by Gail Sattler
He’d worn his best suit and his favorite tie, and Kat had helped make sure he didn’t have a single dog hair on him. She’d even sent him for a haircut.
Again the door opened, and again it wasn’t Cindy. First Annie walked in, then Zella.
As he contemplated asking them if they knew when Cindy was coming, Annie nudged Zella, and then they both turned to stare at him.
He didn’t know if he should smile or run. He smiled anyway. “Good evening, ladies,” he said as they approached.
They nodded at each other then both stared into his eyes.
A chill ran up Luke’s spine.
“Cindy’s not coming,” Annie started.
“And we need to tell you why,” Zella finished.
Annie nodded and her voice lowered. “We thought Zella forgot her purse, so we drove back to the house and we saw Mom letting the air out of Cindy’s tires.”
Luke cringed. First thing in the morning he would get the compressor from work and fill them back up. “Call her on your cell. Tell her I’ll pay for a cab.”
Zella shook her head. “There’s no point. Earlier today I saw Mom going through Cindy’s closet, and then she dribbled coffee down some of Cindy’s clothes.”
Luke blinked, stunned that Melissa could be so devious. “I don’t care what she wears. I just want her to come.”
In a copycat motion, Annie shook her head. “Cindy left with Farrah; we saw them drive away. Mom said something awful to Cindy in the kitchen, but we don’t know what.” Annie paused then nibbled on her bottom lip. “We think Cindy was crying.”
Zella turned her head and stared at a blank spot on the wall. “We talked about it on the way here. Mom’s always been nasty to Cindy, and we’ve believed every horrible thing she said about Cindy. We even believed the lawsuit was justified, but now we’re not so sure. We think Cindy deserves to keep the business and all its assets. She’s worked hard with her dad for that business all her life. She’s poured everything into it. She should have it. Mom doesn’t want it; she just doesn’t want Cindy to have it.”
Annie picked up the story. “We’ve never seen or heard
Cindy do or say anything mean to Mom or us. She’s always been nice. She’s even taken us to her church a few times.”
Zella laughed sadly. “Maybe she thought we’d learn something, but I think it was too little, too late. She must hate us, and I wouldn’t blame her.”
Luke swallowed the lump in his throat. “Cindy would never hate you. Or anyone. That’s why I…” His voice trailed off as his words stalled. He’d almost said that was why he loved her so much. But he did love her, and he wanted to fix all the things in her life that continuously beat her down. “Why I wish she was here.”
Annie and Zella nodded in unison. “We do, too. So we need to talk to her. But first we need to talk to everyone from the shop.”
Without saying more, they turned and walked away in perfect unison with each other.
Luke turned and approached Brent, who was at a table with his laptop, logged into the scanner at the door, checking which guests had arrived.
“Nice crowd,” Luke said, even though the crowd was missing the person he’d wanted to be there the most.
Brent grinned. “Almost everyone who RSVP’d is here, plus one ticket I didn’t get logged. Some woman came in just as I was shutting down the office. I need to check if the caterers are ready.”
When Brent shut down the laptop and dashed off, Luke looked up at the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen, standing at the top of the stairs. His breath caught.
She wore a shimmering burgundy dress that was simple yet elegant. Her hair was a mixture of brown and blond. When she stepped forward, he noticed her shoes were the exact color of the dress. Normally he wouldn’t have paid attention to such a thing, but living with Kat had given him a new appreciation for women’s footwear.
The woman stepped slowly down the stairs one at a time like she was having trouble. Three steps from the bottom, her ankle wobbled and her foot shot out from under her.
Luke broke into a run at the same time as the woman dropped her purse and grabbed the railing with both hands. He reached her at the same time as she righted herself. “Are you okay?” he asked, mentally saying a quick prayer of thanks that she hadn’t fallen.
She steadied herself and straightened her glasses, and her cheeks turned the cutest shade of pink. She looked down at her purse. “I’m fine,” she mumbled in a low, raspy voice that made Luke’s heart skip a beat.
