Authors: Carolyn Thornton
She looked quickly around the other tables and decided
that had to be where the party was. She took her time, her eyes moving
from one man to the next, wondering which one was Rafe. Theft their
eyes met across the room. He had been watching her the entire time.
This one had been expecting someone. This one with the magnetic eyes
that said:
It's about time you got here
. That was
Rafe. Bob had been right. She did know him now that she saw him.
A host of emotions assailed her. Exultation, curiosity,
delight, a prickly anger that he had made her wait until this moment
and in this way to find out who he was, and an overwhelming relief that
finally she knew who he was. Of course, R.C.— Rafe
Chancellor. She stepped forward to meet him.
Rafe stood at Lacey's approach. Several at the table
turned to see whom he was looking at as she walked over to him and held
out her hand.
"Rafe," she said, her eyes dancing, her heart beating fast.
He took her hand and covered it with his other one,
drawing her next to him, and gently kissed her on the cheek.
Lacey blushed, wishing they didn't have an audience for
this first real meeting. Then again, the way her blood was racing just
from the looks he was giving her, it was probably safer that way. His
touch excited her, the way his gentleness and strength had the other
day at the airport. He had long since captured her imagination with the
letters and flowers and tapes, and the way he had brought her to him
tonight impressed her. That had even been unique. She no longer minded
the mystery now that she knew who had been waiting for her at the other
end.
Who are these people
? she wondered.
How
much do they know about me and Rafe
?
Rafe sensed her racing pulse and breathlessness. He kept
her hand in his as he turned toward his friends and introduced her.
"Lacey, I'd like you to meet my friends…" He went around the
table naming people whom Lacey knew she'd never remember. She'd just
have to ask for names a second time if she found herself spending a lot
of time talking to anyone other than Rafe tonight. "Everyone, I'd like
you to meet Lacey Adams." She smiled as she noticed Patricia and George
and Amy with her husband.
There were choruses of "Glad to meet you" and "Welcome"
and "Hello".
Lacey smiled.
Rafe pulled out the chair next to him for Lacey, and
thanked Bob for picking her up. He apologized to her for not doing it
himself, but explained that as the organizer of this group he had had
to arrive early and thought she would appreciate having a longer time
to get ready. "What would you like to drink?" he finally asked her as
he sat down again next to her. Everyone started talking as they had
been doing before her arrival.
Her mind was a blank. All she could see, think, feel, was
Rafe Chancellor. "Anything," she said. "Suggest something. I can't
think."
He named several hard-liquor drinks. She shook her head.
He laughed. "Give me a hint, then. What do you like to drink?"
"Something fruity. Something that doesn't taste like what
it's made of."
"How about vodka and grapefruit juice?"
"Fine," she said, still staring at him idiotically, as if
he were a foreign film in a cinema and she was the only one in the
audience.
He laughed at the look she gave him, which made her blush
more. Raising his hand, he signaled to the cocktail waitress and placed
her order.
Lacey discovered she was still holding his hand even
though they were now seated together. She leaned on his arm and placed
her mouth near his ear to say, "I'm very happy to meet you, Rafe
Chancellor. You kept me in suspense long enough."
"I know," he said, smiling. "It was devilish of me, wasn't
it? But fun."
She laughed. "I want you to know I loved the flowers and
the letters and the tape. You're quite an imaginative person. Do you
approach every woman you want to go out with that way? I mean, did I
get a form letter?"
He smiled and shook his head.
"Then why me, why that way?"
His grin widened. "From what George told me, I figured I
was dealing with a creative woman. I'd also seen that article about you
and the boutique in the paper a few weeks ago. Of course I didn't
realize at the time who you were or that I'd even have the opportunity
of meeting you. So I sat down and tried to approach the situation from
the standpoint of a designer."
"You did well," she said, approval stamped all over her
face. "Except for the part about making me redo my postcard."
"That was a mistake," he admitted. "I realize now I was
pushing you too far. And it could easily have been my loss if you had
cut me off right at that point. If I had it to do over, knowing more
about who you are the way I did after meeting you in Atlanta, I
wouldn't have taken that risk. It did teach me something, though."
"What?"
"You're an independent woman. You might go along with
something I suggest, but you have a mind of your own and you're going
to do things your way."
She raised her eyebrows. An accurate assessment. She would
not be stepped on again by any man, even one who seemed as delightfully
original as this one. "You're lucky I sent the card back in the first
place," she said.
"I know," he said, stroking her wrist, then dropping her
hands as the cocktail waitress walked over to the table with her drink.
"I'm so glad you could join me tonight," he said when the waitress had
left.
"I didn't want to," she admitted. "If there had been any
way I could have tactfully gotten out of it, I would have."
He nodded. "I lost my momentum when I split for Atlanta.
But I couldn't put the trip off. It was something that had come up
before I started my letters to you. I had no idea it would take so long
to get you to send the card back."
"It wasn't just that," she said, taking a sip from the
drink and deciding it wasn't too bad.
"What, then?"
"I met someone who struck me as being more interesting."
His eyebrows went up, but he didn't ask her to reveal who
this other man was.
Tactful of him
, she thought.
Diplomatic.
The gentleman side of his nature coming through. A gentleman doesn't
ask a lady about her past affairs; he only assumes, rightfully in this case, that
there was no one of any significance before he came along
.
She smiled, wondering how long she could tease him about this other
man. What was the point in playing games when there were so many more
important things she wanted to know about him? She leaned on his arm
again and said, "I loved the Stetson!"
He smiled, realizing the other man had been himself.
She grinned, pleased to be sitting next to this man,
surprised that although it was their first date they seemed to have
known each other for years. Yet at the same time there seemed to be a
world of discovery ahead for them. If she read his interest in her
correctly, he was as eager to know more about her as she was him.
