Heidelberg Effect (3 page)

“Let down my guard for a minute,” he said,
looking around. “I was in Juarez transporting the high-priced
lawyer of a drug cartel honcho to stand trial in the US.” He
shrugged. “Took my eye off the ball for a split second.”

“What happened to him?”

Rowan smiled. “Oh, I didn’t lose him,” he
said giving her a knowing look. “It just slowed us down some.”

“Wow,” she said. She led him to an oversized
beanbag chair that functioned as sole furniture in the living room,
and sat down so close to him she was practically in his lap—a
proximity he was doing everything to encourage. “You are one very
tough dude.”

“Yes, that is true,” he said in all
seriousness. When they both laughed, he leaned over and kissed her.
She felt a rush of pleasure that started in her toes—just like all
the sappy romance stories claimed—and filled her all the way up to
the tingling, pulsing touch of their lips.

“You know, Ella,” he said as he held her and
looked into her eyes. “I can’t help but notice that we’ve broken
into an abandoned apartment and I’m starting to worry about the
very real possibility that you are a fugitive on the run.”

Ella laughed. “I know, I’m sorry,” she said.
“I can’t be terribly hospitable because most of the kitchen is
packed up and in storage. But I am working on using up the pantry
and I do have some things in the refrigerator if you’re
hungry?”

“Well, actually, I think my question had
less to do with what do you have to feed me and more along the
lines of what the fuck?” He waved his hand around the empty
apartment.

She sighed. Now he would know what she knew.
That as scrumptious as this amazing first date was, there would
likely be no second date. Even so, she had been dreading the moment
when she had to reveal that to him. She knew things would quickly
go south when she did.

“Well, I’m moving,” she said.

“I actually had already gotten that
far.”

“I’ve taken a new job.”

“Congratulations.”

She took a quick breath. “In
Heidelberg.”

Rowan sat up straight and she slid off his
lap.

“Ergo the German language tapes,” he said
slowly, looking around the empty apartment.

“I didn’t know I was going to meet anyone,”
Ella said hurriedly. “I’ve been planning this move for ages.”

“Sure, I get it. When?”

“My flight leaves Sunday night.”

It was Friday.

She could see him pull back emotionally when
she said it. She didn’t blame him. What was the point of getting to
know each other?

“Ouch,” he said. “Sunday night. Shit.”

“Exactly. I’m sorry, Rowan,” she said. “Bad
timing.”

For a minute he didn’t say
anything. Ella cursed the empty apartment as the give-away that it
was. But maybe it’s best this way, she thought.
Now we can both go our separate ways. As if we’d never
intersected.

“Well, then,” he said finally, reaching out
to touch a long curl as it framed her face. “Maybe we’d better not
waste any more time.”

The next morning, she rolled over in bed and
found that the dream was real. She had a very large cowboy in her
bed, and wonders of all wonders, he didn’t even snore. She lay next
to him for a moment, watching him sleep.

“Where did you come from?” Ella whispered to
him in wonder and awe.

His eyes opened.

“Go back to sleep,” she said.

He turned to face her. “Impossible.”

They smiled at each other, not speaking. She
snuggled into his arms, feeling safe and complete. She nuzzled
closer to him, smelling the lemony maleness of whatever body soap
he used.

“Rowan?”

“Mmmm?”

“Did you know we’d end up like this? In bed
together?”

“Well, I have to admit that
whole
breakfast
comment you made last night did kinda give me a heads
up.”

“God, I can’t believe I said that.”

“I’m glad you did.” He kissed her on the
cheek. “It eliminated a lot of games that I don’t think either of
us wanted to take the time to play.”

“Sometimes I think games can be fun,” she
said, moving around in his arms to look into his gorgeous blue
eyes. “But I just couldn’t wait. I know that sounds pretty slutty,
I guess?”

Rowan laughed and looked at her. “No, no,
not at all,” he said.

“I’m mean, what else are
you gonna say? You
are
going to call me, right?”

He looked at her in
surprise. “
Call
you?”

“As in, want to see me again after I, you
know, gave away the milk?”

He laughed. “Am I missing something or are
you really referring to yourself as the cow?”

“I notice you still haven’t answered me
yet.”

He looked at her and shook his head, his
grin melting something deep and wonderful inside her. “Ella,” he
said. “I’m bonkers about you. Can’t you tell?”

She smiled and kissed him slowly on the
mouth. “As with any new language, it takes me a while to pick up
the subtleties,” she said softly.

“Take all the time you need,” he whispered,
pulling her down to join him under the covers.

Four hours later when, finally forced by
hunger to drag themselves out of Ella’s bed and to the neighborhood
Waffle House, Ella had pretty much convinced herself that she was
in love for the first time in her life. It wasn’t hard to believe.
Everything she saw in Rowan’s eyes mirrored what she was thinking
and feeling. The two fed off each other, reveling in how much they
had in common, how unique and special the beginning of their love
affair was. By mutual consent, neither talked about the impending
separation.

They had waffles and
scrambled egg plates piled up on both sides of them and they had
already gone through two baskets of biscuits. Rowan loved a girl
with a healthy appetite and Ella had that coming and going. In
fact, he decided as he watched her, he thought he was damn near
ready to admit that he was effing in love with
all
her appetites.

But the elephant in the room wouldn’t
budge.

Ella looked at him over the plates of bacon
and the bowls of steaming grits. She leaned across the table and
took his hand.

“It doesn’t have to mean the end for us,”
she said. “We can Skype and write and visit. We can make it work,”
she said. “If…if you want to.”

Now she was staring right into his eyes,
using those gorgeous brown eyes to move him all over the playing
field. But especially back to her apartment.

“Get the check, Rowan,” she said. “We need
to make the most of the time we’ve got left.” She drank down her
coffee and started gathering up her purse.

