Taking Charge (7 page)

“Bet they’ve thought about it.”

“Eww! Brad, don’t! That’s creepy!”

He laughed and pulled the car up outside Pam and
Bob’s.

“They don’t know you’re out, do they?” Brad said.

“Well, Pam worries and she wouldn’t understand that I
had to go to the bar tonight. She thinks I need sleep and…”

“You do need sleep. Did you sneak out the
window?”

“Kind of,” Robyn admitted.

“You’ll be okay getting back in?”

“Of course. It isn’t like I haven’t done it before,
right?”

“It’s great to see you, Robyn,” Brad said as she
opened the car door.

“You too, and you won’t forget about tomorrow night.
Seven at the arena, the whole squad of ten.”

“I won’t forget,” Brad promised.

Robyn shut the car door and hurried up the driveway,
hugging her sweater to herself.

Once at the house, she eased open the window and
climbed up onto the sill. She looked back to Brad who was still
watching her from the car and she waved, before disappearing
inside. One mission was accomplished.

She tried to open her eyes, but it wasn’t working.
They felt so heavy and sticky, like they were glued together. She
grabbed hold of the pillow and hauled herself up into a sitting
position, rubbing at her eyes with a fist. Her head ached, her
mouth was dry, and she smelled bad. Sunlight streamed through the
blinds, and that hurt her eyes, too. She looked at her watch. Her
vision blurred and she blinked to focus on the dial.

“Shit!”

It was almost midday.

She stumbled out of bed, caught her foot in the
bedding, and fell flat on her face. God, she felt terrible! And she
so desperately needed coffee.

When she had managed to stagger into the kitchen,
there was a note on the table and a set of keys beside it.

Keys for you! Help yourself to everything! Dinner at
six – meatball stew! Pam

The thought of meatball stew made her stomach rumble.
She was starving and she needed breakfast.

She dialed Sarah.

“Hi, it’s me. Wanna meet for breakfast? Yeah, I know
it’s almost lunchtime, but I slept in. Theo and Stacey’s in an
hour? I really stink and need to shower. Hey Sarah, do you know
anyone who could lend me a car?”

Robyn was on her third mug of coffee when Sarah
joined her at the table in the diner.

“You made it! Did you manage to get me a car?” Robyn
asked, signaling to the waitress that they were ready to order.

“Are you crazy? Where did you think I was going to
get a car from in an hour? You’re lucky I’m here! Someone called
wanting to see a property on Romence Avenue, and I had to give it
to Sheryl. I should be hoping they buy, but I’m not.”

“I really need a car. It doesn’t have to be anything
fancy, but I need something to get me from A to B, plus I need to
go to Meijer’s after here and get ten tons of cleaning equipment to
make a start on the roadhouse. Meijer’s is still the best
supermarket, isn’t it?” Robyn asked, taking another look at the
menu.

“Why didn’t you rent a car?” Sarah asked.

“Because Pam and Bob insisted on picking me up, and I
didn’t really think about it. I’d forgotten how spread out
everything is over here. It isn’t like that in England where
there’s Park and Ride,” Robyn reminded her.

“Well, I’ll give Mickey a call. Steinberg Motors
might have something, I guess,” Sarah said with a sigh.

“You sigh a lot. When did you start sighing so much?
You never used to do that. Is something wrong?” Robyn asked.

“No. Shall we order? Can I have a Greek salad with
everything?” Sarah asked the waitress.

“Sure. And what can I get you ma’am?”

“I’ll have sausage patties, er no, I want links,
links are the long ones right? And bacon, two eggs over easy, hash
browns, and wheat toast, thank you,” Robyn reeled off.

“You’re welcome, I’ll bring it right out,” the
waitress said, writing everything down.

“Did you want some coffee?” Robyn asked Sarah.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll just have water,” Sarah said,
picking up the glass of iced water on the table and sipping from
it.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re not on another bizarre
diet are you? Because don’t think I didn’t notice you ordered
salad. You remember I think it’s the Devil’s food, right?”

“I’m not on a diet,” Sarah said, sighing again.

“Then have some more to eat.”

“I don’t want more to eat.”

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me!” Sarah shouted loud
enough to turn heads.

