Page 32 of Daring Lance

Courtney swirled her martini around her glass, then brought it to her lips and downed the entire contents in one drink. “This is the best part! Arthur is so clever! Tell her, Arthur,” Courtney cried in delight.

Arthur perked up, obviously pleased by Courtney’s compliment. “It was my idea for Sunshine Bank to visit Regency Palms. I suggested they encourage the residents to open various accounts. Naturally, I sat at the table with the bankers and listened to their conversations with the residents. Each time one of the residents explained that he or she needed the money for a family member or new dentures, etc., I made a note of it. Then, when we were wrapping up for the day, I pulled the residents’ paperwork from the pile, quickly made a copy of it in the office, and then returned the applications to the pile before the bankers noticed.”

Arthur, his expression smug, took a drink of his martini. “Of course, Ruby’s pitcher of margaritas might have made the bankers less observant than usual.”

Ruby chuckled between bites of a brownie. “I had no idea when Arthur suggested that I set up a margarita bar during the bankers’ visit that he had planned to get everyone sauced in order to carry out his plan.”

“Isn’t he brilliant, Willow?” Courtney asked, her expression one of a smitten school girl.

Hewasactually a brilliant criminal, if anyone stopped to consider that he had stolen the bank account numbers for six of the residents, which was not likely. Arthur was their hero, and Willow supposed he deserved that status as he had positively changed the lives of six Royal Palms residents.

“It sure seems so.” Willow decided to agree as any other response would likely get her evicted from the building.

“He sure is,” added Bernadette. “He picked up Korean faster than any of the rest of us watching those dramas, including Lance.”

Willow smiled absently, then immediately stilled. “What? What did you say? What Korean dramas?”

Ruby refilled her own glass and then placed the near empty pitcher on the coffee table. “The ones we spent every Wednesday night watching at Lance’s place.”

Willow eyed her martini glass and decided she’d had enough to drink as she had to be hearing things wrong. “You watched Korean dramas at Lance’s place on Wednesday nights? Why?”

Courtney burped and then quickly apologized. “Because you are at yoga on Wednesday nights.”

Bernadette leaned her bony frame in Willow’s direction. “He found some list on your desk that detailed your top ten favorite K-dramas. He was determined to watch them because he knew how much you loved them, and he wanted to share that with you.”

Willow’s heart hammered in her chest as a wave of nausea swirled in her stomach. “He…he did?”

Ruby bobbed her head up and down, her ever present pink curlers bouncing around like raw sausages glued to her scalp. “Had us all download that fancy language app, too. Not Arthur, of course, because he doesn’t have a smartphone like we already told you, but the rest of us. I’m practicing Japanese with him, Courtney Spanish, Lily Italian and Bernadette Cantonese.”

Willow brought her hand to her mouth. She was stunned and so touched that Lance would do such a thing, she feared her heart might break into a million pieces.

“Let me tell you, Cantonese isn’t easy, either. I swear, it took more than one cocktail before I could pronounce anything correctly. I still can’t seem to get my lips to form the words with less than three drinks in me.” Bernadette attempted to share some of the Cantonese that she’d learned, overexaggerating her lips and revealing the perpetual lipstick that stuck to her front dentures. Normally, Willow would have smiled, but right now she wanted nothing more than to collapse into a puddle of tears at their feet.

“Goodness, I do enjoy learning Italian. I ordered dinner the other night from Anthony’s in Italian and told them grazie, ciao, before I hung up. Got a laugh out of them and me an extra order of garlic bread,” piped up Lily.

Bernadette snorted. “She failed to mention that she also thought she asked for lasagna in Italian, and we all ended up with eggplant parmesan instead. Darn near killed us with all those vegetables in one meal.”

Lily sheepishly smiled. “I still have a bit to learn.”

Willow took several deep breaths. She needed to speak to Lance and now. How could she have made such a mistake? Why had she been so obstinate when he had been right all along? It didn’t matter where they lived, only that they were together. She had been so stubborn that she had refused to see that her life with Lance, and the family they might have some day, could be nothing short of wonderful. She worked from home, and Lance returned from work every night. She wouldn’t be left alone and lonely like she had been as a child. And neither would any of their children. It didn’t matter where they lived. As long as they were together, their address was irrelevant. Damn, why hadn’t she realized it before now?

Willow pictured Lance watching Korean dramas with her five elderly neighbors each Wednesday night, the dogs curled up in his lap, all because he wanted to have more in common with her and a giant lump formed at the back of her throat. “I have to go.” She stood up, unsure of which direction to take as she was flanked on both sides by one of her neighbors.

Lily drained the last of the mango martini into her glass. “Where to dear?”

Willow paused, her gaze breezing over each of the seniors staring back at her expectantly. “I have to see Lance. I need to, ah, speak to him.”

Ruby lifted a second full pitcher of martinis from off of an end and refilled her glass. “Too late, he’s gone.”

Willow stiffened, an instant moment of panic descending upon her. “What?”

Bernadette used her cane to tap Willow on the front of her shin. “Sit back down, dear, and have another drink. He left this morning.”

Willow eased herself back down onto the couch, shock consuming her. Her hands began to tremble, and she clasped them together, settling them in the center of her lap. “Lance left? To where? He wasn’t supposed to leave for Costa Rica until tomorrow.”

Lily sighed. “He changed his flight and left this morning. We had a going away party in the Grand Salon last night. He contacted George in 308 yesterday to arrange for a ride to the airport, and George sent a message in the group chat to the rest of us once he’ dropped off Lance this morning.”

Courtney patted Willow’s knee, and Willow realized that Bernadette and her drinking buddies were not kidding. Lance was gone. He had left for Costa Rica without saying goodbye. But why wouldn’t he? She had made it perfectly clear to him that their relationship was over, and he had obviously believed her.

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