“I greased the gears a little,” Carl said. “I want grandchildren. Can you blame me?”
Kit slowly lowered himself to the sofa. “This is serious.” He groaned softly then buried his face in his hands. “Oh, hell. I walked out on her because I had to square things with you. She had this sexy dress on and all the candles lit. And now I find out, there’s nothing to square. We could have…”
“I don’t need to hear the details,” Carl said. “I assume you’re in love with her?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“And she loves you?”
“I don’t know. It’s all happened so fast. We’ve only known each other a month, but it doesn’t seem to matter. We just fit together. When I’m with her, I don’t need anything else. But I’ve never been in love before. How am I supposed to know if this is real? Or more to the point, if it will last?”
“You have to make it real,” Carl said. “Falling in love is the easy part. Keeping the relationship interesting takes a lot of work.” His father paused. “The moment I met your mother, I knew she was the one for me. She hadn’t even said word. I just saw her across the room and I told myself she was the one I was going to marry.”
“I can’t make a mistake on this, Dad. She has kids and they need a father. I can’t step into their lives and then step out again if it doesn’t work.”
Carl reached down and clapped Kit on the shoulder. “Well, you’re an adult now. You’ll need to make that decision for yourself.” He paused. “You know, this is going to mess everything up.”
“I just told you I’m in love with Roxanne. How will that mess everything up?”
“We’ve done all this promotion, positioning Roxanne Perry as a single mom and she’s captured the audience’s attention. Our afternoon ratings for the show have increased. If you decide to marry her and she accepts, her blossoming radio career might go right down the tubes.”
“Are you saying you’re more concerned about ratings than about your son’s happiness?”
Carl shook his head and smiled. “I know she makes you happy. And you certainly make her happy. I suppose I can deal with the ratings.”
“This job you gave her was part of the plan, too?”
“It was the only way to keep you two in the general vicinity of each other. And you have to admit, she’s good.”
“She is,” Kit admitted.
“So what are you going to do, Kit?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got to think about this for a while.”
“Well, don’t take too long,” Carl said. “I might just decide to steal her away from you.”
Kit glanced over at his father and smiled ruefully. “And I might decide to break both your arms.”
CHAPTER SIX
“COME ON, ROX. You have to put this behind you and move on. Aren’t you glad you found out before it was too late?” Renee gave Roxanne’s hands a sympathetic squeeze.
“Found out what? I’m not sure what happened. One minute we were rolling around on the floor half-naked and the next he was running out the door.” Roxanne swallowed hard. “And I don’t know if this means anything, but before he left, he told me that he loved me.”
“What?” Renee shouted.
“He said he loved me. At least, I think he did. I could have imagined it. Or maybe he said something else and I misunderstood.” Roxanne rubbed her temples, trying to calm her confusion.
“What could he have said that sounded like ‘I love you’?”
“I don’t know. Isle of doom? Eye glob do? I’ve been trying to come up with something all morning. If he really loved me, then why did he run out on the only chance we had to…you know.”
“You can say the words, Rox. Have sex. Do the deed. Get nasty.”
“Shh! The kids are upstairs.”
“So what are you going to do?” Renee whispered.
Roxanne sighed. “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do. He walked out on me. He said he couldn’t make love to me.”
“You have a man who loves you, but who can’t
Roxanne sighed. “I guess that’s better than a man who makes love to other women. At least I’d know he wasn’t cheating on me.”
Renee nodded her head. “He’s not going to run off with the Velvet Hammer.”
“I suppose I’m going to have to talk to him,” Roxanne said, getting up to pour herself another cup of coffee.
Renee stood and slipped her arm around Roxanne’s shoulders. “Talk to him. Maybe he just got scared off.”
“I’m going to wait until he calls me.”
Roxanne walked her sister to the front door, then waved at her as she walked down the front steps. She turned around and went back inside, drawing a deep breath as she closed the door behind her. It was odd not having something to look forward to. For the past month, she’d lived her life in anticipation of the next time she’d see Kit. Was that all over now?
She glanced up as footsteps sounded on the stairs overhead. Danny raced down, his new remote-controlled car tucked under his arm. “Mom, can we go over to Kit’s tonight to swim?”
Roxanne forced a smile. “Honey, we weren’t invited.”
“Sure we were. I asked Kit and he said I had to ask you.”
“When did you ask Kit?”
“I called him to thank him for the car. Rachel talked to him, too.”
“You called Kit?”
Danny nodded. “He gave me his number and he said I could call anytime. So can we?”
Roxanne bit her bottom lip. She had to straighten this mess up. Their lives had become so tangled with Kit’s it was impossible to know what to say. “I’ll think about it,” she said.
Danny started back up the stairs, then stopped and came back down again. “Are you going to marry Kit?”
She laughed, a high-pitched, slightly hysterical giggle. “I don’t know, Danny. We haven’t known each other very long.”
“But he makes you happy, right?”
Roxanne climbed up the stairs and gave him a long, hard hug. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get your brother and sisters? It’s a nice day. We’ll drive over to the park. And after we play, we’ll go out for some dinner.”
“And then we’ll go swimming?”
“No, sweetie, not tonight.” Maybe not ever, she mused. She climbed the stairs and walked into her bedroom, then flopped down on the bed. The remnants of the night before lay scattered on the floor-her little black dress, the sexy underwear. She reached up and skimmed her fingers over the pearls.
With a soft oath, she rolled over on the bed and grabbed the phone. Renee answered her car phone after just one ring. From the background noise, it was clear she was still in her car. “Hi, it’s me,” Roxanne said. “Can you come back and get the kids? I’ve got to find Kit and talk to him.”
“Four and a half minutes,” Renee said.
“What?”
“That’s how much time it took. Four and a half minutes. I was giving you five before I went home. I’m still parked out front.”
“OUR FIRST QUARTER ad revenue was up five percent from last year. And we’ve had a nice ratings bump in our early-afternoon programming. Some of Roxanne’s listeners are tuning in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.”
