“My ma got sick and me and my brothers were sent to Ireland to live with our grandmother.”
“That must have been interesting,” Rachel said.
“It probably would have been, if we hadn’t stayed for eight years. Hell, almost nine. One day we had a family- parents, brothers and sisters, and a home-and the next day, we were on a plane going to live with a woman we’d never met. My mother’s illness pretty much ruined the family financially so it was probably the only thing they could do. My grandmother was rich, we were poor.” He looked over at her. “So, am I totally screwed up for the rest of my life? Or is there hope for me?”
“There are probably some scars, buried pretty deep,” Rachel responded. “And I’d guess that you’ve maintained a distance with women, and with people in general, because you’re afraid of being abandoned again. But you’re an adult, Dec. You can look at those fears and face them for what they are. A lot of people have difficult childhoods but they get beyond them.”
“I think that may be happening,” he murmured.
Rachel wanted to ask him what he meant, but when she looked over at him, he seemed completely lost in his thoughts. Had she changed him somehow? Had their relationship made him realize it was possible to have a future with a woman? She drew a deep breath. And was she that woman?
So many times over the past week, she’d had to remind herself not to get caught up in the romance of it all. This was every woman’s fantasy-handsome man come to rescue her, an undeniable chemistry, and then sex like she’d never had it before. Already, they’d shared so much and it was still early in their friendship.
There were so many different ways it could all turn out, she mused. They could continue on for a long time until the passion was spent, the interest faded. Or they could burn out quickly, unable to find anything more than sexual attraction. Or, they could spend the rest of their lives together.
Rachel knew the odds of making it to happily-ever-after weren’t very good. But they did increase a bit considering how well she and Dec seemed to get along. She liked him. He was sweet and sexy and funny. And he was a man who enjoyed pleasing a woman. And not just in bed, but everywhere else, from opening her car door, to drawing her a bath, to bringing her breakfast in bed. He liked to make her smile and she’d grown to love him for that.
She sucked in a sharp breath, turning her gaze to the window. Love. She loved him. Or did she? This could be simply infatuation, the flood of affection that came with a new relationship. She’d have to be careful. Dec had his own demons to wrestle with when it came to love. Confiding her own feelings to him too early might just scare him away.
“Where are we going to dinner?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” he replied. “Oh, by the way, there’s a box in the backseat. Can you reach around and get it for me?”
Rachel leaned between the two front seats and grabbed the small white box. “What is it?”
“It’s for you,” he said.
She laughed. “For me?”
“Since this was an official date, I figured I ought to give you something to remember it by. Go ahead, open it up.”
“When did you have time to buy me something?”
“I made a few phone calls and then sent one of my guys out to pick it up.”
She pulled the cover off the box and sighed. Tucked inside pretty pink tissue paper was a tiny bouquet of flowers, a nosegay. “In Victorian times, men used to give little bouquets like these to a woman they wanted to court,” she said.
“I know,” he said.
“How do you know that?” Rachel asked.
“I’m not a complete idiot in the romance department,” he said. “My grandmother had a huge flower garden and she used to make us help her pick weeds. She used to rattle on about tussie-mussies and what all the different flowers meant. My brothers and I would just roll our eyes. I guess some of it must have stuck.”
“Do you know what these mean?” she asked.
Dec examined the bouquet as she held it out to him. “The red roses are for passion. The forget-me-nots speak for themselves. The lavender is…devotion, I think. And the ferns are fascination.”
Rachel held it up to her nose and drew in a deep breath. “You surprise me,” she said.
“That’s good, right?”
She leaned over the center console and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Yes, that’s very good.”
They rode for a time in silence. Dec reached out and grabbed her hand, then brought it to his lips. “I’m looking forward to tonight,” he said. “It’s our first official date.”
“It is,” Rachel said. “I’m actually kind of nervous.”
“Don’t be,” Dec teased. “I promise, I won’t try to kiss you at the end of the evening. And I definitely won’t ask if I can come in for a drink.”
“Good,” she said. “Because you should know, I’m not that kind of girl.”
“No, you’re definitely not that kind of girl,” Dec said.
Rachel’s cell phone rang and she picked up her purse, then set it back down. “No,” she said. “No calls tonight.”
“You should check to see who it is,” Dec said.
She reached in her purse and glanced down at the caller I.D. The lighted display showed a number from the university exchange. She put the phone back, but then decided she ought to take it. “I promise I’ll make it quick,” she said, flipping it open. “Rachel Merrill.”
“Professor Merrill, this is Officer Franklin from university security. I’m afraid we have some bad news for you.”
Rachel glanced over at Dec and forced a smile. “Yes?”
“Someone has broken into your office and vandalized it.”
“I see,” Rachel said, trying to keep her voice calm. “Can you give me more details?” She listened as the officer relayed the damage and the method of break-in. “And what would you like me to do?”
“We’d like you to come down and see if there’s anything missing. We’ve called the police because we understand you’ve been having trouble with a stalker. They’re going to be sending a detective down. Can you meet him in a half-hour?”
Rachel drew in a deep breath. “I really don’t think so. This will have to wait until tomorrow morning. I’m sure you can take care of it on your own.”
“But, Professor Mer-”
She snapped the phone shut and tucked it back into her purse. “Sorry. Just some university business.”
“Everything okay?” Dec asked.
She nodded. They drove on, Rachel mulling over the news she’d received and attempting to act as if it hadn’t bothered her. The stalker was getting much more bold and aggressive and yet the police seemed no closer to finding out who it was. Even Dec had been stymied. Detailed examination of the security tapes from the parking lot hadn’t shown any hint of the person who vandalized her car. Either the stalker knew where all the cameras were and avoided them, or he was just downright lucky.
They were nearly downtown when Dec’s cell phone rang. He reached into his jacket pocket and grabbed it, but she reached out and took it away from him. “Don’t,” she murmured.
“It’s the office,” he said. “I promise to make it quick. They might have something on your case.”
The moment he flipped the phone open, Rachel knew what the call was about. Of course he’d find out about the vandalism. The university police had called the Providence police and they would have called his office. And his office would call him.
She listened to his side of the conversation as she stared out the window, knowing what would come next. When he stopped speaking, she risked a glance over at him to find his mouth set in a tight line.
“So you weren’t planning to tell me what your call was all about?”
“I didn’t want to spoil our date,” Rachel said.
He cursed softly, shaking his head. “You didn’t think I’d find out?”
“I didn’t really think about it. I-I’m sorry. I should have said something, but I didn’t want to ruin this.”
“Baby, we can have as many dates as you want. But this is your safety we’re talking about. That is number
