Cover to Covers (14 page)

“Lovely to see you again, Moe.” He lifted his suitcase. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

She pointed at his black suitcase. “What is that for?”

“I thought I would come for a visit.”

She pushed the door all the way open and glowered at him. “What, are you stalking me?”

“I’m visiting, not stalking. If I was stalking, I wouldn’t have used the doorbell.”

“You can’t stay here, Ty,” she declared,
standing in the doorway.

“Why not?”

“Because…because I don’t…I don’t want you here,” she stammered.

“Well, it’s too late for me to get a hotel
.”

“It’s New Orleans. It’s never too late to get a hotel.”

“Come on, Moe.” He moved closer to the door. “It’s late, and I just got in. Don’t make me have to call a cab and fight getting a hotel room at this hour.”

She kept her body in front of the door, blocking his way. “Why are you here? I think we said about all there was to say back in Dallas.”

He leaned his shoulder against the doorframe. “You left before we finished talking.”

She folded her arms, appearing uncomfortable. “I figured I should leave you before you snuck out on me.”

“I wasn’t going to sneak out, Moe.”

“Isn’t that what you usually do with women, sneak out before they wake up?”

“Perhaps, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do with you.” He kept his eyes pinned on her. “I came to New Orleans because I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake I made over twenty years ago. I’m making an effort here. Can you meet me halfway and allow me to come inside?” He hiked up the suitcase in his hand. “This isn’t exactly light, you know?”  

She nodded her head and
moved aside.

Tyler shuffled
in the door and put his suitcase and overnight bag down on the dull, hardwood floor. The small entryway around him led to a straight walnut staircase on the left, while a hallway ran along the side of the stairway to the right. Tall cypress doors with fanlights matching the one above the front entrance opened off the main hallway. The walls were done in cream-colored textured plaster with wainscoting of darkly stained beadboard beneath. Stately paintings of lush landscapes and green forests adorned the entranceway. Above, a lavish twenty-four light brass chandelier added a touch of opulence to the impressive décor.

“And here I thought you were living modestly.” He lowered his eyes to her. “Rather a grand
place for someone trying to make a living as a writer.”

“It was part of my divorce settlement.
It’s all I got out of the six years we were together.”

“You want to show me the rest of the place?”

Her eyes went wide. “No. You’ll be leaving in the morning when you can get a hotel room.”

He raised his eyebrows playfully. “Will I?”

She slammed the front door closed. “Don’t do this, Ty. Don’t come here and think you will make everything like you want it to be. I have a life now. I have a deadline for my next book, and I don’t need you—”

“Sunday morning I ran into your manager. He was pretty pissed and told me you had skipped out on attending another
convention when you came back to New Orleans. You want to tell me why?”

She ran her hands up and down her bare arms. “No.”

“Moe, I came here to try and figure things out between us. I know I have a lousy track record with women, but I’m here and I’m trying to have something better with you. The least you can do is tell me why you left Dallas the way you did.”

She went to the stairs and had a seat on the bottom step. “I woke up in the middle of the night
with you next to me and I knew…I knew it would never work between us. Just like it would never have worked before. It doesn’t matter what you do or try to be, Ty, we were never meant to be together.” She motioned to him. “You are you, and I am…not want you want.”

He came closer to the stairs. “How do you know what I want?”

“I know the kind of woman you want, and I’m not it. I figured it was better to go before…we had our night together, let’s just leave it at that.”

He had a seat next to her
on the step. “Moe, in all my life, I have never known anyone like you. You’ve never been something you’re not in order to please me. Do you know how refreshing that is? I guess that’s why I never forgot about you.”

She snorted at his disclosure.
“You never forgot about me because I was the only woman you never slept with.”

“But I did sleep with you, and here I am.” He shimmied closer to her on the step. “If you would let me, I would like to spend some time with you, get to know you again.”

Tyler angled slightly forward, desperately wanting to taste her lips, but Moe brusquely stood from the steps. 

“You can stay in the guest bedroom upstairs, but in the morning you have to get a hotel room
.”

“Whatever you want,” he
told her, knowing he had no intention of leaving.

Tyler
gathered up his bags as Moe waited in the middle of the staircase. Just as he was about to climb the steps, a small ball of white fur appeared on the second floor landing and started yapping at him.

“Bart, stop it,” Monique
called to the dog.

T
he small Chihuahua mix descended the steps. He had patches of white matted fur, a short snout, bulging black eyes, and a red tongue that hung out of the side of his mouth, waving like a flag.

“What’s that?”
Tyler demanded, staring at the mongrel.

“Bart,” Monique
answered. “I found him at an animal rescue benefit I attended a few years ago. He was up for adoption but no one wanted him because he was so…different.”

“You mean ugly, don’t you?” Tyler
ribbed.

Monique
held the small dog to her chest. “He’s not ugly, and I don’t like to use that word around him, because he’s very sensitive.”

Tyler nodded to the dog in her arms as he climbed the st
airs. “I’m not going to kiss you if you keep holding that thing against you like that. You may catch something.”

“I don’t want you to kiss me.”

Bart growled as Tyler drew closer.

“I never figured you to be into animals, Moe.”

She ran her hand along Bart’s patchy coat. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“That’s why I’m here.” He came up to her and Bart
gnashed his teeth. “Maybe you should have named him Chris.”

