Page 59 of The Playboy and the Widow
“Because I couldn’t hold it inside any longer. Are you going to keep me in suspense here? Don’t you think you should let me know what you feel toward me?”
“You already know.”
“Maybe, but I’d still like to hear you say it.”
“I love you, too.” The words were low and seductive, rusty and warm.
“How much longer are you going to be gone?” he asked, having difficulty finding his voice.
“Too long.”
Cliff couldn’t have agreed with her more.
“Will Cliff be at the airport?” Joan wanted to know, returning the flight magazine to the pocket in the seat in front of her.
“Yeah, Mom, will he?” Katie asked, tugging on Diana’s sleeve.
Diana nodded. “He said he would.”
The Boeing 737 was circling Sea-Tac airport before making its final approach for landing.
Joan and Katie had been far less impressed with flying on the return trip from Wichita, and Diana felt mentally and physically drained after coming up with twenty different ways to keep the pair entertained.
Cliff had promised he’d be waiting in the airport when they landed. Although Diana was dying for a glimpse of him, she almost wished she had time to take a shower and properly touch up her makeup before their reunion. She felt haggard, and it wasn’t entirely due to the long flight.
Diana had made the mistake of admitting to her parents that she was in love with Cliff. She’d been honest in the hope that her mother would understand why she didn’t want to date anyone else while she was in Wichita. Instead the announcement had been followed by a grueling question-and-answer session. Her mother and father had demanded to know everything they could about Cliff and his intentions toward her and the girls. Diana couldn’t reassure them since she didn’t know herself. Instead of being pleased for Diana, her parents seemed all the more concerned. Consequently, her last week in Wichita had been strained and uneasy for everyone except the girls.
“You talked to him lots.”
“Who?” Diana blinked, trying to listen to Katie.
Her younger daughter gave her a look that told Diana she was losing it. “Cliff, of course. Every time I turned around, you two were on the phone.”
“We spoke a grand total of six times.”
“But for hours.”
“Yeah,” Joan piped in. “The first week we were there, you hardly mentioned his name. In fact, you got mad at Katie for telling Grandma and Grandpa about him and then the second week you hogged the phone, talking to him every minute of the day.”
“I did not hog the phone!”
“Someone could have been trying to get through to me, you know,” Joan said defensively.
“Who?”
“I... don’t know, but someone, maybe a boy.”
“Is Cliff going to marry you?” Katie asked. “I think I’d like it if he did.”
Oh, no, not the girls, too. First her parents wanted to know his intentions, and now Joan and Katie. It was too much. “I have no idea what’s going to happen between Cliff and me,” Diana answered forcefully. It was little wonder that Cliff hated the wordcommitment—she was beginning to have the same reaction herself.
“I, for one, think it would be fabulous to have a father who looks like Cliff,” Joan said, tilting her head in a thoughtful pose.
“Speaking of rock stars,” Diana said pointedly, her gaze narrowing on her elder daughter, “did you really tell the boy who carried out Grandma’s groceries that we’re a distant relation to Phil Collins?”
Joan’s bemused gaze slid to the other side of the plane. “Well, I’m sure we must be related one way or another. Just how many Collinses could there be? It is a small world, Mother, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
The plane landed on the runway with hardly more than a timid bounce, then the taxi to the receiving gate took an additional ten minutes. By the time the 737 had pulled to a stop and passengers were starting to disembark, Diana’s nerves were frayed. The girls were right; she had talked to Cliff nearly every night. But now that they were home, she was skittish and self-conscious. She wished she’d done something glamorous with her hair before they’d left Wichita, but at the time, she’d been so eager to get on the plane and back to Seattle that she hadn’t planned ahead.
