Page 43 of Elusive Promise

"You definitely made the right choice. I'm going to need a run after this."

"Are you a runner?"

"I am—which is a good thing, since I also like to eat." She flashed him a guilty smile.

He grinned back at her. "So do I. Have you ever run a race?"

"I've done half marathons. Maybe one day, when I have more time to really train, I'll do the full version. What about you? Do you like to run?"

"I prefer cycling, but I also run and swim."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're a triple threat."

"I did the Iron Man triathlon in Hawaii two years ago."

"I'm impressed."

"Don't be. I finished out of the top 20 percent."

"That's still amazing. Or do you only feel successful when you're the best?"

"I do like to win. Not that I was expecting to win the triathlon, but I was hoping to make the top 10 percent of entrants."

"I like to win, too. I've always been competitive, and I have no idea where I get it from. My mom is the least competitive person I know. I can't seem to shake my drive to win."

"Why would you want to? It's part of who you are. Maybe you get it from your biological father. You really don't know anything about him?"

"I don't remember him, and my mom never talks about him."

"What about your biological grandparents?"

"I know even less about them. They apparently didn't like that their son married an Indian woman."

"Is that why he left your mother? Did he succumb to family pressure?"

"Maybe. My mother has never been forthcoming on that topic. I know he left her in a bad place. Her mother had died a year earlier, and her father had decided to move back to India after that. So, she was alone with a three-year-old. As I mentioned, she worked in the admissions office at a local university during the day, and she picked up tailoring jobs at night. She could sew anything. I did not inherit that skill. She used to lament that I couldn't even hem a pair of pants. But I didn't have the patience. Once she married Harry, however, she found a much easier life."

"How did they meet?"

"It was at the university. He came to a fundraiser. He said he saw her, and he was smitten."

"Love at first sight. Do you believe in that?"

"I do, because I saw it happen with my mom. She fell for Harry hard and fast. She tried to resist, because her first marriage had not gone well, and she'd lost confidence in her instincts. But Harry wouldn't take no for an answer."

"So, you started a new life with a diplomat. Where else did you live besides Bezikstan?"

"Singapore, Brussels, Rome, and Barcelona. It was a wonderful life."

"Where did you go to college?"

She hesitated for the first time, as if she'd suddenly realized they were getting closer to her more current past. He wished they could tear down the barriers between them, but to get her to open up, he would have to do the same, and he wasn't ready for that. It wasn't just about him. He had to think of the bigger picture.

"I went to Berkeley, in California," she said. "What about you?"

"I went to the University of Virginia."

"And what did you study? English? Journalism?"

---