“Not funny.” Monique turned
to the stairs. “Bart is just being protective.”

“And what is Chris
Donovan being?” Tyler followed her up the steps, relishing the view of her firm butt in front of him.

She stopped on the second floor landing. “He’s being my manager.”

Tyler climbed the last step to the second floor. “Manager or lover?”

“Chris is not my lover
,” she loudly clarified.

“He’s not your type, Moe.”

“Like you would know my type.” Carrying Bart in her arms, she set out from the landing to a connecting wide hallway.

He eyed the pale yellow wallpaper, beige hall carpet, and tapering sconces on the wall
s shaped to look like candles and decided he liked this simpler style. It felt more like Monique to him. She had always been unimpressed with extravagance, and he was glad to see that this part of the home reflected that endearing quality.

Stopping before a tall cypress door, she placed her hand on the polished brass doorknob as Tyler stared at the still snarling dog.

“Please tell me you don’t sleep with it, too?”

She turned the knob and pushed the door open. “Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, he’s the only man I want to sleep with.”

“You’re standards must be slipping, Moe.”

She smirked at him. “Well, I slept with you, didn’t I?”

“Touché,” Tyler replied, and then entered the room.

Monique flipped
a switch, and the tastefully decorated, cream-colored bedroom glowed beneath the pale light coming from an antique ceiling fan. A mahogany trundle, queen-sized bed occupied the center of the room with matching night tables on either side. The walls were covered with framed black and white photographs. On closer inspection, Tyler discovered they were pictures of New Orleans from the turn of the century.

“Nice pieces.” He pointed to a still of the Mississippi River front.

“I like to collect old photographs of the city,” Monique admitted.

“I remember when you dragged me to that photography exhibit on the SMU campus. We spent hours wandering about. You
checked out every photo.”

She frowned at him.
“I can’t believe you remember that.”

“I especially remember how much you enjoyed it. It was a side of you I had never seen before that night.”

Scratching Bart’s back, she turned to an open door next to a mahogany dresser. “There’s a small guest bath so you don’t have to use the one across the hall.” Monique motioned to a slender door in the corner. “That’s the closet, but you won’t need it, since you’ll be leaving in the morning.”

Tyler went to the bed and tossed his suitcase on top of the tan and white comforter. “But I have all night to change your mind about that.”

She headed for the entrance. “You’re still impossible.”

He
plunked down the overnight bag on the bed next to his suitcase. “And still just as determined as I ever was.”

Monique
halted at the doorway. “Why bother being determined? You got what you wanted out of me. We slept together and can put all those years of wondering what it would be like behind us. You don’t need anything else from me.”

“Don’t be so quick to judge me, Moe.” He
crept closer to her. “If all I wanted was to sleep with you, I wouldn’t be here.” He reached for a tendril of her silky hair and then Bart attempted to snap at him.

Tyler jerked his hand back. “Shouldn’t you lock that up in a cage?”

She patted the dog’s head. “You’re the one who should be locked up.” Monique stepped into the hallway. “If you’re hungry, there’s only fruit and cold cuts in the fridge. You’re welcome to whatever you can find in the pantry. Just don’t leave a mess behind in my kitchen. I’ve got to get back to work.”

She was about to start down the hall when Tyler came bounding t
hrough the door. “Where’s your room?”

Her
eyes warily studied him and then she nodded to a door further down hall. “That’s the master. It has a study connected to it, where I write. But don’t think of sneaking in my room at night and pulling anything, Ty.” She shoved the small dog toward him. “He may not bite hard, but he knows all your vulnerable spots.”

Tyler
gestured to the dog. “I hope that’s not all you have for protection around here?”

“No. I also sleep with a .357
next to my bed.”

“Now that sounds like the Moe I know and love.”

The sullen expression she gave him was just what he intended. He needed to make her second-guess her first impressions of him, and put the question in her head if he was really being sincere.
But love
? If he had ever loved any woman, it had been Monique. She had gotten closer to him than anyone, and despite the passage of time, he had never been able to forget her. Maybe that was what love was all about. Not the passion, but the ability to never be able to erase the memory of another from the furthest reaches of your heart.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” she mumbled
, and then departed down the hall to her bedroom.

Tyler grinned as
she slinked through her door and quietly shut it behind her. 

“Round one to me,” he whispered.

Back in his room, he went straight to his suitcase. Opening the skinny closet door, he placed some slacks, an additional pair of jeans, a casual jacket, and a few dress shirts inside. After putting his suitcase in the closet, he carted the overnight bag to the bathroom.

He frowned as he stood in the
narrow bathroom. “It’s not the Ritz.”

But somehow it felt more comfortable to Tyler than many of the numerous hotels he had stayed in through the years.

Once his unpacking was done, he returned to the bedroom and realized that there was no television.

“This could be a problem.”
Tyler hated to admit it, but the television had become something of a diversion for him. He always kept one on at home, wanting to stay abreast of current events. Deciding he would have to resort to other means to satiate his information fix, he went to his overnight bag and removed his iPad. Plopping down on his bed, he turned on the iPad, and hit the twenty-four-hour news app. While he flipped through different headlines, catching up on the weather and stock quotes, his mind worked its way back to Monique.

Half the battle was over. He was here, and had made his intentions known.
Tyler just hoped this story turned out to have the happily ever after he was aiming for, and did not end up being just another disappointing tale filled with regrets and resentments.