane Austen again.”

“Seen the movie
and
read the book . . . and you’re right—
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen. I’ll get you educated in the ways of Jane Austen yet.”

He rolled his eyes at her.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

The two couples were seated
at a corner table in the hotel lounge enjoying their drinks and each other. Trace was having fun getting to know Meg’s friends. Monte Perez was tall and lean, yet muscular, with dark eyes and long, straight black hair hanging to his shoulders. By contrast, Tatiana—or ‘Tiana, as Meg and Monte called her—was fair-skinned with honey blonde hair, ice blue eyes, which were surprisingly warm, and a beautiful Russian accent.

Tatiana nudged Meg’s foot under the table and when Meg looked up gave her a discreet thumbs-up. The guys were discussing the benefits and joys of various water sports and trying to one-up each other’s deep sea fishing stories.

“Hey!” All four looked across the room to see Sean and a tall, curvy, snooty-looking blonde walking toward them. “Glad we caught you guys!”

Monte and ‘Tiana stood up to give Sean hugs and he introduced them to Steffy.

Trace looked over at Meg with a raised eyebrow. “What am I? Chopped liver? She can’t come over to meet
me
but she runs right over as soon as Monte and Tatiana get to town?”

“
You’re
not part of a prestigious choreography team who has the power to get her some very impressive gigs. Sorry, babe.” She patted his hand in sympathy.

Sean popped over and planted a kiss on Meg’s cheek and slapped Trace on the back. Trace slid his chair over to Meg’s side of the table so that Sean and Steffy could fit their chairs in.

Meg caught Steffy’s eye, “Hi, Steffy. How are you?”

She looked down her nose at Meg, “Meg.”

Sean took Steffy’s hand. “This is my brother, Trace.”

“Hi, Trace, it’s nice to meet you,” she said, but didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Steffy,” he answered as he raised his eyebrow again at Meg. She rolled her eyes back at him.

Sean threw his arm around Trace and said, “So, bro . . . what’s up with you and my partner?” He didn’t noticed how Steffy stiffened at that comment, but Monte and Tatiana sure did. “Are your intentions honorable?” he laughed.

“Completely honorable. Do you have a problem with this?” Trace asked as he put his arm across the back of Meg’s chair.

“No, just be good to her.” He looked over at Meg. “And
you
be good to
him
. I have split loyalties here,” he laughed then sobered. “It’s kind of mind-blowing, though. I never saw this coming. Wow!”

Sean turned back to Monte and started catching up with him and Tatiana. Steffy inserted herself into their conversation and completely excluded Meg and Trace, which did not go unnoticed by Tatiana, either. Sean, however, seemed oblivious. Her obvious sucking up started to seem amusing to Trace after the initial shock of her rudeness had worn off.

“Whoa! Is this what you put up with everyday at the Institute?” he whispered to Meg.

“Well, it’s not so bad there because she’s not around us too much during the day. Just at lunch usually. Oh! Watch this . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . .”

Just then Steffy tossed her long straight blond hair behind her shoulder and threw her head back, laughed, then laid her hand over Monte’s hand. Meg recited under her breath right along with Steffy as she said, “Oh, Monte, it would be such a
thrill
to be able work with you someday! Just a dream of mine!”

Tatiana stood up and choked out, trying to hold in her laughter, “Meg, I’m going to the ladies’ room. Would you like to join me?”

Meg jumped up and cried, “Sure!”

Monte and Trace looked frantically from Tatiana to Meg as if to
say,
“don’t leave us here alone with her.”
But the girls just turned around and walked away quickly. They had barely closed the ladies’ room door before they burst into laughter and said—simultaneously, “Beverly Carter!” and dissolved into giggles.

Tatiana wiped tears from under her eyes. “I haven’t thought of her since graduation. Wonder whatever happened to her.”

“She’s probably still looking for someone to work with who can make her dreams come true.”

“What is Sean thinking? Is he really falling for that?”

“She has some kind of spell over him. To tell you the truth, I’m a little worried about it. But we’ll be out of here in a few more weeks and he’ll have to leave her behind.” She pulled a compact out of her bag as she walked toward the mirrors. “That actually doesn’t make me feel as good as you’d think it would.”

Tatiana followed her across the room. “Oh, honey! You’re really falling for this guy, aren’t you? I’ve never seen you like this.”