Robyn’s eyes met with a middle-aged woman seated at
the adjacent table, and she mouthed an apology.

“Okay, so that outburst’s really convinced me,” Robyn
said, lowering her voice.

“I’m just not in a good place right now, that’s all,”
Sarah spoke quietly.

“Theo & Stacey’s?”

“No Robyn, in life! I’m not in a good place in life!”
Sarah yelled.

“The housing market will pick up,” Robyn assured
her.

“It isn’t realty, it’s reality. It’s Mickey…me and
Mickey,” Sarah blurted out.

“I don’t understand.”

“We’re treading water, we’re not going anywhere,”
Sarah continued.

“Well, where do you want to go? Tell him.”

“I’m not talking about going to the movies or out on
the lake, I’m talking about life. We’re not going anywhere in
life,” Sarah said to her.

“But you’re happy together, you’ve always been happy
together. You’ve been happy with Mickey since you were thirteen.
You were the couple everyone said would get married and have
hundreds of babies. Okay, maybe not hundreds, but at least half a
dozen,” Robyn said.

“Yeah, I know,” Sarah sighed.

“So what’s changed?”

“Nothing.”

“Then I’m not seeing the issue here.”

“Nothing’s changed, that’s the whole point.
Everything’s just like it was when we were thirteen. We’re not
married and we haven’t got half a dozen babies,” Sarah said in
frustration.

“Ah! Now I get it,” Robyn said, taking a sip of her
coffee.

“Do you know how much gentle persuasion it took me to
get him to even consider moving in together? I mean, to just
consider it? To get him to actually do anything about it was
torture. Do you know he wouldn’t move into anywhere that didn’t
have a view of a lake,” Sarah said, opening up.

“Sounds expensive.”

“Yeah, too expensive! Out of our price range
completely. So, I had to wait until the most run-down pit you can
imagine came on the market. I think Mickey thought it would never
happen, but it did.”

“So you got a crap house with a great outlook.”

“It isn’t crap now, it’s really nice. But it took a
lot of hard work and, even when it was finished, he didn’t seem to
want to move in,” Sarah said, taking a drink of her water.

“You think he’s a commitment phobe?”

“I don’t know, but to be honest, if things don’t move
on from how they were in the beginning, I don’t see the point of
carrying on,” Sarah admitted.

“Shit, you’d leave Mickey?” Robyn exclaimed.

This was like suggesting the Queen and Prince Philip
were going to go their separate ways and fight acrimoniously over
the Crown Jewels and Corgi dogs.

“Well, we’ve been together forever, but he’s still in
first gear. I want more than that, I want marriage and a
family.”

“So tell him.”

“Oh Rob, you know it isn’t that easy. This is Mickey
we’re talking about,” Sarah said with yet another sigh.

“I don’t see the problem. Tell him you want to get
hitched and you want kids. Job done.”

“But what if he says that isn’t what he wants?”

“Then you’ll know you’re wasting your time with him.
Ah, great!” Robyn announced as the waitress arrived with their
food.

“So, what about you? Do you have someone in England?”
Sarah inquired, picking a bit of lettuce up with her fingers and
nibbling on it.

“Someone?” Robyn asked.

“Yeah, a guy, you know…a boyfriend.”

“No, too busy.”

“Well, who was the last guy you dated? Did he have
commitment issues?” Sarah wanted to know.

“Do you want to try some of this? I mean, that salad
looks nice and everything, but it’s missing some meat in my
opinion,” Robyn told her.

“No thanks,” Sarah declined.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause I’m going to be as fat as a
house if I eat all of this and…Well, well, well, doesn’t he clean
up nicely?” Robyn remarked as the door to the diner opened.

“Who? Who are you looking at?” Sarah asked, turning
around.

“That guy who just walked in. The one in the suit,”
Robyn replied.

“Wow, the really hot one?” Sarah said, noticing
him.

“Yeah, give me a second and I’ll ask him to join us,”
Robyn said, standing up.

“What?! Robyn! What are you doing?” Sarah
exclaimed.

He was starving. He missed the hot dog stand outside
the front doors of the Gen-All offices in Chicago already. Maggie,
one of his new assistants, had suggested this diner and recommended
the soup. The state his stomach was in right now, he was thinking
about ordering two bowls.

