Page 34 of Easy Reunion
“About all of it. Do we forget our past and move on?”
“I…I don’t know.”
He leans forward and reaches for my hand again. This time, I let him keep a hold of it. “I don’t want you to be just a regret from my past.”
“Then, what do you want me to be?” I wonder aloud.
He shakes his head. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”
“Along with dinner?” I joke lightly, trying to bring us around to a lighter topic.
A smile breaks across his handsome face. “Getting hungry?”
“Yes. That and my best friend bet me I wouldn’t try turtle soup.” His laugh is like I hear in my dreams—low and husky.
“If you’re going to have it anywhere, this is the best place to try it. They’re renowned for it here.” Lifting his arm, he calls the waiter over. When he’s at our side, Ry says, “I think the lady is ready to order her appetizer.”
“Turtle soup, please,” I say without hesitation.
“Gumbo, for me. Thank you.” After the waiter leaves, he asks, “So, what was it you did for Charly and Eli yesterday?”
When I explain about the book I signed, Ry lifts my fingers to his lips. Brushing them back and forth, he smiles. “And there’s the girl I knew shining through the woman sitting in front of me. Nothing but sweet grace.”
I blush and duck my head, but the compliment does more for my soul than any other I’ve been given in the last fifteen years as my body’s morphed from grotesquely obese to fit. And most importantly, because it came from Ry’s heart.
* * *
It turnsout that turtle soup is divine. So is every dish at Commander’s Palace. But it has nothing on the charming man sitting across the table from me.
Ry is a perfect date, regaling me with stories of law school at Duke, how he ended up working for Bayou Enterprises after working for one of the top law firms in the nation, his friendship with his best friend, Cade, that spans back to college, and what an enjoyable pain it can be to have his sister living with him. His comment of “She wants to do so much more than being a teacher. How could I not help her?” makes me realize that the Ry I crushed on, my Ry, is still in there.
Maybe there was a good reason for what he did. It will give me something to think about, that’s for sure.
In response, I tell him about living in Southern California, Angel, and moving to Connecticut. Even as I’m taking a bite of the tuna tartare appetizer I ordered for my entree, I’m telling him about the best pizza in the world in a tiny town called Ridgefield. “I’m telling you, Ry. It’s the best pizza on the planet. It was one of the first places my cousin took me to when I moved there.”
“Sounds like it’s worth braving a trip into Yankee territory,” he drawls. I pause with my fork halfway to my mouth.
“Do you mean the world north of the Mason-Dixon line or the baseball team?”
“Both.”
My fork clatters to my plate as I glare at him. “Tread carefully, buddy. I lived there for close to six years.”
“And you lived in the South for eighteen. More if you count your time now. Where’s your allegiance to the Braves, Kels?” he counters.
“Dead,” I retort. “I’d root for the Dodgers first if that tells you anything.”
“It tells me you need to go to a ball game.”
“As long as you don’t mind my wearing pinstripes, that’s fine.”
He shakes his head in mock tragedy. “And you had such potential as the perfect woman until just now. What happened to you?”
“First, no one is perfect. Second, I saw the world and discovered it’s a place filled with a beautiful reality where the best people aren’t judged by anything but by what’s in their hearts. Third, I learned there are better things in life than following the crowd.” I slide a bite of my tartare between my lips as I watch his part in shock. But I plow on. “I’m not who I was yesterday or who I was the day before. Wouldn’t that be boring?”
The smile that crosses his face causes my stomach to clench and my nipples to tingle inside my lace-edged bra. “Yes, yes, it would be.” When I don’t respond, don’t move, he encourages me, “Finish eating. The desserts here are fabulous.”
“I’m not sure I can manage one,” I admit ruefully.
“Then, we’ll just sit here with coffee, and I’ll keep discovering more things about you that fascinate me.”
Somehow, I manage to eat another few bites, but I don’t know how. Not when my heart and my stomach have flipped spots.
