Page 13 of Trusting His Heart

“It’s been a long day …” he started to fight a losing battle.

“Professor Geoffrey Swains! You said you would go, and you are going.”

“Layla, what would I do without you?” He gave up, one less dinner to eat alone.

Driving up to the house, he realized he should have asked how many were attending the dinner. After circling the block twice looking for a car space, he parked two blocks away because of all the other guests. Too late to back out now, but they would never have noticed if he failed to turn up.

“Geoffrey, glad you made it,” Rigby greeted him at the front door. “Actually, Susan would have banned me from the golf course for a year if you pulled out. She needed a single man to place with the guest of honor and you drew the short straw.”

“Rigby, she isn’t playing match maker again! I thought I dodged that bullet.”

“Relax, the woman joined Derek Casbar’s firm and is too old and too smart for you. Poor Susan was struggling with seating and figured you would be charming, wouldn’t bore the woman nor embarrass her with inappropriate flirting.”

“So, who is this woman, I should at least learn her name before I insult her.”

Rigby chuckled in his own self-depredation, “You know I am horrible with names, please go find Susan and ask, I need to greet our other guests.”

Geoffrey moved through the crowds, amazed to be greeted as a long lost friend. For years, he pushed these people away, avoiding the happy couples and flaunting his inappropriate behavior until wives kept their husbands away from him.

He didn’t want to push them away anymore. Perhaps when he bought a new house, he would have an outdoor kitchen. He used to like cooking steaks and corn cobs for a crowd.

It would even be good to have some one at his side to share the banter and jokes with. Someone old enough to remember life before mobile devices. Someone smart enough to call him on his bull shit. Someone who managed to make him laugh and want to fall in love again.

“Geoffrey, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He recognized Susan’s voice before he saw her through the crowd.

“I would never let you down, you look beautiful.” Not for them the polite greeting, she gave him a huge embrace. “Thanks, Susie,” he murmured in her ear, “I finally feel as if I’m rejoining the world.”

As she smiled and nodded, he heard a familiar laugh from behind. His smile spread unabatedly across his face even before he turned around, it could only be …

“Geoff, I’d like you to meet,” Susan began.

“Rebecca Garran, but I will call her ‘Bec’. If, she would allow me to be her friend.”

“Geoffrey, I didn’t expect to see you here.” His Bec stood before him, tall and poised in a long black halter neck gown.

He raised her left hand to his lips. The black nails were still there, minus the wedding ring.

“Miss Garran, I assume you are my guest for this evening?”

Susan interrupted with a cough, “I see you have met before, Geoffrey – behave and don’t scare Rebecca back to the States or you will have Derek Casbar to answer.”

“My darling Susan, what if I promise not to let this stunning vision out of my sight and insist her wish will be my command.”

Susan shrugged, “It is out of my hands. Have fun.”

“Did you know?” he asked Bec as he handed her a glass of white wine from the roving waiter.

“Know what?” her blue eyes locked on his as the rest of the world vanished.

“Did you know one plane trip with you changed my life?”

Her head turned to the side, her eyebrows raised ever so slightly in query.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” In a room full of people, he felt they were alone, with music playing just for them.

“Before you, I never spoke about Rachel, not with anyone. Until you, I locked down the grief into a dark chasm and insisted no light enter. Until you.” He spoke quickly, trying to explain what a difference she made before they joined the crowd.

“Geoffrey, don’t. We had one conversation. You could have spoken to anyone. For a moment, we had perfect timing – it had nothing to do with me.”

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