Meg couldn’t lie or downplay it to Tatiana. They knew each other too well. “I guess so. We’ve just decided to see how it plays out. So we’ll enjoy each other while we can and see where it goes. It could lead to my heart broken into a million pieces when I have to leave, but I just can’t
not
continue to see him while I’m here.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think he’s worth the risk. I say have some fun and enjoy yourself. He seems like a keeper, though, to me. You know, Monte and I made the long distance relationship thing work for almost a year. It’s tough, but it can be done.”

Meg zipped her purse closed and turned to face her. “Well, whatever will be will be.” Then they left to join the others back at the table.

After they had barely sat down, Monte looked down at his watch and exclaimed, “Uh oh! We gotta get going or we’ll miss our dinner reservation.” He looked apologetically over at Sean. “Sean, man, I didn’t know you were going to make it for drinks so I only got the reservation for four. Let me go see if I can change it for six.” He walked out of the bar into the lobby with his cell phone.

Trace glanced over at Tatiana. “I didn’t realize we had reservations.”

“Oh, yeah!” She glanced quickly over at Meg. “Hey, Meg, you’ll never guess who I ran into last week. Do you remember Carla Reynolds? She was in that one show with us . . .”

Meg jumped in, “Oh, Carla! Yes! How is she?”

The two of them chattered on while the rest of them watched them in confusion. Monte arrived back at the table.

“I’m so sorry, Sean, Steffy. They are booked solid tonight. I guess we could try somewhere else.”

“Oh, no!” Tatiana looked crestfallen. “Well, we can try to get in another time, I guess. I’ve heard such wonderful things about . . .”

Sean broke in, “Oh, no, that’s okay. You all go ahead. I should have let you know we were going be able to make it, but Steffy hadn’t gotten back to me by the time . . .” She elbowed him and glared at him to shut him up.

“Well, I had to move some things around, that’s all,” she said. “I could suggest another nice place for dinner . . .”

“No!” Sean broke in. “They already have plans and we’ll see you all another time. Bye, guys! Great to see you!” He stood up and pulled Steffy’s chair out, helping her to her feet.

She reluctantly stood up and dragged her feet as they walked out of the bar looking back at them forlornly the whole way. The other two couples waved as they moved out of sight.

Trace looked at Monte, “I didn’t realize we had reservations.”

Monte and Tatiana laughed. Monte said, “We don’t. It’s all I could think of to get rid of her. I couldn’t figure out a way to keep him and get rid her, though. He was just collateral damage, which is a shame.” He put his hand up to high five Tatiana. “Way to play along, babe! Good job.”

Trace and Meg chuckled. “Well, now I’m hungry—all this talk about dinner. Where
are
we going?” Meg asked.

“We noticed some fun little restaurants nearby. Let’s just start walking until we find something.”

They all stood up, the guys dropping tips on the table, and wandered out and down the street until they found a small Mexican restaurant a few doors down. They enjoyed the rest of the evening. Trace was surprised he had so much in common with her friends. Before they knew it the clock had struck eleven and it was obvious the staff was waiting for them to leave so they could close up for the night.

Everyone walked to Trace’s car and retrieved Meg’s overnight bag. Monte took the bag and he and Tatiana wandered away toward the hotel door while Meg and Trace said their goodnights. Trace leaned toward her and kissed her. “’Night.”

“Goodnight, Trace.” She squeezed his hand. “Do you want to meet us at SeaWorld tomorrow?”

“I have target practice at the shooting range in the morning. Then I’ll come by and meet you. Don’t wait for me—I’ll call you on your cell to find out which part of the park you’re in and I’ll find you that way. Okay?”

“Anything you’re particularly interested in seeing? We can wait ‘til you join us if you want.”

“No, no . . . I’m happy to jump in wherever you all leave off. If you’ve seen one whale show, you’ve seen them all,” he laughed.

Meg punched him lightly in the arm. “That’s not true.”

Trace kissed her again and then opened the car door. He turned to watch her skip over to join her friends near the front door and waved as Tatiana winked at him and disappeared inside.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

On Saturday Meg, Monte and
Tatiana got to SeaWorld by the time the park opened. They spent a couple of activity-filled hours before Meg got a call that Trace had arrived and was coming through the front gate. He met them where they were just getting ready to check out the penguin display and wandered through it with them. After that they stopped at a cart where Monte, Meg and Trace bought hotdogs and Tatiana, a vegetarian, lectured them on what was in a hotdog and how unhealthy—and just plain gross it was.