Someone interrupted them then, and Lacey found herself
with no one to talk to as Rafe answered a question a friend across the
table asked. The woman seated nearest to Lacey spoke up. "Rafe's such a
nice man. Have you known him long?"
Lacey shook her head. So he hadn't told the table all the
intimate details of how he had written to her and how this was their
first date. She looked at him now, admiring his profile with the strong
jawline, well-shaped nose and wide forehead. "Just. long enough to draw
that same conclusion."
"He's not like some of these guys," the woman said,
smiling affectionately to her left. "You won't be bored. You got a good
dinner companion. All the women usually try to sit next to him because
he's such a good conversationalist."
"Doesn't his date usually object?"
"You're the first date he's had since he's been back in
the area." The woman spoke a little softer as she asked, "You know he
has a little girl?"
Lacey nodded.
The woman smiled. "He's brought her as a date to some of
these social functions. You should see Angela with her father. She's
only eleven, but she really plays the role of 'lady' when she's on her
father's arm."
How nice
, Lacey thought. "They must
be close."
"Very," the woman answered. "He spends an awful lot of
time with her when she's living with him. I think he misses her quite a
bit. I know Angela because we were in a car pool together. My
daughter's a couple of years younger."
Someone attracted the woman's attention and then Rafe was
staring at Lacey again, touching her hand, as if he couldn't quite
believe she was sitting next to him. And Lacey needed his touch as much.
"Why didn't you tell me who you were when you met me on
the plane?" she asked.
"It didn't fit the script," he said, smiling. "I already
knew at that point you were going to go out with me. After I saw you
and had a chance to talk with you, I was sure I was going to have a
good time, but I wasn't certain how you were going to feel about going
out with me. It seemed safer this way, from my point of view, not to
tell you who I was. I didn't intend to deceive you."
"I still can't get over that it was a
coincidence;— flying home on the same plane, and right next
to you." She saw his smile increase, the delight showing on his face.
"It
wasn't
a coincidence! How did you know I was
flying home from Atlanta that day?"
He laughed. "That much was coincidence. The seat part
wasn't. I had the ticket agent change both our seats."
"You mean you knew who I was when I walked into the
waiting area? But we'd never met."
"I had seen that article about you in the paper a few
weeks ago. But I didn't think anything of it until George told me about
you."
Lacey sat back, impressed. He knew so much more about her
than she did about him. Now, here they were being interrupted again by
his friends when she wanted to steal him away to herself and spend the
rest of the night talking.
While he spoke to the couple on the other side of him, she
took time to glance around the table again at the other couples. It was
flattering that he had enough confidence in her, practically sight
unseen, to bring her into his circle of friends on this first date. He
was treating her as an equal, someone he was proud to have for
pleasurable company.
She was smiling as he turned back to her. "I still don't
understand the reason for the mail approach. Why not just call me?"
"A long time ago I faced the fact that I look the way I do
and nothing was going to change it. The direct approach hasn't been one
hundred percent successful in the past."
Lacey looked at that scar again, wanting to wince because
of the pain the wound must have caused. How could she tell him she
liked his strong features without him thinking the comment wasn't
calculated? But it was something that she felt. "I think you're a
beautiful person," she said, and she wasn't referring to his physical
appearance. "You did prove that with your letters and all the time you
spent working up to this introduction."
He touched her hand again as if to reassure himself that
she was real and sitting next to him. "I can't believe I was so lucky
as to have George find you for me."
"You'd better not say that yet," she said, grinning. "You
haven't learned any of my bad traits."
"There probably aren't any."
"That's hopeful thinking," she said, pleased by his
flattery.
The cocktail waitress approached the table again and
everyone placed second orders for drinks before dinner. Lacey sat back
and let Rafe order for her. It had been a long time since she had had
someone do that. Usually on those infrequent occasions when she went
into a bar for a drink, it was with a group of girlfriends. They were
the ones who ended up with dates for the evening, but she never found
anyone who suited her, and actually preferred going home alone. But it
did mean she ordered a lot of drinks herself.
"Tell me something," Lacey asked when she got Rafe's
attention again sometime later. "When you wrote me the card introducing
yourself to me, you said that one of your hobbies was cutting the
grass. You can't be serious."
"As such, no, I don't enjoy that task. But it all depends
on your point of view."
"You didn't explain that in the letter," Lacey said. She
played with the frost forming on her glass, wanting to know everything
about this man, yet hoping she wasn't sounding as if she was playing
Twenty Questions.
"What I do enjoy is sitting on the tractor mower, going
around and around the grounds, realizing I own a piece of earth. It
gives me a lot of freedom to think. That's what I like about it."
She nodded. His attitude generated more respect. He was a
complex man. She sat silently for a while as he was distracted by
someone else across the table. She felt overwhelmed. There was so much
to know about Rafe, so many potentially exciting discoveries ahead for
her with him. What astonished her more than anything was the feeling
that he was having the same emotional excitement about her that she was
about him.
Even in the short while they had been speaking together,
and from their time together on the airplane, it seemed as if their
minds worked along the same paths. They didn't need to make long
explanations to one another about the meanings behind a statement or
idea. It was as if they already understood the level on which they both
spoke. Kismet.
Lacey grinned, pleased just to be sitting next to him. It
pleased her to be the chosen one of this person so many people revered
and respected. He was practically a legend, and she was at his right
hand—at least for tonight.
"Excuse me, will you?" Rafe said to Lacey, getting up and
touching her shoulder as he leaned down to talk to her. "I should go
check on the status of dinner. I won't be long."