Page 39 of Sweet Spot

“Well that was an intense start to our night.” Isaac shook his head. “I feel like I need to apologize for some reason.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“Next time I’ll use a fake name.” He grimaced, staring at the menu.

“At least they sat us at a quieter table.” Anywhere else would have put a spotlight on us.

“Yeah.” He let out a breath and shook himself. “So what should we order? You say they make their own pasta?”

“Every day. And everything is delicious. I have a soft spot for the lobster ravioli. The meatballs are heavenly too.”

Isaac’s eyes danced as we went through the entire menu and decided on sharing three dishes to go with our bottle of wine. “How’s Rosie?”

“Good. She’s better than me about all of this. I would take it personally that she doesn’t miss me more, but I think she has more of her mother in her than I realized.” He scrubbed his cleanly shaven chin. “It’s all just facts to her.”

And Isaac was a ball of emotions. “It’s also your job to do the worrying about her life and future.”

“Yeah. That. Let’s talk about less complicated things. Tell me about your friends.”

In our evening phone conversations we talked a lot about work, wine, and music. We kept things light. “You saw my two best friends at Reds. Mei and I have been friends forever, so she’s also close with my sister and parents.”

“And what does Mei do for a living?”

“She’s an engineer. She actually works for the company that Eve Spencer’s husband owns.”

Isaac nodded. “Jake and Greg. Good guys. You’ve got to be careful around Greg though. He’s the kind of guy who gets you to invest in a pyramid scheme and disappears before you figure it out.”

“Really?”

“Not actual pyramid schemes. Like I said, he’s a good guy. But he’s also a troublemaker.”

“And who is Greg?”

“Greg Hamilton. Jake’s business partner. He’s also married to Marie Bancroft of Bancroft Sports.”

The talent agency. “That’s a connected group.” No wonder Mei didn’t want me getting too close. “So half the table at Reds were engineers that work with Mei.” And apparently Jake and Greg. “And the other half are the Tampa Bay Tangerines.”

Isaac’s eyes lit up. “Ah ha! Mark said something about athletes. It all makes sense now.”

“My other best friend is the captain of the team. Jeri and I were roommates in college. We are bonded by a very unusual commonality.” I intentionally doled out the information, dangling it in front of Isaac because every time I made him curious, his eyes danced. And it was really sexy when they did that.

He took a sip of his wine, eyes sparkling away. “And what is this unusual commonality?”

Since we kept our phone conversations fairly superficial I hadn’t shared anything about my name with him. “Well, as I’m sure you noticed, Jeri isn’t exactly a common name for a girl these days.”

“I did notice that.”

“Well Jeri’s parents are huge, huge Star Trek fans. In particular, their favorite series is Voyager. Her dad wanted to name her Seven, after the character Seven of Nine. Her mom said no, but she agreed to Jeri, after the actress who plays the character, Jeri Ryan.”

It was clear by the look on Isaac’s face that he was not a Trekkie. “That’s…interesting. But it is a cool name. And distinctive. What does that have to do with you?”

This was the wild part. In all the coincidences of coincidences, my college roommate and I both happened to be named after Star Trek: Voyager actresses. “Well, my parents are also massive Star Trek: Voyager fans. So much so they named me after the actress who plays the captain of the ship.”

He blinked, shaking his head. “Seriously? That is wild. What are the odds?”

“Insanely low. Which is why we decided, before we even knew much about each other, that we were destined to be friends. It panned out in the end. I love her to death. Our parents became best friends over the years, and, it turns out, Mei and Jeri get along even better.”

Something in Isaac shifted. The vibe around him went from light and teasing to somber and serious. “That’s really special, Kate. You have a good family and a good group of friends.”

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