“If that’s what you want. The limo will take you home. I’ll…wait here for it to come back and get me.”
She nodded.
“Kitty,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “Please. Say something.”
“Why do I feel like we just had good-bye sex?” she whispered.
“Are you crazy? This isn’t good-bye anything,” he said gruffly. “Listen, baby, you know me. Don’t you?”
The limo circled to the front of the parking lot and one of the restaurant’s valets came forward to open the door for her. She wished she could say something, but her throat felt too tight to allow her to speak. So she got inside the limo before he could see her cry.
#
Steve took one of the empty stools at The Harbor House bar and waved the bartender over. “I’ll have a Scotch. Neat.” He had just put in a call to the limo driver requesting that he come back to pick him up in an hour. Maybe if he got drunk enough he could forget the look on Kitty’s face tonight when she’d said good-bye.
What the hell was wrong with him? Why was it so hard for him to give her the words she needed to hear? He thought he’d have more time, but now there was no choice. He’d have to do it tomorrow. He’d have to lay it all on the line or lose her forever.
But what if what he had to say wasn’t enough for her? What then? The sick feeling in his chest came back again. He’d thought those times before that it was indigestion, but now he knew what it really was. The heavy acidic burning was his own body telling him what an idiot he was. There wasn’t enough Maalox in the world to cure the mess he’d made of his own love life.
The bartender handed him his drink and went off to take another order.
“Hey, boss.” Steve glanced up to see Tom Donalan take the stool next to him. “Mind if I join you?”
Steve shrugged. “Sure, why not?” He took a long slow sip of the Scotch. “What are you doing here?”
“I was having dinner with my ex and her family. I was just about to leave when I saw you.” He hesitated. “It looked like you could use a friend.”
“It’s that obvious?” Steve signaled the bartender back. “Get this man whatever he wants on me.”
Donalan quietly ordered a beer.
“Dinner with your ex, huh?” Steve said. “You must be pretty evolved.”
“You could say that. We have a son, and we were lucky enough to stay friends.”
“Ah. Well, good for you.”
“It works.” The beer came and Donalan took a sip. “So what brings you here tonight?”
“Rehearsal dinner for my…for Kitty’s father and his bride to be.”
“Yeah, I heard my old man is doing the service tomorrow.”
Steve nodded.
Donalan took a couple more sips of the beer, then pushed it away. “I should probably get going.” He went to get up from his stool.
“You ever been in love?” Steve asked. It was impulsive. And stupid. Because he really didn’t care what Donalan had to say. Did he?
“Once. A long time ago.”
“But love didn’t save your marriage.”
“I never said it was it was my ex I’d been in love with.”
Steve glanced up. “Ah. Hence the reason your marriage fell apart.” Funny. He hadn’t pegged Donalan for a cheater.
“You got it all wrong.” Donalan reached back for the beer and this time, he drained it. “Doesn’t matter. I messed up. I haven’t seen her in over ten years. But…” He shrugged. “I still think of her sometimes. What might have been. You know.”