Page 64 of 7 Days and 7 Nights

“Look, you just have to make the best of this situation. Dawg doesn’t want to get married and you do. It’s right to go out and try to get what you want.”

“But, but, that’s what Dr. O said.”

“Well then, as strange as it feels to say so, Dr. O must be right.”

There was a long pause.

“You okay, JoBeth?”

“Yeah.” She gave a small sniff and an embarrassed little laugh. “Sorry to get so heavy on you. I just... I guess it’s time to go get ready for my date.”

Matt sank down in his chair and eyed the computer screen warily. Diane, he typed as calmly as he could,I need another caller. Just make sure she isn’t going to cry.

Chapter Twenty-One

Kevin Middleton was considerably shorter than JoBeth remembered. When he rose from his side of the picnic-style table in the back room of the Smokehouse Barbecue, she couldn’t help noticing that he barely topped her five foot four inches. The hand he extended in greeting was also small, and JoBeth had the disturbing thought that she could probably outwrestle him if she had a mind to. She covered the thought with a quick smile.

“Hi, Kevin. It’s good to see you."

“Same here, JoBeth. You sure are looking fine.”

“Thanks.” JoBeth slid onto the bench across from him and opened the menu the waitress handed her. She scanned the items briefly and then looked over the top of her menu at the man her parents had chosen for a son-in-law.

“I was sure sorry to hear about your folks. I always meant to get by and see them, but it just didn’t seem...” His voice trailed off and JoBeth knew then that he hadn’t forgotten the awkward end of their relationship, the long, dragged-out months during which Kevin and her parents lobbied for marriage while she stalled without understanding why.

Would she sit across a table from Dawg someday while he tried to recall what he’d seen in her? She pushed the thought firmly from her mind.

"They talked about you up until the very end,” she said. Now there was your classic understatement. Through three years with Dawg they had never missed an opportunity to chastise her for what she’d thrown away. “They always thought you were the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Shows how purely intelligent they were.”

She looked up quickly in surprise and was relieved to see a smile on his face.

“They were fine people.” Kevin lifted the glass of sweet tea he’d ordered and held it out toward her like a salute. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, taking each other’s measure. JoBeth saw a medium-sized man of medium coloring with unremarkable brown eyes. There was nothing flashy about him, but she noticed he’d put himself together with care. The manicured fingernails and carefully pressed oxford shirt proclaimed him a man aware of the picture he presented, as did the freshly barbered hair, each strand perfectly in place.

Watching him converse with the waitress, JoBeth gave him points for the way he handled himself. He was friendly without passing over the line into flirtation, just as Dawg had always been. And when he placed his order, it was clear he knew his mind.

Kevin took a sip of his sweetened tea and then turned his attention back to her. He seemed less tentative than he’d been when she’d first joined him, and JoBeth reminded herself that this lunch had to be awkward for him, too.

“I haven’t been to the Smokehouse in ages. Do Hank and Sandy still own it?” she asked.

“They do. And I still handle all their accounting. They opened a second location in Snellville, and there’s talk about franchising.”

“You said this business would take off, and I guess you were right.” She was starting to remember a lot more than that. There’d been lots of Thursday night dinners at the Smokehouse as guests of Kevin’s grateful client. Sunday afternoons after church had been spent at her parents’. “I’m thinking about going back to school to finish my business degree.”

“That’s great, JoBeth. You always did have a good head on your shoulders.” He smiled and his features sharpened. “Except, of course, when you dumped me.”

JoBeth could feel the blush spread across her cheeks. Both he and her parents had expected her to become Mrs. Kevin Middleton; even she had assumed it would happen one day.

“I never dumped you. I just wasn’t ready to get married back then.” Lord, she sounded like Dawg. “I don’t think I understood how much that probably hurt you at the time, and I’m sorry for that.”

When their combo plates arrived, they ate quietly for a while. In his own precise way, Kevin managed to put away almost as much as Dawg, though he didn’t seem to expect to finish what she left on her plate like Dawg did.

They made small talk as they ate, and while she didn’t feel any major fireworks in Kevin’s company, she reminded herself that she’d had plenty of that with Dawg, and it had gotten her exactly nowhere.

Studying Kevin over what remained of her pulled pork, JoBeth thought about how funny life could be. The man across from her didn’t make her heart race or her palms sweat, but she could tell by the way he was checking her out when he thought she wasn’t looking, that he was still interested. And not just in her mind, either.

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