“I was expecting you in here at lunchtime,” Nancy said as soon as Laura appeared.
“I had tests to grade. I ate at my desk,” Laura said.
Nancy grinned. “In other words, you didn’t want to be bothered with any more of my advice. Not to worry. We have a few minutes now. Jessica and Cal told me they were going to be running late.”
Laura regarded her suspiciously. “Did you encourage them to be late?”
“Of course not,” Nancy said innocently. “Now, have you given any more thought to what I said last night about dating J.C.?”
Since word about tonight’s dinner was likely to spread through town with lightning speed, Laura saw little point in not mentioning it to a woman who was one of her closest friends.
“Some,” she admitted.
“Great!” Nancy enthused. “Now we’re getting somewhere. You’ll need a plan. What’s your next step?”
“You really are living vicariously through me, aren’t you?”
“You bet,” Nancy replied without hesitation. “So far it’s been pretty dull, but I have high hopes for the future.”
“Then you’ll be absolutely thrilled to know that J.C. and I are having dinner tonight at Sullivan’s, and he himself has described it as a date,” she announced, barely containing a smile at Nancy’s stunned expression.
“When did that happen?”
“Right after I spoke to you. Apparently he spent a lot of time yesterday fending off well-meant suggestions, as well. I thought the conclusion would be that we’d go back to our isolated corners and never see each other again.” She shrugged, then allowed herself a tiny, satisfied grin. “He came to a different conclusion.”
“Well, good for him. He’s obviously smarter than I was giving him credit for being.”
“He has an M.D. in pediatric medicine,” Laura reminded her. “I doubt there’s ever been any question about his intelligence.”
“There’s smart and there’s smart,” Nancy argued. “I know a lot of exceptionally well-educated men who don’t have the common sense of a gnat. My ex was one of them.”
Laura welcomed the mention of a very hot-button topic. “Do you really want to talk about Steve? If so, I have some thoughts about it being time for you to move on.”
“Now that you mention it, let’s not discuss my ex-husband. I am so over him.”
Laura had her doubts about that but saw little point in trying to nudge Nancy into facing her grief over the divorce so she could finally get on with her life.
“What are you wearing to dinner?” Nancy asked. “You need something special.”
“I just bought a new dress at Raylene’s the other day. I wasn’t sure I’d ever need it for a date, but I fell in love with it and it was on sale. Adelia Hernandez talked me into it.”
Nancy chuckled. “I hope Raylene is paying that woman what she’s worth. She could sell ice to Eskimos, as they say. I went in for a scarf and bought three outfits. Used every last dime of my alimony check for last month, but it was worth it. If I ever go anyplace special, I’ll look amazing.”
“Maybe we should get some people together and go to Charleston or Columbia for a weekend,” Laura suggested. “We could go to a concert, have dinner someplace fancy.”
“It sounds great,” Nancy said. “But something tells me you’re not going to have much time for a girls’ weekend.”
“Please,” Laura chided. “I’m going to dinner with J.C., not making a lifelong commitment. I will always have plenty of time to spend with my friends. That’s a given. You all mean too much to me.”
“Right back at you,” Nancy said, then gave her a rueful look. “I hope you’ll still feel that way when I tell you that there really wasn’t a social committee meeting this afternoon. I knew you were trying to avoid talking to me about J.C., so I called one just for you. Jessica and Cal were never told about any meeting.”
Laura regarded her indignantly for an instant, then shook her head. “I’ll have to remember how sneaky you can be.”
“It’s a gift,” Nancy said, suddenly unapologetic. “Got what I was after, too. Just keep in mind that I expect a full report on this date of yours tomorrow. Who knows what lengths I might go to for the information? As you’ve noted, my own life is pretty dull.”
“Would you like to come by the apartment at 6:30 for breakfast so I can fill you in?” Laura asked, only half teasing.
“Heavens, no! What if J.C.’s there?”
“J.C. is not going to be in my apartment at 6:30 in the morning,” Laura said confidently.
“You never know. I’ll meet you at Wharton’s instead. Call if you’re otherwise engaged.”
Laura shook her head at her friend’s irrepressible optimism. “I’ll see you at Wharton’s. Just remember we have to use our ‘indoor voices.’ Grace has big ears.”
Nancy only laughed. “Trust me, by the time we get there, she’ll already know the whole story.”
Sadly, Laura suspected Nancy was exactly right.
* * *
It had been a very long time since Laura had been this nervous before a date. Even though she’d spent a fair amount of time with J.C. recently, there was something undeniably different about tonight. It just proved how the dynamics between two people dramatically changed the instant dating—or the possibility of sex—was introduced. She was still wrestling with how she felt about that. Just a few short weeks ago, she would have sworn she wanted a relationship with real possibilities, but now old fears had surfaced to test that.
Obviously J.C. had his own doubts, as well. He might have invited her out, but she wasn’t deluding herself that he’d been entirely happy about it. His reasons for not dating hadn’t miraculously faded away. She was fairly certain of that.
When he knocked on her door, she drew in a deep, calming breath, then opened the door with what she hoped was a normal smile and not some sort of nervous, frozen grimace. Her eyes widened when she saw that he was wearing a suit, rather than the more casual khakis and oxford cloth shirt he generally wore to the office. It took his appeal to a whole new jaw-dropping level.
“You look very handsome,” she said, hopefully without stuttering.
He grinned. “You look pretty amazing yourself. Is this dress new?”
She frowned at the question.