Meeting the team had been hard. The people he’d
worked with in Chicago had been friends, people who’d understood
what he’d been through and what drove him to do the work he did.
They got his determination and drive and no explanation was
necessary. The inquisitive faces today had looked at him like a
specimen on a Petri dish. He knew what they were thinking. Here he
was, Cole Ryan, the person they had heard so much about. He was
barely out of college, how could he be the leading expert in his
field? He knew he would have to earn their belief and trust, but it
was so hard having to prove himself all the time. Especially when
his mind wasn’t fully on the job. He needed to focus more. If he
didn’t focus, he might not be able to control what happened next.
He might be forced to think about something other than work. He
wouldn’t be able to handle that. Work was his priority now. It had
to be.

The suit suited him. His dark head was down, studying
a newspaper and, for a second, Robyn didn’t know what to say. Robyn
Matthers—lost for words—it was unimaginable.

He looked up all of a sudden, and Robyn stood on the
outside edge of her tennis shoes and opened her mouth to speak.

“Now how did you know this was the best diner in
town?”

“Hey, Robyn Matthers,” Cole greeted, smiling back at
her.

“I have the best table in the place over there and a
salad-nibbling friend. If you’re going to join me in eating real
food, you can come and sit with us,” she invited.

“I’ve been told the soup is good here. Does that
count?” he asked.

“Just this once. Come on,” Robyn said, encouraging
him out of the seat.

Sarah was flushing with obvious embarrassment when
they joined her.

“Sorry about my friend. She’s from England and I can
only guess inviting strangers to eat with them is a quaint old
custom,” Sarah began awkwardly.

“Oh, relax, we know each other. Sarah, this is Cole
Ryan. Cole, this is my friend Sarah Gorski,” Robyn introduced.

“Oh, hello,” Sarah greeted, holding her hand out to
him.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Cole greeted, shaking Sarah’s
hand.

“Excuse me…could we have some soup? And some more
coffee? You want coffee right?” Robyn asked as the waitress came
over.

“Sure,” he replied.

“So, how do you two know each other?” Sarah
asked.

“We met before the flight to Kalamazoo, and he
carried my bag,” Robyn informed her.

“And she talked a lot,” Cole added.

“And I kind of kissed him,” Robyn blurted out.

“What?!”

“Oh, you know, it was just one of those moments,”
Robyn responded, putting more food into her mouth but checking for
Cole’s reaction.

“Have I slipped into a vortex?” Sarah asked, looking
open-mouthed at both of them.

“So what’s with the suit anyways? You looked like a
strictly jeans and sneakers guy on the plane,” Robyn told him.

“Oh, I am. This is only for today. I’ve had a meeting
at work. You know, getting to know everyone, meeting the team,”
Cole explained.

“What do you do?” Sarah asked.

“I work for Gen-All Pharmaceutical.”

“You and half the town. I don’t know why I didn’t
guess that. So, do you play hockey?” Robyn asked.

“A little.”

“Good, you can come along tonight. The Panthers are
meeting at seven at the arena. Apparently we only have a squad of
ten. Want to try out?” Robyn asked him.

“Sure,” Cole agreed.

“So what are you? Forward? Defense?”

“I played center.”

“Oh yeah? Who for?”

“Chicago Wolves,” Cole answered.

Robyn’s jaw almost dropped to the table, and she had
to stop herself from spitting out the coffee she had in her mouth.
The Chicago Wolves were a team doing well in the American Hockey
League and they were a division above the Portage Panthers.

“Is that good?” Sarah asked.

“Yeah, it’s good. Good, wow, you’re full of
surprises,” Robyn said when she had regained her ability to
speak.

“Right back atcha,” he replied, his dark eyes meeting
hers.

Robyn smiled and then took to concentrating on her
brunch. There was something very Freddie Prinze Jr. about him.
Maybe it was the dark eyes, or perhaps the black, glossy hair. Or
it could be the chiseled jaw and friendly smile. It was a memory
from her youth, a poster on her wall, a pin-up to be admired. A
crush! She felt immediately better at this realization. A crush was
fine because a crush was far removed from reality. She’d had a long
flight and fantasizing went hand-in-hand with jetlag. This wasn’t
real attraction.