He mentally gave his head a shake and stepped closer to try to catch a whiff of alcohol on her breath. If the woman had been drinking, this was one guest who wouldn’t be here long. He’d call a cab and send her back where she came from.
“Let me get that for you.” Luke scooped up her purse and held it out for her, deliberately standing too close. He inhaled deeply, catching a whiff of either bad mouthwash or strong cough syrup.
“Attention, please!” Brent’s voice blasted through the overhead speakers. “Dinner’s ready, so if everyone would like to have a seat, I’ll call one table at a time to go to the buffet. Thanks for coming, and Luke and I, on behalf of Like a Prince Car Rentals, welcome you here.”
Once more, Luke looked to the closed door. Cindy really wasn’t coming.
He turned to the woman, who was also obviously alone. “Would you care to sit with me for dinner?”
The woman scanned the crowd. He could have sworn for a few seconds her eyes locked on Cindy’s stepsisters. “Aren’t you already with someone?”
He gave a pathetic laugh. “My, uh”—he searched for the right word—“my date couldn’t make it.” In his mind’s eye he imagined Cindy’s entrance, if she had been there. She’d descend the stairs in agile hops then stand on the last one to give her some height while she looked for him. He’d walk to her and stare into her honey-brown eyes and give her a big kiss, just because he’d wanted to for so long.
He looked down into the smoky-blue eyes of the new arrival and nearly lost his breath. He’d never seen such fascinating eyes.
She smiled, making her eyes twinkle behind her glasses. “Then I certainly would like to join you for dinner. Thank you.”
He started to walk toward a few of the last empty chairs but had to slow down. Even on a flat surface, her steps were unsteady. It made Luke wonder if something was wrong; she seemed to have difficulty walking.
He pulled out the chair to seat her. While he loosened his suit jacket, the woman jerkily crossed her right leg over her left knee, uncrossed her legs, tugged her dress over her knees, crossed her left leg over her right knee, tugged the dress again, uncrossed her legs, and then crossed her ankles and tucked them under the chair.
He turned to her. “I’m sorry. I don’t know your name. I’m Luke.”
“My name is Ci—” The woman raised one fist to her mouth and began to cough. “Excuse me. Dee. My name is Dee.”
“Dee. That’s pretty. Is it short for Diedre?”
“No, it’s short for something else.”
He waited for her to tell him, but she didn’t.
Their table was called, so they rose and walked to the end of the line, which brought them to stand near a row of plants against the wall.
Luke ran his fingers over the leaves of one of them. “So this is what these are supposed to look like.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and snapped a picture of it. “The one at Cindy’s shop sure doesn’t look like this.”
Dee poked the plant. “It did a few months ago. It just doesn’t get enough water.”
Luke turned to Dee. “Do you know Cindy Mufford?”
Dee’s hand froze on the plant. “I…Uh…Yes. I do.”
He waited for her to say how long they’d known each other and how often she saw Cindy, but she didn’t volunteer any more information.
A lightbulb went on in Luke’s head.
“Since you know Cindy, I wonder if I might ask you a few things.”
“I…Uh�
�” She coughed. “Sure.”
After they filled their plates and sat, Luke’s mind whirled as a million questions zoomed through his head.
He cleared his throat. “I’d like to give her something small but special. Something that would remind her of me just a little every day. I know she doesn’t wear jewelry.”
Dee’s hand rose to her throat, and she ran her fingers over a thin, antique-looking gold chain. “I don’t know. How about a company calendar? She’d have to look at it every day.”
Luke didn’t know if she was joking or not, but he figured either she didn’t know or she didn’t want to tell him. “I want it to be something she likes.”
“She likes animals. But she can’t have a pet right now.”
Luke smiled. “She likes my dog, Tippy.”
Dee smiled, and Luke nearly went into cardiac arrest. She had the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. Almost like Cindy’s smile.
