TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES) (5 page)

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“Did you enjoy dinner and the movie, Barbara?”

Barbara glanced over at Rick. “Yes, both were simply wonderful. I truly enjoyed myself. Thanks for asking me out.”

“Trust me when I say it was my pleasure and I enjoyed myself as well.”

Barbara couldn’t help but smile inside. In all honesty, she hadn’t known what to expect tonight. It was the first official date she’d had since her divorce and even then she had almost hesitated in accepting. Now she was glad that she had.

She didn’t know what there was about Rick but he had the ability to make her feel sensuous without expounding a whole lot of energy, which was so different than the way Ron had always made her feel. With her ex she’d always felt lacking, mainly because she’d known, that he was attracted to younger woman. She’d always felt she’d never been able to measure up to any of them. But a part of her had wanted to believe that deep down he truly loved her, and that one day he would realize she was the best thing for him.

Now when she looked back over her life and saw how she had easily accepted Ron’s affairs, she also realized just how much of her life she’d wasted on him, and how wrong her mother had been when she’d convinced her and Peggy there was nothing a husband could do that he could not be forgiven for.

The car stopped and she glanced over at Rick and found him looking at her. It wasn’t what she would call one of those sexual predatory looks, but it was definitely a look from a man who was interested in a woman. She’d seen that same look in Willie Baker’s gaze whenever he and Peggy were together. It was one of those looks that could render a woman dizzy, make her think of things she really had no business thinking about, like a man and woman in bed making love. It was the kind of lovemaking that made you tremble with intense desire all the way to your bones.

Barbara couldn’t believe where her thoughts were going. Probably the same place they had gone most of the night whenever she would catch Rick staring at her. It was a penetrable stare but it hadn’t unnerved her. It had made her feel wanted, desired and sensuous.

And he had been the perfect gentleman all evening, readily seeing to all her needs. The food at Oasis had been delicious, like she’d known it would be; and the movie had been another Tyler Perry masterpiece. After the movie they had strolled to the coffee shop across the street and he had gotten her talking. He’d met Peggy, Courtney and Sonya from the other times he’d run into them at the hospital and had asked her about other family. She had found herself telling him her family history and how a tract of land that had gotten sold to Disney in the sixties had made their single mother a very wealthy woman.

Wanting a better life for her daughters, Barbara had told him how Lola Phelps had sent Barbara and Peggy to the best private schools, had established trust funds for them and then married them off to two men who she thought would cherish them and treat them with the utmost honor and respect.

Barbara broke eye contact with Rick to look out the window. They were in her subdivision and in a few moments they would be arriving back at her house. Now this was where she was at a lost as to what to do next. What was the proper etiquette for a date? Did a woman invite a man into her home for coffee after the first date? Would he expect more than just coffee?

She never considered herself a sensuous person. To be honest, she never considered herself desirable either. The majority of the time she had been the one to initiate her and Ron’s lovemaking sessions, and although she figured he’d gotten satisfied in the end she knew with men there were different degrees of satisfaction.

And those times when she had initiated things between them, she had done it more out of duty than for anything else. She could honestly say, here and now, that she had stopped feeling any real sexual attraction to Ron years ago, probably after she’d come home that day and found him in bed with someone else. She had stayed in her marriage out of love and duty. During their trip to Hawaii, she had tried restoring that attraction, had wanted him to see her as desirable, and as a result she had done some things in the bedroom she normally wouldn’t do. She knew he had enjoyed her brazen behavior, but he had for all the wrong reasons.

Barbara drew in a deep breath and wished she would have talked to Peggy. She knew better than to ask Courtney or Sonya the rules of dating since the rules for young women today was vastly different than what she was use to. One night stands were a common thing since some felt a date would earn the man a right to spend the night. Unfortunately, she didn’t think that way.

At that moment when he turned on the street where her home was located, a part of her wished he would drive around the block once or twice to give her time to decide what she would do.

Too late, he was pulling into her driveway and she felt a quivering in her stomach and wished she could ignore the sensation . When he brought the car to a stop she tilted her head over in his direction and met his gaze.

She was about to open her mouth to say something, what she wasn’t sure, when he beat her to the punch by saying. “May I see you again, Barbara?”

The sound of his voice was all husky, seductive and rich with a substance that seemed to flow through her veins. She looked at him for what seemed like a long moment before asking. “Do you really want to?”

He smiled and that smile made her stomach dip. “Yes, I really want to. How about lunch on Wednesday? I can pick you up at your office.”

She wanted to see her again, so she said. “I would love to have lunch with you, Rick.”

“Good.”

He opened his car door and walked around the vehicle to open hers and then he strolled with her up the walkway. She glanced over at him and there was something in his eyes, something she’d seen during the evening that intrigued her because he had a way of looking at her like no man ever had, and that included Ron.

When they reached her steps, he paused and then reached out and took her hand in his. “I think this is where I should say goodnight.”

Her surprised expression must have told him what she’d been thinking for the last hour or so, and a warm smile appeared on his lips. “I don’t want to overwhelm you, Barbara. You’ve agreed to have lunch with me on Wednesday and I’ll look forward to that.”

She looked down at her shoes and then back at him. “I don’t know what to say. I’m not good at this.”

“You’re better at this than you think. You’re special. I believe it and I intend to make sure in the end you believe it as well.”

He lifted her hands to his lips and placed a kiss on her knuckles. “I’m looking forward to Wednesday.”

