Catching Fireflies(61)
Dana Sue shrugged. “Hey, everybody has flaws. So far none of us have seen any evidence that he shares any of Bill’s less attractive traits.”
“Then you have thoroughly vetted him?” Laura inquired, only partially in jest.
“Thoroughly,” Dana Sue said without so much as a hint that she wasn’t dead serious.
“Astonishing.”
Just then J.C. appeared. He studied Laura worriedly, then turned to Dana Sue. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“Anytime,” she assured him. “I’ll send over a bottle of wine. Red or white?”
He glanced at Laura. “White, I think.”
Laura nodded.
After Dana Sue had gone, she regarded him with amusement. “Prince wasn’t enough. Now you’re going for knight-in-shining-armor rushing to the rescue of the fair damsel?”
“I didn’t hear you needed rescuing,” he said. “At least not exactly. Just that you came in looking pretty intense, then hunkered down in a corner with Helen. It didn’t sound as if you were here for a fun rendezvous with a friend.”
“True,” she confessed. “It’s been another perfectly awful day.” She met his gaze. “Would you mind if we didn’t talk about it right this second? I need to put it aside for a little while before I charge into battle again.”
“I’d like to help.”
“And, believe me, I’m counting on that. Just an hour of inconsequential talk and good food and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Okay, then. Whatever you need,” he said. “How about those Panthers?”
She blinked and stared at him, uncomprehending. “Panthers?”
“Carolina Panthers,” he explained. “The pro football team in Charlotte.”
“I know this will probably change your impression of me, and not in a good way, but I don’t follow football beyond the games at the high school.”
He regarded her with apparent shock. “Now that is just wrong,” he declared.
She grinned. “Does it cut me out of the running?”
He reached for her hand and tucked it into his. “Sorry. Too late for that. You’re pretty much at the front of the line.” He shrugged. “The only one in it, for that matter.”
Despite the miserable day she’d had, she couldn’t help allowing herself just the tiniest smile of satisfaction at that revelation.
J.C. saw the faint smile that touched Laura’s lips and hid his own smile. It was good to see the shadows in her eyes finally disappear. She’d looked completely undone when he’d first arrived. He owed Dana Sue big-time for having called him. For once he hadn’t been appalled by the meddling tendencies of everyone in town.
He’d just left the gym when she’d phoned. Thankfully he’d showered and changed back into street clothes after his workout, so he’d headed directly to the restaurant.
Since Laura seemed momentarily lost in thought, he took his time studying her. Despite the weariness he’d detected, she still had every hair in place, and her clothes were neat as a pin. How did anyone get through a workday and look that tidy? On some purely male level he wanted to spend a couple of hours mussing her up. As soon as the inappropriate thought occurred to him, he tried to squash it, but the damage had been done. His blood was humming, and it had nothing to do with his own earlier workout.
Whatever she was thinking about, it wasn’t the distraction he’d hoped to provide.
“You look a little grim,” he observed. “Obviously whatever happened earlier is still on your mind. Maybe you should just get it out in the open.”
“I suppose it’s going to be impossible for me to actually put it out of my head, even for a little while.” She met his gaze. “J.C., it’s so much uglier than anything I’d imagined.”
“So it does have something to do with Misty,” he guessed.
She nodded. “I’d already planned to give you a call later. I had to speak to Helen first, and then I intended to go home and call Betty Donovan and then you.”
He could see genuine distress in her eyes and immediately responded to that and not to the wildly unexpected instinct that made him want to pull her into his arms. “Tell me,” he said gently. “You know I want to help Misty any way I can.” He hesitated, then asked, “Would you rather not discuss this here? We could change our order to takeout and head over to my place. Or to yours. Wherever you’d feel more comfortable.”
She looked as if she were considering the suggestion, then nodded. “You know, I’m sure it would be fine to talk about this here. The booth’s pretty secluded, but I would feel a whole lot better someplace else. It may even have been a mistake to say as much as I did to Helen. Do you mind?”