Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [65]
“I’m not lying.”
“Deceiving by omission, then.”
“Look,” Kelsey explained, “Mitch has a lot on his plate right now. He’s receiving a special award for those wonderful newspaper articles he wrote while he was in China. It means a lot of exposure and could really help him with his writing. The last thing he needs is to worry about me.”
Kelsey stood to leave the room and Brian followed.
“Promise me something, all right? If anything else happens, you’ll tell him about it.”
She didn’t want to. Kelsey knew full well how Mitch would react. He’d envision an entire stalker scenario and have her carrying mace and a stun gun. But she knew Brian was right.
“I will. After the awards banquet. Now, can we please focus on the show we have to start in just about four minutes?”
He nodded and fell into step beside her as she walked to the studio. “You have your opening?”
“Uh-huh,” Kelsey said with a nod. “Did you put the CDs in order for me?”
“All done. Sounds like it’s going to be very romantic.”
“I hope so,” she said. “I definitely hope so.”
Mitch turned on the radio a few minutes before Kelsey’s show came on, listening for her intro while he made himself a quick ham sandwich in the kitchen. When he heard the saxophone music start, he grabbed a drink and rushed into the living room.
“Hello, Baltimore, this is Lady Love and you’re listening to Night Whispers on WAJO. I think the time has come, dear friends, to talk about love.”
Mitch dropped his sandwich and had to quickly wipe a spot of mustard off the leather sofa. Lady Love was going to talk about love? He’d never heard her on that topic before. Usually she focused on the more physical side of relationships, not the emotional.
“Love is a word bandied about all the time in our daily lives. I love my new red dress, and I just love Brad Pitt’s latest movie, and oh, how I love spicy Mexican food.”
Mitch wondered if she was going to talk about other things she “loved.” Like how she loved having that tender strip of skin at the very top of her thigh lightly bitten. He didn’t think she would; after all, he’d made himself very clear about how he felt about her bringing their private relationship onto the air.
“We use the word love lightly when we talk about people, too. We just love our favorite sports figure, or a great teacher. The word only begins to reflect its true meaning, however, when we’re speaking about people for whom we have deep, lasting emotions.”
Relieved she wasn’t going to go into further detail about what she loved, Mitch settled back on the sofa to listen.
“I suppose the first love we experience as human beings is the love of our parents. A mother who takes her squalling, red-faced, newborn bundle into her arms doesn’t see the blotches—she sees perfection. She loves this creature because she has created it, and it is a part of her. As children, we respond to that love, blooming into little people under the constant tender care and emotional sustenance. And we love our siblings and other family members who weave like a tight tapestry into our developing lives.”
Kelsey would be a great mother. Mitch didn’t know where the thought came from, but he knew it was true.
“Then, of course, there’s romantic love.”
Ahh! Now we get to it! Mitch smiled wryly as Kelsey segued into the topic he knew she was planning.
“When we’re teenagers, our hormones tell us we’re in love before we even fully comprehend what that word means. Then, one day, we finally get it. We finally realize what love really is. Now, this might not happen until we hit sixty, but hey, I firmly believe it will happen to every person at least once. Real love. Not lust, not compatibility, but real love.”
Kelsey’s voice trailed off, and Mitch heard music. The song asked for just one minute of “real love.” When she returned to the air, after the song and a commercial break, Kelsey picked up where she’d left off.
“Now, about real love…I want to hear from all of you about when you discovered