A Better Reason to Fall in Love (4 page)

“I see,” Professor Lowery said.

“That cute little blonde? She’s taken,” David continued. “She’s got some soldier over in Iraq. Nobody’s willing to try to compete with a national hero type, so she’s off the market. But the little brunette, Jocelyn—she’s still available. Her and Tabby.”

“Tabby? The little redhead that paused to speak with us?” the Professor asked.

“Yeah,” David confirmed. “Now she’s the one I’d like to sink my teeth into!” he mumbled. “But I’m not sure what her deal is. I don’t think she has a man, but she’s kind of private about her personal life…or so I hear.”

“Jocelyn’s the one I’d like to ask out,” Josh said. “She’s hot, man!”

“What about you, Jagger?” David asked then. Jagger had been hoping David would keep his mouth shut for once. He didn’t really want to reveal his own thoughts on the office Foxy Four to David or Josh—and doing so would’ve been easier to avoid if the guy had just kept his mouth shut.

“Here,” Tabby said, handing the small brown paper bag to Jocelyn. “I got you something at the gift shop. And you will not believe what I found out about Armando…not to mention the Derrière-inator, Mr. Jagger Brodie!”

“Apparently, Armando’s uncle’s restaurant does so well down there, Armando decided to open this one here,” Tabby continued. “But here’s the clincher. Jagger Brodie used to work summers at Armando’s uncle’s place,
with
Armando…as a cliff diver!”

“No way!” Naomi breathed as Jocelyn and Emmy rippled into giggles.

“Yes way!” Tabby assured them. “I guess Jagger worked as a lifeguard at a pool and moonlighted as a cliff diver. Can you believe it?”

“You’d probably like him too,” Tabby whispered. “He’s some big-shot professor from somewhere. He’s in town to do a lecture at the university on poetry or something.”

“Professor
Anthony
Lowery?” Naomi exclaimed.

“Shh! He’ll hear you!” Tabby scolded. “But yes…his name is Anthony.”

Tabby was intrigued as she saw Naomi smile and bite her lower lip. Her eyes were fairly twinkling.

“He’s speaking on the poetry of the Victorians tonight! I’ve got a ticket in my purse,” Naomi explained. She sighed, and Tabby was awed by the rather lovesick expression on her friend’s face. “Oh, he’s a wonderful poet in his own right too. I hope he’ll present one or two recitations of his work.”

Naomi straightened her posture, however, shook her head, and said, “No. No…I’ll just see if his new book will be for sale at the lecture. If it is, maybe he’ll sign one for me.” Naomi sighed, shook her head, and breathed, “Who would have ever thought that an idiot like David Lowery could be related to Professor Anthony Lowery?”

Tabby exchanged glances with Emmy and Jocelyn, knowing they were each as flabbergasted by Naomi’s crushing on the stranger. Naomi never crushed on anyone!

“Okay, now I’m freaked out!” Emmy said. Tabby looked to Emmy, who sat shaking her head in wonderment.

“Why?” Naomi asked.

“Because!” Emmy exclaimed. “I mean, seriously. What are the odds that Jocelyn’s Latin lover would be someone from Tabby’s super-crush’s past, who’s sitting there eating lunch with a guy you have a ticket in your purse to see lecture tonight? I swear, all we need now is to find out if Luke has some connection to one of them!”

“It is pretty freaky when you put it like that,” Jocelyn agreed as she reached into her purse and began rummaging for her debit card.

As Jocelyn began humming the theme to
The Twilight Zone
, Tabby breathed, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon nothing! How about six degrees to Armando the Cliff Diver?”

“I know, huh?” Emmy exclaimed.

“Really, Tabby,” Naomi sighed. “When are you going to accept that six degrees of separation is the theory…not Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?”

“You play the game your way, Naomi…but you know how I play it,” Tabby said. “It’s Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to me.”

Naomi sighed and shook her head. “The whole Kevin Bacon thing with you is so bizarre, Tabby.”

