Strangely, they had duplicated what she’d done by re-entwining the two flowers and leaving them there daily with the same tag with only two words: Thank You!
As she opened her email, Randi wondered at the identity of the unknown person.
One time hadn’t really made her think about it, but now that it seemed to be happening every day, it was making her curious as to what her foster parents had done for whoever was apparently honoring them.
A note from S. distracted her from her musings.
Dear M.,
Just checking in to see how you’re doing. How’s your new relationship? Have you changed your mind about making it into something permanent?
Randi smiled sadly at the note from S. She’d already given up on writing to him only from the Center. He knew plenty about her, enough to find her if he so desired. Somehow, she knew he’d never intrude on her life unless she wanted to meet him. Besides, he had a woman of his own now.
Dear S.,
No. No change. He has to leave tomorrow morning. Important business.
He replied.
Dear M.,
You okay with that?
She wasn’t okay at all, but it was reality, and she always knew her relationship with Evan could never be more than temporary. She answered.
Dear S.,
Yeah. I’m fine. I always knew it could never be anything more than a brief interlude. I can never fall in love with a man like him.
How are things with your new relationship? Why aren’t you out? It’s a date night.
Randi knew she was lying, but she could hardly tell S. that she was already in love with Evan Sinclair and that her heart was slowly shattering into tiny little pieces because he was leaving tomorrow. Evan might not be S.’s immediate supervisor, but he was the big boss in the scheme of things. Although she trusted S. with her own secrets, she couldn’t talk to him much about Evan.
She waited, tapping her fingers on the desk in anticipation of a reply. He never took this length of time to answer when they were in conversation.
She needed to get dressed and ready for Hope’s party. She’d had a lunch planned with her female friends today, so she hadn’t had time to see Evan earlier. Besides, she would have felt guilty taking up what little time he had to spend with his cousin Julian. The famous actor had just flown in from California late last night.
More time passed before she got a short reply from S.
I have to get going.
Randi frowned at his response, afraid that she might have hurt his feelings because she didn’t want to talk about Evan. Maybe he saw her lack of communication as a snub. She sent a final one-line email, not sure how to explain why she couldn’t share her feelings with him.
Have a great weekend.
She signed out of her email, a sense of loss overwhelming her as she closed the laptop. Somehow, she was losing her connection with S., and tonight was going to be the last time she ever saw Evan. Oh, he’d be back someday for his family, but Randi knew she could never be with him again intimately.
She was way too emotionally invested in this whole affair with Evan, and it hurt. The best thing she could do was try to forget what had happened in the past with Evan and move on. She did want to have children someday. Her love for kids had been her entire reason for going into teaching and trying to make a difference in their lives.
I’ll forget him eventually. The emptiness I feel right now will go away.
Evan had shown up at the Center last night after her tutoring session with Matt, giving the child his personal email address so they could keep in touch. The gesture had almost brought Randi to tears. The thought of a man as busy and important as Evan giving a kid his contact information to hear about his progress was so damn touching that she’d wanted to cry. The sincerity in Evan’s expression, and his personal interest in a little boy who had the same disorder he had was just so damn . . . sweet.
Afterward, she and Evan had gone for coffee at Brew Magic. Randi could still hear his voice saying that he was happy just because he had a chance to see her. They hadn’t done anything except talk about their day, but it had seemed almost as intimate as sex.
Evan had seemed disappointed when he had to leave their impromptu meeting to go see Julian, who was just about to arrive in Amesport.
I’m totally, completely, and undeniably addicted to him. I was just as sad to see him go last night.
Conflicted, Randi got up to head to her bedroom to get ready for Hope’s ball. Because she was going with Evan, she wished tonight could last forever, but the pragmatic woman in her knew it was going to end.
She looked at her computer, thinking about the distance that seemed to be growing between her and S. Randi was glad he had a woman in his real life, but she missed their uncomplicated conversations, too.