A Man Apart Read Free

over the past two days…”
    â€œDribbles and drips,” Hannah interrupted, laughing. “Your Pennsylvania Dutch country origins are showing.”
    â€œWhatever.” Maggie shrugged. “Anyway, they’re here. Mitch’s parents, two brothers, one alone, one with his family, and his sister. You’llmeet them Friday evening at the rehearsal, and get to know them a little at dinner afterward.”
    â€œDinner?” Hannah swept the room with a skeptical glance. “Where?”
    â€œMitch made arrangements for dinner at the Bullock Hotel.”
    â€œOh.” Naturally, Hannah hadn’t a clue where the Bullock Hotel might be located, but it didn’t matter. “And is that when I’ll meet your Mitch?” Now, that did matter, a lot. She had witnessed the hurt and humiliation inflicted on Maggie by her former fiancé. Hannah had never been able to bring herself to trust or like the too-smooth Todd. Subsequently, to her dismay, her suspicions about him had proved correct.
    â€œNo.” Maggie shook her head. “You’ll meet Mitch tonight. He’s going to stop by later. Though he’s eager to meet you—I’ve told him so much about you—he wanted to give us some time alone together, to catch up.” Her eyes softened. “He’s so considerate.”
    Hmm, I’ll be the judge of that, Hannah mused. But it sure sounded like Maggie did have it bad. “How does it really feel? Being in love, I mean?”
    â€œAll the things I mentioned before…and perhaps a little scary, too.”
    â€œScary?” Hannah was at once alert, her protective instincts quivering. Was this Mitch Grainger a bully? She couldn’t imagine her independent friend falling for a man who would intimidate her, but then again, Maggie had been about to marry that deceitful jerk Todd.
    â€œWell, maybe not exactly scary,” Maggie said, after giving it some thought. “It’s all so new and sudden, and almost too exciting, too thrilling. You know how love is.”
    Whoa, Hannah thought, serious stuff here…. Too exciting? Too thrilling? Now she really couldn’t wait to meet the man. “Actually, no,” she admitted, wryly. “I don’t know.”
    Maggie blinked in astonishment. “You’re kidding.”
    â€œNo, I’m not.”
    â€œYou’ve never been in love? What about that guy you dated in college?”
    â€œOh, I thought I was in love,” Hannah said. “Turned out it was a combination of chemistry and itchy hormones, commonly called lust.” Her tone was dry, her smile self derisive.
    â€œBut…since then…?” Maggie persisted.
    â€œNope.” Hannah swallowed the last of the chocolate; it had gone as cold as her love life…or lack of same. “There were a couple of infatuations,some sexual activity, but not much. There was one brief and I thought promising relationship I never told you about. But it really never got off square one, so to speak.” She shrugged. “Nothing even remotely resembling what you’ve described.”
    â€œOh, too bad. All this time we’ve known each other, and I never knew, never even guessed…you’ve always been so closemouthed about your personal life.”
    Hannah laughed. “That’s because I didn’t have one, at least nothing that warranted discussion.”
    â€œI never imagined…” Maggie sighed, then brightened. “Oh, I can’t wait for you to fall in love someday, experience this excitingly scary champagne-bubbly feeling.”
    â€œI’m not sure I want to.” Hannah slowly moved her head back and forth.
    â€œNot want to?” Maggie exclaimed, surprised. “But…why not?”
    â€œBecause…” Hannah hesitated, carefully choosing her words so as not to offend her friend by voicing doubt. “I don’t think I want to expose myself to that