To Love Again

shadows in and below her eyes, and the fact that her expression was lacking its usual sparkle. If

things deteriorated any further, she was going to lose that advertising job before they even

began filming!

‘Did Dizzy forget to mention that?’ David looked amused at her chagrin. He relaxed back in his

chair, their meal over, Christi’s barely touched. ‘I suppose she thought it only fair that I should

at least be given a chance to talk you around.’

‘Around to what?’ Christi gave him a curious frown; if he was trying to talk her into

going to bed with him, it was the most direct approach she had heard yet!

‘Into talking to Zach about writing the screenplay for his book so that Barry could make

it into a film,’ David told her shruggingly.

Christi stared at him as if she had never seen him before, going to speak twice

before changing her mind, then finally swallowing hard. ‘Is that what Were Dick and Barry

‘Not very subtly trying to do that?’ he finished amiably. ‘Yes,’ he confirmed drily.

She remembered now how Dick had changed the conversation at her lack of attention,

claiming he must be boring her, how Barry had even offered her a part in the film as an

inducement to persuading Zach into working on the script.

Her mouth tightened. ‘Then why aren’t you going to try, too,’ she snapped with distaste.

He shrugged again. ‘Dick doesn’t know Zach very well, his main interest is in promoting

Dizzy’s work through the film. Barry may have known Zach years ago, but he doesn’t know him too

well now,’he said ruefully. ‘On the other hand, I know Zach well enough to realise that only Zach

will make his mind up about the filming of one of his books. And that’s where the problem

comes in; Zach isn’t too thrilled at the idea of his identity as Claudia Laurence becoming

public.’

She could imagine that her very private uncle wouldn’t! ‘Am I to take it by your

admissions that your interest in me is the real thing?’ Christi’s voice dripped sarcasm.

David smiled at her obvious anger. ‘The last woman I tried to deceive punched me in

the eye—and then a week later she married me,’ he recalled with obvious pleasure.

Christi gaped at him. ‘You’re married?’ She was sure Dizzy couldn’t have known that when she

encouraged Christi to go out with him!

‘Not any more,’ he said regretfully. ‘Sara died.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Christi gasped, knowing David’s simply made statement in no way reflected

the pain that suddenly clouded his eyes.

‘I’m sorry she died,’ he nodded, looking older than his thirty-three years now that

there was no laughter in his face. ‘But I’m not sorry that I knew her, that I loved her, even if it

was only for a very brief time,’ he announced with feeling. ‘The tabloids are always

speculating as to why I haven’t married again.’ He pulled a face. ‘I don’t think any of them

would understand if I said I’ve had my love and she’s irreplaceable.’

Christi felt like crying, ashamed of her own self-pity tonight. Lucas might be out of her

reach, but at least he was alive, at least she was able to look at him and know that she loved

him!

‘Irreplaceable, yes,’ she clasped David’s hand across the table, ‘but, as that old

saying goes, "when one door closes another one opens". The door on your love for Sara

has closed, David,’ she said softly. ‘But there is room in your heart for someone else, I’m

sure of it.’

He turned his hand over, taking her hand into his, gently smoothing the delicate skin

there. ‘Your he prompted huskily.

‘No,’ she said regretfully.

He gave a rueful smile, releasing her hand. ‘I didn’t think so,’ he accepted without

rancour. ‘Does Dizzy know about this man in your life?’

She didn’t question how he knew she was in love with someone else; she had greatly

underestimated this man, believed him to be something of a playboy, when he was really

gentle and kind, with a perception beyond words. ‘No,’ she sighed.

‘I didn’t think so,’ he smiled, the sadness fading from his eyes. ‘If she did, Dick,

Barry and I wouldn’t have been the ones invited for last weekend,’ he mocked.

‘And Dizzy would be making my life more miserable than it already is!’ she grimaced.

David gave her a searching look. ‘You mean,’ he said slowly, ‘this man doesn’t return your

feelings?’ He looked disbelieving.

