A Love for All Seasons Read Free Page A

gray at his hairline and in his sideburns. He was quite attractive, but she saw good-looking men all the time and conversed with them without her tongue feeling too big for her mouth, so that clearly wasn’t the reason for her unease. Her hands with their manicured fingernails felt awkward. As she picked up the tongs that rested on the ice bucket, it relieved her to have something to do.
    To her embarrassment, Alicia had difficulty grasping ice with the tongs; the cubes kept falling out. She laughed to cover her nervousness as she tried repeatedly.
    â€œWhy don’t you let me do that?” he offered.
    Finally she managed to hold the cubes long enough to drop them into a highball glass. “No, that’s all right. I’ve got it, Dev.” She gasped. Where had that come from? She’d just overlooked his first name and shortened his surname, and she hardly knew him well enough to be giving him a nickname.
    Or did she? Could that be it? Had she met Jack Devlin at some time in the past? When? And if she had, why didn’t she remember?
    Jack grinned. No one had ever called him “Dev” before. He didn’t know how he would feel if it came from anyone else, but coming from Alicia Timberlake he liked it. It gave the impression that he was special to her. A ridiculous notion for someone he’d just met, to be sure, but an appealing one nonetheless. He’d like to be special to her.
    â€œI’m so sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what made me say that.”
    â€œDon’t apologize.”
    She handed him the glass and managed to get ice cubes into a glass for herself. Maybe if she had a Kamikaze instead of ice water it would help her nerves.
    â€œSo,” she said, careful not to call him by name lest she use the wrong one, “how does New York compare with Birmingham?”
    â€œActually, they’re not all that different. I mean, Birmingham is a city. We have tall buildings downtown, just like any other city. And every place has the same services. Restaurants, bars, book stores, dry cleaners, McDonald’s. I’ve also lived in Galveston and Houston.” He shrugged. “I guess you can say I move around a lot.”
    â€œHave you been to New York before? You look familiar to me somehow.” If she could just figure out where she’d seen him it would all come back to her, and she could deal with it…whatever it was.
    â€œUh…I was here the second week of June.” He didn’t know if he should confess that he remembered seeing her then, not when she so obviously didn’t notice him. In an instant he made up his mind. “I did see you during that visit, but just in passing, up at that Cuban restaurant here on the Upper West Side.” He now knew enough about Manhattan geography to pinpoint the section of the city he had eaten in that day, which wasn’t far from Alicia’s apartment. “You came in as I was leaving. I held the door for you and cast you an admiring look, but I really didn’t know you were coming to join Pete and Rhonda.” Again he chuckled. “Although I don’t know why I didn’t figure that out, since the size of our little group had already doubled.”
    She looked embarrassed. “I’m afraid I don’t remember. I was in a rush that day, trying to catch Rhonda before she left.”
    â€œI didn’t expect you to remember me. But that’s the only time I saw you. Believe me, I would never forget you.”
    Warmth spread to her nose and cheeks, and she didn’t even try to hide her pleasure. “Well, thank you. But I was thinking in terms of something more than just passing by. I—” She broke off, realizing it wouldn’t do to tell him that his presence unnerved her, but it did. She raised the highball glass to her lips and took a sip. Anything to steady her shaking hands.
    â€œAlicia, the pitcher of Kamikaze is running low. Can I help you