Page 34 of A Fortunes of Texas Christmas (Fortunes of Texas)

Which meant she was in for one hell of a ride.

And then a major fall.

They found their way to Second Street and browsed through several boutiques, where she found a lovely silk scarf for Kate. It was a modest purchase, but she still refused his offer to buy it for her. Money had never impressed Robin in the past, and she wasn’t going to change her view on that score. At a secondhand bookstore an hour later, she found a leather-bound edition of Gulliver’s Travels that Amersen suggested would be a thoughtful gift for Sterling. In a tourist shop he bought a few mementos for his family, including a baseball cap for his father. Then they spent a couple of hours comparing the Christmas windows at some of the more enthusiastic shops and boutiques in the neighborhood. By two o’clock they’d had lunch at a bistro, then by four thirty had moved on to drinks at a hip place on Ninth Street and later listened to a grunge band playing ’70s rock covers.

And not once did either of them mention their aborted make-out session the night before.

But Robin wasn’t fooled. They might not have ended up in bed together, but the sex was there between them, waving like a great red flag. She couldn’t believe that not having sex had become as complicated as if they’d dived between the sheets for a few

hours.

Instead, they talked. About anything and everything. She discovered that they liked much of the same music and had a proclivity for old movies. They talked politics and religion, economics and social media, and fashion and food. He told her about his wine brand and his ambitious plans to have it served at all the finest restaurants around the world. She told him of her dream of using her degree in plant biology as a stepping-stone for further research into natural remedies for some chronic ailments. He listened as she spoke, offering the occasional word of advice and counsel, but mostly he was interested and attentive, and as the day progressed, Robin felt as though they had more in common than not.

He was, she realized, perfect boyfriend material.

Even if, she suspected, he’d never considered himself right for the role with any woman. He was clearly a serial monogamist. He never cheated. Never dated more than one woman at a time. But he never made a commitment longer than a month, either. He opened up about his family and she learned he had a close relationship with his mother; when he showed her a picture, Robin was taken aback by the still young and still beautiful woman who had given birth to him twenty-five years earlier. Suzette Beaudin was forty-five but looked a decade younger, and her handsome husband was eight years her senior. A big contrast to Robin’s own parents, since Veronica had her first child at twenty-eight and her last ten years later.

“My dad was forty when I was born,” Robin said, sipping the wine she’d ordered at the obscure little bar a few doors down from the bistro. “So my parents have always seemed, you know, oldish.”

“Your father was there,” Amersen said quietly. “That’s all that matters, isn’t it?”

“Of course,” she replied, realizing how ungrateful she must have sounded. “I didn’t mean I wasn’t... I’m sorry if that made you think about...you know...your...”

“Sperm donor?”

Her expression narrowed. “Why do you call him that?”

“It’s what he is,” Amersen replied, watching her over the rim of his glass. “Just a moment of failed contraception.”

She wanted to reach out and grasp his hand but didn’t. “It hurts you, though.”

He shrugged. “No. That would mean I cared. And I don’t.”

Robin wasn’t sure she believed him. “What if he tried to find you? Would you be—”

“Let’s go dancing,” he said and pushed his chair back, cutting off the rest of her words.

She looked toward the street. It was nearly dark and the streets were busy with pedestrians and a steady flow of traffic. Robin looked down at her jeans, crumpled blouse and jacket, and purple boots. She really wasn’t dressed for a nightclub. And foolishly, she didn’t want to share Amersen with a whole room full of onlookers, particularly any interested women who might circle around him.

Maybe they were just friends who happen to make out every now and then, but that didn’t mean she wanted him on the open market while they were out together.

“I have a better idea,” she said and got to her feet.

“Where are we going?” Amersen asked.

“You’ll see.”

* * *

It was an old theatre, he discovered some time later as he pulled up in the parking area and parked the rental car.

And it was busy with people. Old people, young people, families...all filing in through the wide doors.

They got out of the car and she waited until he was by her side, then grasped his hand and smiled. “You ready for this?”

He smiled and allowed her to lead him toward the entrance. “So, we’re at the movies?”

“It’s A Wonderful Life,” she explained, grinning. “They play it here every Saturday and Sunday night in the lead-up to Christmas. It’s my favorite Christmas movie.”

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