Tabby shrugged. Sometimes Naomi’s brains got in the way of her ability to be lighthearted—to simply have fun. Sure, Tabby understood the theory of six degrees of separation—the concept by a Hungarian writer that any two human beings could be linked in six steps. She understood it perfectly. However, where Naomi’s consideration of the human web theory was so severe and literal, Tabby liked to operate the six degrees theory on the more entertaining level of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon—a verbal banter her mother and father had enjoyed while enduring long driving trips when Tabby was a child. The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon concept had been birthed by three college students back in the mid-1990s. The theory that any actor could be linked to actor Kevin Bacon in six steps or fewer had intrigued Tabby’s parents so completely, they began to spend hours challenging one another to linking other actors to Kevin Bacon—especially on family road trips. Tabby, who was uncommonly interested in trivia herself, found her parents’ playful banter and knowledge of Kevin Bacon movies nothing less than purely mesmerizing. Thus, she had quietly adopted the game—silently challenging her own brain every so often, even long after her parents had lost interest in trying to trip up each other. Still, Naomi didn’t get it—didn’t see the fun in linking everyone on the face of the earth to Kevin Bacon. Yet Tabby did, and that was what was important to her.

“So,” Jocelyn began, pulling Tabby’s attention back to the conversation at hand, “Armando worked with Jagger—the Derrière-inator, as I guess we’re calling him now—who works with the brother of Professor Anthony Lowery, who’s a professor at the same college Luke attended before he enlisted,” Jocelyn said. She looked to Naomi and asked, “I mean, besides the people involved, there are, like, three or four states involved…not to mention us! So what are the odds of that, Naomi? And I mean, literally, what are the odds?”’

Naomi shook her head, however, admitting, “I have no idea, but it’s astounding in the least.” Naomi smiled at Tabby and teased, “But can Tabby link Armando to Kevin Bacon?”

“Give me time,” Tabby giggled.

As Naomi reached for Tabby’s check, Tabby shook her head. “You don’t really have to pay for mine, Naomi,” she said.

“Are you kidding?” Naomi giggled as she pulled a couple of twenties from her purse. “All the Kevin Bacon nonsense aside, the fact remains that you met Anthony Lowery! It’s way worth it.”

Tabby shook her head, still unable to truly fathom the incredible coincidences of association among her friends and the men they were each in love with or crushing on. It had to be a joke—seriously!

“Just do me a favor, girls…okay?” she whispered. “Can we just go out the other door? I don’t think I could take another episode of trying to appear cool, calm, and collected in front of Jagger Brodie right now. I get totally freaked out whenever he looks at me…and I can hardly speak if he says anything directed at me.”

“Well, there they go,” David said.

Jagger watched as the four girls from the office left by way of the back of the restaurant. He wondered for a moment what the sexy redhead did for fun when she wasn’t at work—wondered if she’d give him the time of day if he tried to get her to. She seemed a bit unapproachable—or maybe it was just his own insecurities that made him think she was. He thought of her name as it appeared on her desk plate:
Tabitha
. It reminded him of the little girl on the old ’60s sitcom
Bewitched
, and he thought,
Oh, yeah, baby! I bet you could bewitch me without even trying, Tabitha Flanders.

Shaking his head, Jagger silently scolded himself and vowed not to let his own kids, when he had them, watch too much syndicated satellite TV. He had way too much nostalgic trivia in his head.

“Envy us?” David exclaimed, drawing Jagger’s attention back to his lunch companions. “Anthony…you’re the one who gets to drool over hot college girls all day long, every day!”

Jagger pulled a pen from the pocket of his suit coat. Discreetly, he began to scribble on a napkin. He’d forget what he was thinking if he didn’t write it down.

“Did you forget something for the big meeting this afternoon, man?” Josh asked.

“Something like that,” Jagger said as he finished scribbling and shoved the napkin into the front pocket of his pants.

❦

“No. Seriously, Chloe,” Tabby said into her cell as she walked toward her car after work. “Can you believe that? I mean, really…what are the odds?”

“Probably a billion to one,” Chloe answered. Tabby thought for a moment how utterly amazing it was that she could talk to her sister when they were hundreds of miles apart.

“At least a billion!” Tabby giggled.

“So, let me get this straight,” Chloe began. “Jocelyn is in love with some Latin cliff-diver restaurant-owner guy, who used to work with your hot sales and marketing analyst guy, who was sitting at lunch with some dapper professor from Boston who has Naomi’s heart racing—which in itself is astonishing—who teaches at the same college where Emmy’s soldier went to school?”

“Exactly!” Tabby confirmed.

“That’s freaky! I mean…seriously? Did you read your horoscope today? It’s like the planets are wigging out or something! I can’t believe I’m stuck at this training thing and missing all this.”

“I know, huh?” Tabby said as a gust of spring wind nearly knocked her over.

“Meanwhile, back at the ranch—literally back at the ranch—I’m still waiting for you to text me a picture of this Jagger Brodie dude!” Chloe said. “Can’t you find one opportunity to just hold up your phone and snap a picture for me? One lousy picture?”