Rowan didn’t need to be told twice. He stood
at the table to signal to the waitress.

Chapter Three

Rowan drove her to the international
terminal at the Atlanta airport. He parked, stood in line with her
while she checked her bags through to Frankfurt and sat with her at
the Burger King before she headed for security and her gate.

And he already hurt like hell.

The last two and a half days had been a
whirlwind of lovemaking, talking and feasting—usually in her bed,
the sounds of their laughter, their groans of ecstasy echoing off
the stripped apartment walls. As he watched her now, sitting so
primly, almost nervously, her ankles crossed, her boiled wool
jacket across her lap, her leather carryon beside her, he felt like
he knew her as well as he had ever known anyone. In the two days
they had had together, they had explored each other in every sense
of the word and the next step should have been commitment and
love.

Rowan watched her and noticed she was doing
a good job of looking everywhere around the airport lounge except
at him.

“You sure you got everything?” he said.

“Pretty sure,” she said brightly. “I’ll get
a bottle of water once I get past security.”

“Yeah, that’s good,” he said.

Was he imagining the sheen in her eyes? Was
she feeling what he was feeling? Only thing was, if she were
feeling what he was feeling she would not be about to climb on that
airplane.

“This really sucks,” he said.

She looked at him
then.
Yep. Definitely tears.

“When are you heading back to Dothan?”

He knew she already knew
the answer but it was something to say. Something other than
goodbye
.

“Couple of weeks,” he said.

“You look well enough to me to get back to
work.”

He knew she was trying to be light and
playful. He should make it easy on her. But it wasn’t easy. He felt
like shit.

“Maybe you ought to head on to your gate,”
he said, hoping she would say no, that she had some time.

“I probably should,” she said, reaching for
her bag.

It’s always easier to be
the one leaving,
he thought.
Being left behind sucks.

He stood up and reached for her carryon.
Silently, they walked to the escalators that led to the security
floor. He stood behind her on the escalator, watching how her hair
cascaded down her shoulders and then flipped up a little. It was
almost as if he were trying to memorize her. She turned and looked
up at him and smiled, her smile lighting up her whole face and
lifting his heart just enough. He leaned over and kissed her.

“I’m gonna miss you, beautiful,” he
whispered.

“I’m gonna miss you too, Rowan,” she said.
He saw her lips tremble and then she turned away.

At the entrance to security, he put the bag
down and took her in his arms.

“It’s not the end,” she said to him. “We’ll
make sure it’s not the end.”

“Yeah, we will,” he said. He kissed her
again and then watched her pick up her bag and walk away.

Ella’s first week in Heidelberg was even
better than she had dreamed it would be. The jetlag and then the
excitement of so many new discoveries and places had swamped her
emotions—just as she had hoped they might—so that she fell asleep
numb and exhausted each night.

On the evening of her second day, she sat in
her little furnished one-bedroom off Kleinschmidtstrasse and felt
as close to happy as she ever remembered feeling. She snuggled deep
in a large tub chair facing the window that overlooked the street
with a view of a bookstore directly across from her apartment
building. The street was ancient and her building dated back to the
early seventeen hundreds. Just marveling at the texture of the
ancient timbers in her ceiling gave her a feeling of peace and
authenticity.

Ella tucked her feet under
her and sipped peppermint tea from a large mug. She still had
trouble remembering what o’clock it was Rowan-time, but he usually
called about now so she kept her cellphone within easy reach on the
coffee table. She knew the situation was easier for her. She had so
many exciting new chapters all beginning at once and poor Rowan had
to drive by
their
restaurant and
their
Waffle House and her old apartment.

She couldn’t wait to tell him about her full
day of exploring the new neighborhood. Tomorrow would be her first
day at the new job. She hugged her knees and looked out the window
at the bookstore. The proprietor was rearranging the display window
with more books and props of the fall season.

The phone rang.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself,” Rowan said.

“What time is it there?”

“Three in the afternoon.”

“Wow. It’s nine here. My day is already
over.”

“How was it?”

“My German is so bad, Rowan. I found a very
cool little grocery store around the corner but that bit about how
everyone in Germany speaks English is a lie.”

“Well, that’s partly why you’re there, isn’t
it? To not speak English?”

“Yeah. It’s just a little uncomfortable in
practice. Plus, I didn’t expect to miss you so much.”

“Wow, thanks a lot,” he said. “Me, I knew it
was going to suck.”

“I think about you all the time,” she said.
“When I’m not trying to figure out how to cross the street. They do
it differently here.”

“Well, you know it’ll get easier with
time.”

“The streets or missing you?”

“Both.”

“I hope so,” she said. “I hate feeling this
way.”

“What way?”

“Needy.”

The next day, she rode the tram to her
office in the center of town.

The office building her
work was in was a modern one with wide sweeping staircases
blanketed in marble studding an expansive lobby. The building was
new and modern, and her office was on the third floor. She got off
the elevator to be greeted by a large sign welcoming her by
name:
Willkommen, Ella
Stevens
.

That’s
nice
, she thought as she walked to the
receptionist’s desk. A beautiful woman with long blonde hair looked
up and smiled.

“You must be Ella Stevens,” she said.

“I am,” Ella said, smiling back at her.

“
I am Heidi, and we are so
excited that you are here.” Her accent was strong but her English
was excellent and Ella felt herself relaxing. At least work would
be a place where she would know what to do.

“You are settled in your apartment?” Heidi
asked. “I heard you were over on Kleinschmidtstrasse?”

“That’s right. I love it. I took the tram
this morning but I think I’ll walk as a rule.”

“It is a beautiful neighborhood in
Heidelberg,” Heidi said. “Very old.”

Wow, Ella thought.
That doesn’t make it different from most other
sections of Heidelberg that she could see.