The Love Letter (17 page)

“It’s great to see you, Jackie. My plans changed at the last minute. I’ve actually been on Tybee Island helping my sister run a bed and breakfast inn.” Sabrina noted the start of the music. “We’ll talk more at the reception.”

Sabrina did what she always did at weddings – daydreamed about her own.
Meredith’s arm just brushed hers as they stood side by side taking their vows. Surrounded by family and friends, they were only aware of each other. His dark head slowly turned toward her, and their eyes met. Each knew what the other was thinking and feeling. Then he lifted her veil and took her lips in their first kiss as man and wife.

They hadn’t quite finished the kiss when Sabrina realized everyone around her was standing up. Her companion waved a hand in front of her face.

“Come back from wherever you are.”

Sabrina made a grab fo
r her purse. “Sorry; I was thinking about something else.”

“It must have been good, because you were smiling.
Do you need a ride to the reception?”

“No, I have a ride;
I just have to find them. I’ll see you there shortly.”

After congratulating
a radiant Sheila and her similarly happy husband, Sabrina made her way outside where several groups of people had gathered on the sidewalk. No one seemed in a hurry to leave. She finally spotted Josh coming around the side of the church. He saw her immediately and waved.

“If you’re ready, I’ll run you to the hotel.”

Josh parked at the entrance and escorted her to the banquet room where the reception was just getting underway. With a cheeky grin, he said, “Have fun!”

Several floors above the ballroom,
Meredith closed his laptop and glanced impatiently at his watch. The day he’d planned so meticulously never materialized. When he arrived at the garage earlier that morning, the mechanic gave him the unwelcome news that not only was his car not ready, but the parts to repair it were still in transit.

After r
eceiving assurances that his vehicle would be ready within a few hours, Meredith found a coffee shop close by where he attempted to work on his book. Needless to say, he’d found it next to impossible to write an intelligent sentence amidst so much noise and confusion.

Most of his irritation melted away when he
returned to the garage and spied his car parked in front of the building instead of resting on a rack in one of the service bays. Perhaps he was actually going to reach his destination at last. This view proved to be optimistic.

He
hadn’t gone twenty miles when he noticed ominous streaks of gray smoke pouring from the car’s muffler. This was quickly followed by a loud grating sound that had Meredith muttering fiercely under his breath. Wondering what else could possibly happen, he turned around and headed back to the garage.

With his car again
waiting for a part that probably wouldn’t arrive, Meredith was faced with the prospect of either spending the afternoon in the noisy coffee shop which by now would be even more crowded or returning to the hotel. It was an easy decision; in a hotel room, he could at least concentrate in relative peace and quiet.

If by some miracle his car was finished by six as promised, he would
still have most of the night to pack in order to get back here to meet Sabrina tomorrow morning. He thought of all the boxes he needed to go through and sighed heavily. With Sabrina along, he didn’t have the flexibility to delay his return by another day or so. He knew Casey needed her back at the inn.

The growling of his stomach made him realize he’d never eaten lunch.
During his meal, he remembered Sabrina mentioning the reception was to be held in one of the hotel’s ballrooms. He hoped her day was going better than his. Maybe he should crash the party; at this point he was bored enough for anything and what was one more guest.

Meredith
grinned at the thought of strolling into a wedding reception in faded jeans and a t-shirt. When he reached the main level, curiosity took him down the long hallway that led to the conference rooms. The second set of double doors he passed had a sign announcing the reception of Sheila and Robert McKenzie.

Since one of the doors
stood open, Meredith was able to see that the celebration was going strong. Not really knowing why he did so, he stepped inside the room. Long buffet tables had been set up on one side, but most of the guests were either dancing or gathered around the smaller tables that dotted the center of the room.

Meredith’s eyes scanned the room
several times before he found Sabrina. She was standing almost opposite him talking to someone with red hair. In a dress and high-heeled sandals, she was barely recognizable. He watched her for several minutes wondering if he didn’t prefer the ponytail and the bare feet. This elegant woman couldn’t be the same one who’d been too afraid to walk him to the door of her room last night.

Just as Meredith was turning to leave, a girl of about eighteen broke away from a group of
teenagers that had been watching him since his entrance into the room. She walked toward him, a flirtatious smile on her red lips. Meredith sighed inwardly. This was all he needed.

“Do you want to dance?”

Meredith shook his head. “I’m not really dressed for dancing.”

“You look fine to me,” the girl assured him.

“Thanks, but I think I’m in the wrong room.”

The girl returned to her friends
, and Meredith glanced back in Sabrina’s direction just in time to catch her puzzled look. He grinned and turned to leave.

Sabrina wondered if she
’d imagined Meredith smiling at her. He couldn’t be here; he was at his apartment packing. Murmuring an excuse to Jackie, she followed him out the door only to halt abruptly. He stood a few feet away, his long length leaning against the wall, his blue eyes gleaming with amusement.

“What are you doing here?”
she asked breathlessly.

“
Nothing is what I’m doing.” He pushed away from the wall and closed the distance between them. “Very nice, Sabrina.” Meredith touched the silky material of her sleeve. “I would have thought green your best color because of your eyes, but you make blue look good, too.”

Sabrina
glanced into eyes as brightly glowing as her dress. “Thank you, but seriously, why are you here? Did you finish early?”

