Page 44 of Love Rescheduled

I tilted my head. “Complained about what?”

He startled, coming out of his thoughts. “Sorry, I … uh … I was just thinking that I probably didn’t give Philly a fair shot.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, so I went with a generic “Oh.”

He waved his hand around. “It’s neither here nor there. It’s ancient history.” We moved on to the next room.

“How much did the card go for?” Now that he had posed the question, I needed the answer.

“Uh … almost half a million.” He sounded distracted.

“Wow. That’s a lot of money for a card with a guy’s picture on it.”

“It’s history,” he responded casually.

Well, I’ll take my history in a book. It’s much cheaper.

“You know, there are a lot of great historical sites in Pennsylvania,” he said offhandedly.

Anyone who took American history would know that. “Did you visit any of them while you lived there?” I had always wanted to go see the Liberty Bell and the Betsy Ross house.

“Several. Mindy,” he said her name reverently, “was a history buff.”

No doubt Mindy was the ex-fiancée.

“Anyway.” He led us into the kitchen.

I thought I had a small kitchen, but this one took the cake. It surprised me how modest the home was, given Joe Jackson’s fame. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. My ex was quite famous and made a lot of money, but to look at him, you wouldn’t know. He drove an old truck, his clothes were nothing to write home about, and he never lived anywhere fancy.

I pointed at the counter. “Those are cute cherry canisters.”

“Mindy loved cherries,” he sighed.

I saw where this was going—nowhere. I should have known it was too good to be true. It was my luck to find a man who had a boring, stable job, knew French, wasn’t obsessed with TV, dressed well, smelled good, etc. and was more than obviously still hung up on his ex. Again, no judgment. I was right there with him.

“Do you want to talk about her?” I offered. Might as well. There was no way I would get involved with a man who was still in love with another woman. Oh. Ouch. That gave me some pause. Like a major stop. How could I expect a man to fall in love with me when my heart still belonged to Josh? I suppose I hoped someone had the superpower to steal it back and claim it as his own.

“No. No. No. I’m so sorry. I’m embarrassed.”

“Don’t be. I get it. Tell me about Mindy.”

“LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT.” Alec could barely hide his grin. “You spent the entire date talking about his ex, and then you encouraged him to call her. Are you feeling okay?”

The truth was, I wasn’t feeling all that great. I was feeling pretty hopeless about the scheduling love situation. Listening to Kyle cry over Mindy while we sipped lattes had put a big damper on it. She sounded like an incredible woman. She solved cold cases and worked with troubled youth. Her only “defect” was that she loved Philadelphia, a place she had poured her heart and soul into, trying to make it a safer place one solved crime at a time. That and she couldn’t stand baseball, but Kyle found that endearing.

Kyle hated the traffic and, oddly enough, the crime. Not like anyone liked crime, but there were levels. He wanted a quiet life … He also wanted the person he loved more than anything. It was all too familiar.

“I’m fine,” I lied. “He obviously regrets leaving, and it’s not like she’s famous or humiliated him in a viral sort of way. And he’s a pretty self-assured guy with a normal, loving upbringing, as far as I can tell. Besides, I don’t know if they’ll work out their differences. But he needs closure.”

“Huh.” Alec grinned. “And how do you know this?” He was totally baiting me.

Was I going to swallow the hook? Yep. I grabbed on to that big, juicy worm. I’d had two of the worst dates ever in the last week, and the man I loved left me. I needed Alec to reel me in and help me in a big way. “Because,” my voice cracked, “I know how it feels to be so in love with someone but fear a life with him would make you both miserable.”

Alec gave me a sympathetic look. “I take it you’re not doing well with Josh leaving?”

I scrunched my nose. “Wait a minute. How do you know Josh left?” I hadn’t mentioned that yet. I saved that fun for later. As well as the unsanitary doctor story, which involved Josh.

Alec cleared his throat. “I just assumed,” he stuttered.

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