‘Doesn’t return them. Doesn’t want them,’ she added, bitter at the way Lucas had let

her continue to make a fool of herself all these years. She felt so angry at the way he must have

been humouring her all this time. Just like the child he still believed her to be ...

A child? My God, she was almost twenty-two years old, and a lot of women were

married with children by this age. The majority of her friends were, for a start, including

Dizzy. Damn Lucas and his patronising gentleness; it was the last thing she wanted from him!

‘The man’s a fool,’ David murmured across the table from her.

‘Yes,’ she said firmly. ‘Yes, he is,’ she dismissed. David grinned appreciatively. ‘Do I detect a

spark of rebellion in those amazing blue eyes?’ he teased. ‘You most certainly do,’ she acknowledged

with satisfaction.

‘Going to give him hell, hmm?’ he said ruefully. Christi gave a rueful shake of her head.

‘I’m going to give him nothing, David,’ she stated flatly. ‘I thought he was my friend, but ‘ She

shrugged dismissively. ‘Now I just feel a fool for loving him all this time.’ She sighed.

David’s expression gentled. ‘I’m afraid that making a fool of yourself is part of being

in love,’ he told her softly. ‘Take the word of the man who was still sporting the black eye at

his wedding that his bride had given him at their very first meeting!’

Christi’s mouth quirked. ‘I’d really like to hear about this courtship some time.’ She smiled

her amusement at the idea of any woman punching this man in the eye, let alone marrying him a

week later! He chuckled. ‘And I’d enjoy telling it to you. But there’s no rush,’ he said

confidently. ‘I have the feeling you and I are going to be good friends.’

She did too, and this would be a genuine friendship, with no deeper love hidden

on either side. She couldn’t help but admire David’s frankness in explaining to her how

much he had loved his wife, how much he still loved her. If nothing else, she should

thank Dizzy for introducing her to a new friend.

‘Let’s go and have a brandy at my apartment,’ she suggested impulsively as they were

asked if they wanted a liqueur after their coffee.

David nodded dismissively to the waiter. ‘Sounds like a good idea,’ he told Christi warmly,

holding her arm lightly as they stood up to leave.

David kept up a light conversation as he drove them both to her apartment, Christi as

relaxed in his company as she used to be in Lucas’s—before things had changed so drastically

between them.

Thinking of Lucas sobered her, and she was very quiet as they went up to her apartment. She

couldn’t help wondering if Lucas had bothered to keep to his unspoken rule of not bringing

women back to his apartment for the night. Did the same rule still apply when the woman was

your ex-wife? she wondered bitterly.

‘If you’ve had second thoughts about the brandy

‘Certainly not!’ Christi roused herself, smiling brightly, realising what rotten company

she had been the last few minutes. She put her arm companionably through the crook of

David’s. ‘I’m hoping to persuade you to tell me all about what sounds like an explosive

courtship,’ she confided with relish, unlocking her door.

David grinned. ‘I

‘Christi, I want—oh!’ A stony-faced Lucas came to an abrupt halt in the doorway of his

apartment as he saw she wasn’t alone. ‘Kendrick,’ he greeted icily.

‘Hello, Lucas,’ David returned speculatively. ‘I had no idea you lived in this apartment

building, too.’ He eyed the other man questioningly.

‘There’s no reason why you should have known,’ Lucas rasped, his expression cold.

Christi had been struck dumb as soon as Lucas had put in his unexpected appearance.

His bow-tie had been removed, his snowy-white shirt was partly unbuttoned at the neck, black

evening trousers tailored to his lean waist and thighs. Was Marsha waiting in his apartment

even now for him to rejoin her? What could be so important to say to her that he had

interrupted his evening with the other woman, anyway?

‘No,’ David accepted lightly, lean fingers covering Christi’s as her hand had tightened

convulsively on his arm at her first sight of Lucas. ‘Nice to have seen you again. If you’ll excuse

us?’ he effectively dismissed the other man.

Lucas’s mouth thinned, his eyes narrowed to icy slits. ‘Christi, I want to talk to you,’

he told her tightly.

She had regained much of the composure she had lost when he’d appeared so suddenly, her