had plans for dinner tonight.”
“Oh, wait, I think I hear Victoria calling me,” Anastasia announced. She looked from Isabelle to him before continuing. “I’d better go and see what she wants.”
“Victoria must have a more powerful voice than I thought. She’s down the street, at Marisol’s house,” Brandon said, doing his best to suppress a smile. He only partially succeeded. “That’s her best friend,” he said for Isabelle’s benefit.
“I know. She told me,” Isabelle replied.
Somewhat shy at first, Brandon’s daughter had taken to her rather quickly, a fact that pleased her a great deal. She found the young girl refreshingly devoid of all the stereotypical angst and hang-ups associated with most girls her age. The twelve-year-old was really more of a young adult than an adolescent. In a way, Victoria reminded her a lot of herself.
Anastasia refused to be caught in a lie, even if everyone already knew that it was. This was no exception. “Still, I’d better go and check. I’m absolutely certain I just heard her.” Placing a hand on her son’s arm for balance, she shimmied the scarf off her thighs and gracefully stepped out of the bright, colorful circle. Finally regaining her mobility, the actress nodded at the scarf on the floor. “Be a dear and pick that up for Isabelle, will you, Brandon?”
With that, the woman swept out of the room, as regal as any queen.
“Your wish is my command, Mother,” he murmured good-naturedly, bending over to pick up the scarf. Straightening, he offered it back to Isabelle. “I’ll say one thing for my mother. She is nothing if not dramatically colorful.”
“I heard that.” Anastasia’s voice echoed back into the room despite the fact that she was no longer in his line of sight.
Seeming to address Isabelle, he raised his voice so that it would carry. “Among other things she has in common with the nocturnal creatures, she also has the hearing of a bat.”
This time, his mother prudently said nothing. There was no way she was about to acknowledge his very flippant remark.
Isabelle’s curiosity was getting the better of her. She supposed she could pretend that he hadn’t initially said anything, but then she might miss out on being with him again. And fleeting though it would, right now she didn’t want to pass up a single opportunity to spend some time with Brandon.
“You said something about dinner?” she prodded, even as part of her wondered if she really should. She didn’t want to seem too eager. But then again, she was afraid if she remained too passive, he’d just move on that much sooner.
Brandon nodded, getting back to his initial question. “Right. I promised my friend I’d give his new restaurant a try and my date just canceled on me at the last minute. I hate eating by myself in public, so I was wondering if you were available.”
His date had canceled at the last minute.
He had a date. With another woman. After they’d made love together last night.
Talk about a fast operator…
Well of course he has a date. He didn’t exactly pledge his undying love and loyalty last night, now did he? And for the record, neither did you.
Just take it for what it was, a wonderful evening with an extremely desirable man.
Okay, so it wasn’t a wonderful evening, it was the best evening of her whole life, but that was no reason to lose sight of reality. Their time together had been special, unique. Not the start of something big.
“Sure. If you can’t find anyone else to go,” she added, deliberately giving him a way out if his first choice called back.
Brandon picked up on it immediately. He detected a definite lack of enthusiasm in Isabelle’s voice and manner. And he had a sneaking feeling he knew why.
He’d worded things better in his life, Brandon thought, upbraiding himself.
“I didn’t look for anyone else,” he told her. “And that date that canceled—”
She raised her hand as if to physically stop the flow of words. “Wait. Brandon. I’m sorry if I made you think that—well, you don’t owe me an explanation—”
This time it was his turn to interrupt her. “I know, I was volunteering information. I just wanted you to know that I made that date two months ago, when my friend gave me the opening date for his restaurant. I didn’t even know you then.”
There was no reason for her to feel that burst of sunshine going off inside of her. After all, she knew this was just temporary and had just spent the morning telling herself over and over again that she wasn’t expecting anything lasting from him.
And truth be told, if she suspected their friendship could last, she’d already be packing up and heading for the hills.
Because something like that, something that promised to be lasting, that promised her love for a lifetime, had disaster and heartache written all over it in big, bold neon letters.
Even though she knew how she would react, and still, still she couldn’t help herself. Right now, in this very moment in time, she just couldn’t stop smiling.
As if she actually believed in love and “happily ever after.”
She knew better than that.
Isabelle kept on smiling anyway.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Brandon sat on Victoria’s canopied double bed, watching his daughter debating between which pair of almost identical white cutoffs to take with her to summer camp.
Was it his imagination, or were there fewer stuffed animals lining the bottom shelf of her bookcase in her ultrafeminine bedroom than usual?
It was official. His daughter was growing up much too fast.
Victoria never broke stride. She was only half packed and her best friend’s mother was coming by soon to pick her up to drive them to the camp bus. She’d been adamant about her father not coming along. She didn’t think he was up to watching her board the bus.
“Dad, I’m all packed and you paid for my two weeks at camp way back in April. It’s nonrefundable,” she reminded him.
Money was so not the point here. He was finally at a stage in his life where money no longer represented a concern of any kind.
He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. If you’re having second thoughts or cold feet about going, don’t feel as if you have to leave,” he told her.
Victoria paused to smile at him fondly. “My feet are as warm as the rest of me, Dad. I want to go. It’ll be fun,” she promised him encouragingly. She crossed to the bureau to check if she’d left anything behind on the list she’d made for herself.
Victoria might not be having second