In fact, it was very much like Cindy’s smile. Except Cindy never wore that mouthwatering shade of dark, sexy lipstick.
“Yes,” she said. “She does.”
“Does she like any other animals?”
“Don’t think of giving her a hamster or any kind of rodent.”
“Fish?”
Dee laughed. “No. She’d only think of Jaws. A fish wouldn’t be a good pet.”
The more Luke talked with Dee, the better he felt he got to know Cindy, making it one of the strangest conversations he’d ever had. In addition to everything else, they talked about Cindy’s favorite books, movies, and he even found out why she didn’t particularly like cats.
It was a good thing that Brent enjoyed socializing with their guests all evening, because Luke couldn’t pull himself away from Dee. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun, except for the last time he’d been with Cindy. In fact this encounter was almost like being with Cindy.
After Dee made a comment about the custom paint job on Cindy’s truck, Luke laughed. “The next time you see Cindy, please don’t tell her we spent so much time talking about her.”
Dee tipped her head to one side. “Why not?”
All traces of humor left him. “Because I must look like a stalker, and what I want to be is her Prince Charming.” As old-fashioned as the concept felt, that was what he wanted.
Her face turned completely serious, and she rested one hand on his forearm—a small, dainty hand with delicate fingers and long, manicured nails painted the same color as the dress and the shoes. He’d never seen such pretty hands on a woman. Not that he minded the grease under Cindy’s blunt and practical nails, but the contrast between these two women was striking, yet in so many ways, they were so similar.
Dee made a slight cough and sniffled. “I’ll bet she already thinks of you as her Prince Charming.”
Dee’s statement gave him the opening to ask the one question that had been burning in his gut—something he had to ask someone who knew her as a friend, who knew her heart, as Dee seemed to. He already thought Cindy liked him as a friend, but he wanted so much more. He wanted her not just to like him but to love him as the man who could one day be her husband. If Dee answered yes, that would give him all the courage he needed to treat Cindy the way he wanted to, but she wouldn’t let him. Then he would know it was all a surface act and that one day it could really happen.
He looked up at the clock. It was nearly midnight; soon it would be time to start winding down the party and cleaning up. He didn’t have much time so he had to ask now.
He cleared his throat. “Do you think—”
His words were interrupted by the ringing of Dee’s cell phone. She fished it out of her purse and read the display.
She gasped. “It’s my alarm company. I have to take this.”
She flipped it open, listened for a few seconds, and nodded. “I’m on my way,” she said then snapped it closed. “I have to go,” she muttered and scrambled to her feet.
“Do you need my help?”
“No. I need to do this alone.”
He remembered a few years ago when his office had been broken into. Not much had been stolen, but the place had been ransacked. More than a financial loss, he’d felt violated and it had taken months to shake the sensation. “Wait. I’ll go with you.”
Her eyes widened. “No. You can’t.”
“I can drive; that will probably be safer, especially if you need to make another phone call. Just let me tell Brent I’m going.”
He turned around and spotted Brent seated a few tables away.
“Brent,” he called out, “I’m going to take Dee home; she’s had a break-in and might need my help.”
Brent raised his head. “Who?”
“Dee. She’s—” Luke turned his head to introduce Dee to Brent, but—he was alone.
He spotted her across the room headed for the stairs leading to the exit door, shoes in her hand, running in her stocking feet across the tile floor with the speed and grace of an athlete. As coordinated dodging through the crowded room as Cindy had been on her in-line skates during the hockey game.
“Dee! Wait!” Luke yelled at the same time as he broke into a run.
As he called, she turned her head, breaking her synchronization. She bumped into a portly gentleman in a bad suit, throwing her off balance. She slipped along the floor, bent at the waist, and with her shoes and purse tucked neatly under one arm, touched her fingertips to the floor. Her glasses flew off her face, but she recovered her balance and straightened. She squinted and looked right at him as he came toward her.