“So am I,” she said truthfully.

“Glad to hear it. Now I’ll stand here until you get inside. Goodnight,” he said, releasing her hands.

“Goodnight.” She hesitated just for a moment and then she turned and quickly walked up the steps, unlocked the door and went inside.

Ronald Andrews balled up the paper he’d received in the mail. Moving as quickly as his limp would allow, he went over to the table and picked up his cell phone. After pushing a single button a sleepy feminine voice answered.

“Yes, Daddy?”

“What is this nonsense about your mother selling our house?”

Courtney fought off sleep to roll her eyes. “If I remember correctly, in the divorce settlement it became
her
house with the stipulation that you were to get half of the proceeds if she were to sell it. I guess she’s decided to sell it.”

Ron tightened his hand around the phone. “Why would she do something like that?”

“I can think of a lot of reasons, but the main one is that she’s just one person and it’s too big of a house for her. I told her that months ago and I’m glad she’s finally listening to me.”

“You had no right to butt in. That house is where I planned to move back into with your mother when she sees we were meant to be together.”

Courtney rose up in bed. “Excuse me? What are you talking about?”

“Whether you want to accept it or not, your mother and I will get back together eventually.”

Courtney shook her head. “You really believe that don’t you? You are so use to doing her any kind of way, knowing she’ll take you back that you think this is just another one of those times. Well, think again, Dad. Mom divorced you. You hurt her so badly that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with you and I can’t rightly blame her.”

“But I tried to explain. What I had is a sickness and I’m getting help. I’ve been seeing this -“

“Yes, Dad, I know. You have this sex addiction that you’re getting help for. You’ve told me about it several times, and I’m sure like me Mom wishes you the best, but that has nothing to do with her.”

“Sure it does. Once I get well I want my wife back.”

“If you think Mom will give any serious thought to taking you back then I would think again if I were you. You hurt her, Dad. Not only did you hurt her but you humiliated her in the worse possible way. Your trial was public. It was bad enough what happened in Hawaii, now everyone in Orlando knows about your other women and children and how she put up with that crap over the years and all in the name of love. I would think, considering all of that, any love she might have had for you is gone. I doubt she’ll ever get over what you did. I know that if I were in her shoes that I wouldn’t.”

“Barb loves me. I can wait it out. She’ll be back.”

He hung up the phone without saying goodbye. Courtney wondered how he was going to feel once he realized that his wife wasn’t coming back to him, no matter how long he waited.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

Courtney glanced across the room. Her fiancé, Lake Masters, was standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee in his hand. She remembered him easing out of bed a few hours ago after making love to her. Exhausted, drained and sexually satisfied, she had drifted back to sleep only to be awakened by her father who just couldn’t get it through his traitorous skull that he’d lost the best thing he’d ever had.

Courtney replaced her cell phone on the nightstand and tried to concentrate on the question Lake had asked her and not on his body when he walked across the room to open the blinds. He was wearing a bathrobe that hung open and she could clearly see his naked body underneath. And it was a body she had come to know very well over the past few months.

She squinted her eyes against the sunlight that came streaming in through the blinds, but she could still see what a fine specimen of a man he was beneath his robe.

She licked her lips remembering how a few hours ago she had felt the hard heat of him in her hand and then in her mouth and how she had -”

“Courtney?”

She snatched her gaze from his midsection to his eyes. “Yes?”

“I asked if you were okay.”

Repeating the question reminded her of her father’s call and she lay back against the pillows. “I’m fine. It’s my dad who seems to be a bit confused. He really believes Mom is coming back to him.”

“Even after the divorce?”

“Yes. He thinks she only got a divorce because she was angry over the Hawaii affair and sooner or later she will see that he loves her, she loves him, and that he has this sexual addiction that can be cured and together they will live happily ever after.”

Lake moved over to the bed and set on the edge. “The living happily ever after part is questionable, but to be quite honest considering their past history, I can see why he would think that way. She has forgiven him before, numerous times when other women would not have. According to you she even forgave him after walking in on him in bed with another woman.”

Courtney nodded, remembering that time. “Yes, however, I might be wrong but I truly believe that stunt he pulled in Hawaii killed that love. Besides, he broke his promise to her about being faithful after their last split. She hadn’t known about Ashira Wilson.”

Courtney paused and then added. “And Dad doesn’t know it yet but for the first time since he and Mom have known each other, he has competition. Since they’re no longer married she’s free to date others, although she hasn’t done so until last weekend. Chances are Dad doesn’t know she went out with Detective Blair. He actually said he’s waiting for her to come back to him.”

Lake shook his head as he sat his coffee cup on the nightstand before easing onto the bed to lie beside Courtney. “And you think Blair has a chance?”

Courtney smiled and turned on her side to face Lake. “Yes. I really think he has a chance. I remember him well during the investigation and he comes across as a man who wouldn’t hesitate to go after what he wants. His partner wanted to believe Mom was guilty, but Detective Blair didn’t stop until he proved she was innocent.”

At that moment the phone rang and Courtney pulled in a deep breath. “You better get that Lake, because if that’s Dad again I just might lose it.”

Lake reached over and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

After a few moments he smiled and said. “Yes, she’s right here.”

He then handed her the phone and whispered. “It’s Sonya.”

Courtney returned his smile as she slid the phone to the side of her face. “Yes, Sonya?”

“Girl, it’s a good thing your wedding is only a month away, otherwise I might not be able to fit into my bridesmaid dress.”