Pamela Hearon - My Way Back to You

It occurred to her they hadn’t made plans for tomorrow yet. “I guess we’ll need to leave about eight-fifteen tomorrow morning. Want to just meet me at the car?”

He nodded as the door slid open on her floor.

“Okay, then.” She flashed him a smile. “See you later.” She stepped out.

“Mags.”

Jeff followed her out of the elevator, allowing the door to close. “I thought...uh...why don’t we have dinner together?”

Her stomach squeezed at the thought. “Oh, wow, Jeff. I don’t know...”

He rubbed the back of his neck before shoving his hands in his pockets. “It’s been a long time. We have a lot to catch up on.” His mouth rose at one corner. “Hell. It might actually be pleasant.”

“I...um.” Maggie searched for a reason other than the obvious—that they were exes and, as a rule, exes didn’t have pleasant dinners together.

“I have a reservation at eight at a fabulous restaurant just across the street. I should be able to add one easily.” He nodded toward her feet and grinned. “You won’t have to walk far.”

Her stomach chose that moment to let out a rumble, and Jeff tilted his head. “Was that a yes?”

She shook her head in resignation. “Oh, what the hell. Okay.”

The elevator door opened with a ding , and Jeff stepped back inside. “Meet you in the lobby at five till?”

She nodded and waited until the door closed before letting out a verbal groan.

Oddly, her stomach didn’t answer back. No, it had drawn much too tight to make a sound.

She didn’t have much of an appetite anymore, either.

* * *

“FINALLY!” ROSEMARY RUSSELL stopped walking long enough to retrieve her phone from the purse swinging on her arm.

“I told you she’d call.” Her husband, Eli, sounded completely cool and unbothered. But all through supper at the diner, she could tell he’d been just as worried as she was about their daughter and grandson’s trip today. She couldn’t imagine driving all the way up to Chicago with that horrible traffic. They’d expected the call hours ago.

She’d just about worried herself sick.

When she pulled the phone out, the caller ID confirmed it was, indeed, Maggie, thank heavens!

“Hello, sweetheart.”

“Hey, Mom.” Maggie sounded out of breath. “Just wanted to let y’all know we got here in one piece.”

“How was the traffic?”

“Worse than you could ever imagine.”

That wasn’t what Rosemary wanted to hear. “Oh, dear. And you have to drive in it for two more days.”

“I did fine.” A door closed and Maggie gave a long sigh. “Jeff offered to take the wheel—I’m sure my driving wasn’t suiting him—but I was determined to prove to myself I could do it. I’ll be making this trip a lot over the next four years. I might as well get used to it.”

“How is Jeff?” Rosemary shot a glance Eli’s way and watched his jaw muscle tighten at the mention of their former son-in-law.

“He’s fine,” Maggie said, then added what sounded like an afterthought. “I guess. I mean, he looks great, but we haven’t had much time to talk. I was too nervous to be much of a conversationalist with the traffic and all. Oh, but, Mom, you should hear him and Russ together. It’s hard to tell their voices apart.”

“Did Russ do okay? With the other boys?” Rosemary had fretted about that, too—that her grandson from tiny Taylor’s Grove, Kentucky, would be thought of as a hick by his big-city teammates.

“You should’ve seen him. Had them eating out of his hand before the meeting was over.”

Just like his dad at that age , Rosemary thought wryly. She supposed she should be grateful to Jeff for providing their grandson with a set of extrovert genes.

“I met the coach,” Maggie went on. “Seems like a good guy, and—” There was a sharp knock. “The bellman’s here with my bag, Mom, so I better go. I’m meeting Jeff for dinner.”

Rosemary’s heart gave a loud thump . “Oh, dear, Maggie. Is that wise?”

Maggie’s snort sounded forced. “I’m a big girl. I can handle Jeff Wells just fine.”

Rosemary wasn’t so sure. She bit back all the warnings suddenly pressing on her tongue. “Just be careful, Maggie. Watch out for...the traffic.”

“I will. Gotta go. Love you.”

Before she could get out a goodbye, the phone went dead. She slipped it back into her purse. “She’s having dinner with Jeff.”

“The son of a bitch.”

Eli responded to the news exactly the way he always responded to Jeff’s name when Russ wasn’t around. She hoped his blood pressure didn’t shoot up. “If Maggie and Jeff can get along around Russ, that’s a good thing, right?”

Eli’s face flushed bright red. “The son of a bitch left my daughter and his son and moved as far away across the country as he could. There’s no forgetting that.”

She agreed but didn’t say so. Images of the ninety-five pounds Maggie withered to after the divorce still haunted Rosemary. There was no forgetting that, either.

They were in front of their house, but Rosemary pointed toward the end of the block. “It’s such a pretty night. Let’s keep walking. It’ll help us work off that chess pie we just ate.”

Eli grumbled an agreement and kept walking, charging up Baxter Hill like he had to put out a fire.

Maggie and Jeff were only going to be together for two days, Rosemary fretted silently. During that time, they had to move Russ into his dorm, go on tours, follow the team on a round of golf, have dinner with the other parents.

There wouldn’t be time for sparks to fly.

But they were having dinner tonight.

Rosemary tried to relax. Her daughter was now a savvy adult, finally over the man who had shattered her life. A successful businesswoman. A widow. But, despite the eighty-six-degree evening temperature, a shiver ran up Rosemary’s spine.

She fought off what she hoped wasn’t a premonition, quickening her step to keep up with Eli’s long stride.

* * *

JEFF HADN’T ANTICIPATED conversation would come so easily. But catching up on their parents’ health and Maggie’s genuine concern about his sister Chloe’s aggressive form of multiple sclerosis had taken them swiftly through cocktails. A lighter mood consisting of stories about Russ kept them laughing through appetizers and salad. So, by the time the entrées arrived, the food and alcohol had loosened their tongues and smoothed the edge of their tension, though it still lurked around their table, in the dark corner.

The food at Spiaggia was even better than he’d expected. He’d done his research online and made the reservations a couple of weeks ago, hoping he and Maggie might have some time alone to discuss a few things he wanted to get off his chest.

But this afternoon, her frazzled manner hadn’t been very encouraging. First, she’d turned him down at the café, and if he’d told her the truth—that he’d already made reservations for two tonight—he wasn’t sure she’d have agreed. But he’d played it smart and acted as if this was all spur-of-the-moment. An approach that apparently worked because here they were.

“You really do look amazing. Pictures I’ve seen haven’t done you justice.” He tilted the conversation toward the more personal side. “I know I said that earlier, but I mean it. And that dress is stunning.”

The sleeveless black sheath with the round neck was classy without being overdone. It played nicely against the dark roots of her hair and the blond highlights and showed just enough cleavage to be enticing. Her hair was tucked behind her ears and hefty diamond studs winked at him in the light of the candles on the table.

He wondered if they had been a present from Zeke, which sent a pang of guilt through him. He needed to address that issue. The sooner the better.