An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [111]
He glanced down at the message slip in his hand and tried to decide what to do. Returning Lesley’s call could just prolong the inevitable. He wondered if she’d spoken to Tony and what had come of their conversation. The minute he learned she had, it would be over for them. Possibly it was already over.
Objectivity was beyond him at this point. As far as he was concerned, Tony was bad news. All the man represented for Lesley was heartache and grief. If she wasn’t smart enough to figure that out for herself, then he couldn’t help her.
He waited until Sandra had left the room before he called Lesley. She answered on the second ring. The sound of her voice produced an empty, achy feeling that surprised him; he’d been unaware she had such power to hurt him. He had no one to blame but himself. If Lesley hurt him, it was because he’d allowed it.
“It’s Chase.”
“Chase…” she said breathlessly. “Thank you for returning my call. I wasn’t sure you’d get my message.”
“How are you?” He’d never been a brilliant conversationalist, but he was generally more adept than this.
“Fine. How about you?”
“Busy.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
Silence. Chase didn’t know if he should break it by saying something or wait for her to do it. They hadn’t fought, hadn’t spoken so much as a cross word to each other. He couldn’t even say they’d disagreed, but there was a gap between them that had appeared after Tony’s first call and widened with the second one.
“Eric and Kevin were asking about you,” Lesley said before the silence threatened to go on forever. “I didn’t know what to tell them.”
“I see.”
“They wrote you a letter and asked me to give it to you.”
“That was thoughtful. They’re good kids,” he said carefully.
The ball was in her court. If she wanted to see him, she was going to have to ask.
“I could mail it.”
His back straightened. “Fine.” He rattled off his address and was about to make an excuse to get off the phone when she spoke again.
“I’d rather you came for it yourself.”
Finally. Chase hoped she couldn’t hear his sigh of relief. “When?”
“Whenever it’s convenient for you.” She sounded unsure of herself, as though she already regretted the invitation.
“If you want, you could leave it on your porch and I could pick it up sometime.”
“No.” Her objection came fast enough to lend him hope. “Tomorrow,” she suggested. “Or tonight, whichever you prefer.”
“I’ll have to check my schedule.” He didn’t know why he felt it was necessary to continue this pretense but he felt obliged to do so.
“I can wait.”
He pressed the receiver to his chest and silently counted to ten, feeling like the biggest fool who’d ever roamed the earth.
“This afternoon looks like it would be the best. Say an hour?”
“That would be fine. I’ll look for you then.”
Chase waited until he heard the click of the receiver before he tossed the phone in the air and deftly caught it with one hand behind his back. “Hot damn,” he shouted loudly enough to send Sandra running into the room.
“Is everything all right?”
“Everything, my dear Sandra, is just fine.” He waltzed her across the room, planting a kiss on her cheek before hurrying out of the suite.
For the second time, Lesley fluffed up the decorator pillows at the end of her sofa. Holding one to her stomach, she exhaled slowly, praying she was doing the right thing.
The doorbell chimed and she must have leapt a good five inches off the ground. It was early, too early for Chase. She opened the door to find Daisy standing on the other side.
“He’s coming?”
“Yes, how’d you know?”
Daisy laughed. “You wouldn’t dress up like that for me.”
“It’s too much, isn’t it?” She’d carefully gone through her wardrobe, choosing beige silk pants, a cream-colored top and a soft coral blazer. Her silver earrings were crescent-shaped and the pendant dangling from her gold chain was a gold-edged magnifying glass.
“You look fabulous, darling,” Daisy commented in a lazy drawl. “Just fab-u-lous.”
“Am I being