Meredith laughed half-heartedly. “Finish early? I haven’t even started. You better get back inside before your friend comes looking for you.”

She ignored this. “Did something else happen to your car?”

“It’s a long story. Needless to say, I’ve been right here most of the day.” He was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. “Excuse me, Sabrina. It’s the garage calling – I’m almost afraid to answer. They’re
probably going to tell me the engine blew up.”

She watched him with anxious eyes
, and he found his own reluctant to leave her face. There was something touching about the way she made his concerns her own.

When the short conversation was over, he said,
“Well, the car is ready, but since I’ve already heard that once today, I’m not sure what to believe.”

“Would it help if I came with you? Two pairs of hands would surely be quicker than one.”

“I couldn’t let you do that. This is what you came here for.”

“I came for the wedding
; I’m not big on receptions. Let me change clothes, and we can be on our way within a half hour.”

To her surprise, he came closer and gently touched her cheek. “Are you sure, Sabrina? I hate taking you away from an evening of fun to do work.”

Did he really think a reception could compare with spending time with him? “I don’t mind.” She started to walk toward the elevator, and he fell into step beside her.

“We might as well check out of the hotel. It doesn’t make sense to come back here just to sleep.
I have a guest bedroom you can use.” When his companion’s eyes dropped to the floor and stayed there, he went on. “Unless you’re not comfortable staying at my apartment. If that’s the case, we can make other arrangements.”

“I was thinking more about
you being comfortable with it.” She spoke so softly he could barely hear it.

“I don’t think either of us is going to have enough energy to worry about where the other one is sleeping
.”

The car suffered no
more mishaps and in something less than two hours, Meredith was ushering her into a spacious apartment a few miles from the campus where she spent four years of her life.

“I didn’t realize you lived so near the college.”

Meredith grinned unrepentantly. “It was a closely guarded secret.”

“
Yes, I noticed the security gate we had to pass through to get in here. So when you left to write full-time, this is as far as you went?”

“Well,
not all the time. I did some traveling.”

He
led the way down a short hallway into a fairly large guest room with neutral colors and impersonal furnishings. “It’s not as nice as the Marriott, but it’s a place to sleep.”

“
It looks fine to me,” she assured him.

“Let me put
these bags in my room, and we can get started.”

Sabrina
didn’t bother unpacking. Instead, she pushed aside the window shade and found herself looking into a canopy of tall trees. All during her last year of college when she thought him gone, he’d been right here.

“Ready to work?”
he asked, sticking his head through the open door.

Sabrina followed him into the living room.
He pointed to the filled bookshelves on either side of a massive fireplace. “Could you manage to pack those? I have plenty of wrapping paper and boxes beside the couch. I don’t trust the movers – some of the bindings are very old.”

“
I understand your concern. Wow, this is some collection. How many years did it take to find all these?”

“
I didn’t collect them; my father did. When my parents downsized from a house to a condo, there was no place to display them, and he didn’t want to store them in boxes. So, I brought them here.”

“
You’ll have plenty of room for them in your new house. It’s nice to think these books will continue to have a home.”

He glanced at her with a faint smile. “Yes, I think so, too. I’m going to be working in my office. Just call out if you need
anything.”

Sabrina found it hard to simply pack the books. She examined the
ornate covers, gazed at the titles and flipped through the pages. When Meredith came to check on her, she guiltily realized she hadn’t done much packing. She turned her head to apologize and found his face very close to hers.

He heard her swiftly indrawn breath
, and that tiny sound went through him like an electrical current. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and Meredith realized how much he wanted to kiss Sabrina. If he was honest, he would go further and admit he’d been thinking of little else for the past few hours. Then he remembered the letter.

What was he
thinking? He knew how deeply Sabrina cared about him, and he had a good idea what a kiss from him would mean to her. Was it right to take what she willingly offered when he could give so little in return?

“I never noticed your freckles
before,” he observed as he stepped away from her.

Sabrina tried
not to look as if the door of heaven had slammed shut in her face. She’d been so certain he was going to kiss her. “That means my make-up has worn off.”

“Why would you want to cover them? They’re adorable.”

“Thank you. I haven’t made much progress, as you can see. I’ll stop doing so much looking and start packing.”

Meredith shrugged.
“Don’t worry about it. I really came in to see if you’re hungry.”

The impersonal smile he threw her screamed
indifference and made Sabrina wish he’d just slap her; it could hardly hurt more. As for being hungry, she’d never felt less like eating, something that couldn’t be admitted to him.

“
What were you thinking about getting?”

“
Pizza - there’s a place close by that delivers.”

When the pizza arrived, it was
eaten with little enjoyment by either of them. The incident in the living room stretched between them like a taut rope. No matter how hard they tried to ignore it, they couldn’t escape the strained atmosphere hovering around them.

After the
ir meal, Meredith returned to his office with a speed that told Sabrina more clearly than words how much he regretted bringing her there. With a heartfelt sigh, she resumed her packing of the books.

She didn’t blame Meredith for his behavior.
It must be a nuisance to have to guard your every word and action lest they be misunderstood. It would be a long time before she forgot how quickly his face changed when he realized how much she wanted him to kiss her.

Once the last book was in a box,
she knocked softly on the half open door of his office. “I’m finished. What do you want me to do now?”