But before he reached her, she took off with the speed of a rocket up the stairs and disappeared through the door.
Luke skidded to a halt and picked up her glasses. One arm was badly bent but could probably be fixed. He headed up the stairs after her.
Just as he yanked open the door, he saw Dee scramble into an orange taxi, which took off with a squeal of rubber and disappeared around the corner.
He stared at the glasses in his hand. Not only did he have to return them, but he needed to ask her one more question.
She hadn’t told him her last name but that didn’t matter. Brent had a database of everyone they’d sent tickets to, and the scanner at the door logged everyone in by their ticket number.
He didn’t know who she was, but it wouldn’t take long to find out.
Chapter 10
Standing by the open door for bay two, Cindy smiled and inhaled deeply. It had been a week, but she was fully over the cold. She could finally fill her lungs to capacity without breaking into a cough, and her voice was back to normal.
Not only that, Annie and Zella had actually been pleasant to her all week. They’d even asked to come to church with her, and after the service they’d gone out for lunch and she’d had fun with her two stepsisters for the very first time, ever.
Best of all, it hadn’t been hard to avoid Luke. It had almost been like he’d been avoiding her. Brent said Luke had been making calls to customers and he’d hardly been at his office for the past week. When she’d gone to his house to pick Kat up after supper, Kat said he’d been visiting clients who had been at the banquet who were unavailable during the daytime.
The banquet had been fun. It had been awkward talking about herself as a third person, but it had been worth it to spend the time with him with no pressure or consequences.
Cindy waved at Kat as she hopped off the school bus then smiled as Kat changed her path and walked toward her instead of going into her uncle’s office. A quick glance at Luke’s empty parking spot told her what she needed to know.
“Have you seen Uncle Luke? I need him to sign a permission slip for tomorrow morning, and I can’t forget.”
At Kat’s question, Luke’s car pulled into the parking lot. When the door opened, Cindy started to wave a greeting to him, but her hand froze in midair.
His posture was slumped and his pace was slow. He looked exhausted.
When he saw Kat, instead of going to his own off
ice, he trudged across the lot and headed toward them.
Cindy led Kat through the building to meet Luke in the office, where he could sit down.
Annie was busy at her desk, actually doing work. She smiled briefly then returned to her spreadsheets.
“Hi, Luke, can I get you a coffee? You look…” The words deserted her when she saw what he held in his hand.
Her glasses.
“Maybe later. I need to talk to you.” He laid the glasses on the counter. “I met a woman at the banquet who lost these. I’ve been to see all my corporate clients during the daytime, and then the private sector clients at night. No one knows who she is, even after I show them her glasses.”
Kat nodded and groaned then pressed one hand over her stomach. “Yeah. We’ve had pizza five days in a row.”
Guilt roared through her. This was her fault.
Luke jerked his head toward his office. “Brent had a log of every ticket, but there was one ticket he didn’t have in his database, a replacement for a lost ticket, and of course, that’s the ticket of the lady I’m looking for.” He sighed then looked into her eyes. “I made her promise she wouldn’t tell you that she was talking to me because we talked a lot about you. Good stuff, but I thought you’d be embarrassed if you found out. It’s been a week, and I haven’t been able to find her. I really want to give her back her glasses, so I’ve given up on finding her on my own. As a matter of a fact, she knows you quite well. Dee. How can I contact her?”
“I, uh…” Cindy stared down at her old glasses. The day after the banquet she’d called the banquet hall’s office, and they hadn’t been turned in. She’d assumed the janitorial staff threw them out, and that would have been okay. With her contacts, she only needed them for a backup. Which now she’d never do, since Luke had seen her wearing them.
Luke held the glasses up. “When she dropped them they got bent, but I had them fixed. They’re good as new.”
She couldn’t believe he’d spent money on her old glasses. Or that he’d spent a week, day and night, looking for her.
Luke put them back down. “She knows you. Quite well, as a matter of a fact.”
