Mending Hearts (7 page)

“
I’m sure you’ll need to
talk to Brooke first.”

“
You know it, can’t make a
decision without her.” He laughs and finishes his beer. “Thanks for
the chat
and
the
beer. I’ll talk to Brooke and see what she
thinks.” 

I stand up with him and say, “Sounds good, I
won’t say anything to Emma.”

I finish getting ready before Emma does,
even though she started before me. I have another beer while I wait
for her. I straighten my tie and adjust my cuff links. When she
walks out of the bedroom, my jaw drops. I stare at her beauty and
lick my dry lips. She is smoothing out her white dress and looking
away from me. Her white four-inch heels, her white dress, and her
blond hair in big loose curls almost take my breath away. She looks
stunning.

When she looks up at me, she smiles. She
stops trying to straighten her already pressed dress and stands as
tall as she can. “You look stunning,” I say without taking my eyes
off hers. 

“
You always say
that.” 

“
Because I always mean
it.” 

She leans over and tries to smooth her dress
out. “Stop fidgeting, you look beautiful.” 

She stands tall and says, “Thank you. I
won’t fidget anymore.”

“
Yes, you will.” I smile and
say, “Come on, Beautiful, or we’ll be late.” 

I pull up to the valet and look over at
Emma. She is wearing red lipstick, which I think is a first for
her. I smile and she says, “I’ll be right here waiting for
you.” 

“
Thank you, I’ll be just a
moment.” I get the ticket from the valet before I open Emma’s door.
She takes my hand and stands tall. I bend down to kiss her. “I’m
thinking we should have stayed in tonight.” 

“
Thank you, and that is the
nicest thing you have ever said to me.”

“
Really? If that was the
nicest thing I have ever said to you, remind me to work on my game
later.” 

She takes my hand and we walk into the
crowded restaurant. I look around the foyer and notice all the guys
looking at Emma. I stand proud beside her and square my shoulders.
It makes me feel good when other men stare at Emma, but at the same
time I want to beat the crap out of them.

“
Collins,” Emma
says. 

I look down at her and smile. I didn’t even
hear them ask me for the name. 

“
Are you all right, doctor?”
Emma asks jokingly. 

“
Right this way; your table
is ready,” the hostess says. 

“
I’m fine; after you.” We
walk through the crowded restaurant to our table in the back of the
room. I can see the small bouquet of lilacs from here. I called
ahead and ordered lilacs for the table instead of the customary
roses they usually have.

“
Thank you,” Emma says when
she sees the lilacs. She turns around so she can see me.

I wink at her and place my
hand on the small of her back. She gets goose bumps and I wonder
whether she has a sweater in the car. Maybe they can adjust the air
conditioning for her since she is cold. When we get to the table, I
pull her chair out for her. I stand tall over her in protective
mode. I swear I’m going to fight someone tonight if they don’t stop
staring at her.
She’s mine!
I want to scream. 

I wait until she is seated before I take the
only seat across from her. We are seated at the window that
overlooks the water. The sun is low, but a few sailboats are still
on the water.

“
This is so beautiful,” she
says, looking out at the water. 

The waitress comes over and fills our
champagne glasses. Emma doesn’t look up but continues to look
outside at the sailboats. “We should go sailing one day.” 

“
We can do that.” I nod to
the waitress so she knows to bring out our salads. “Maybe we can do
that when we get moved into the new house.” 

“
I would like that. It looks
so relaxing.” She looks up at me and smiles. “I can’t believe we
are moving into that house.” 

“
We most definitely are,” I
say, laughing. “Do you want to make a toast?” 

“
I didn’t hear you order
champagne.” She looks at the champagne and smiles. “Because you
didn’t order it,” she says, laughing. 

“
No, Emma, I used call-ahead
seating and ordering. A toast?” I ask, handing her a glass of
champagne. 

“
Thank you. Yes, a toast. To
the most thoughtful and considerate man in the world,” she
says. 

She tries to clink her glass to mine. I move
my glass and make my own toast. “To the most thoughtful and
considerate woman in the world.” Now I clink my glass to
hers. 

She laughs before taking a drink. The
waitress places our salads in front of us and walks away.

“
Call-ahead ordering, I like
that.” She inhales and asks, “Is this smell walnuts?”

“
It’s a fresh green and
walnut salad with walnut vinaigrette dressing. Fresh ground
pepper?” I ask. 

“
No, thank you. I don’t
think it needs it.” I watch as she takes the first bite. Emma is so
appreciative of good food. She closes her eyes and I watch as a
moan escapes her mouth. It sounds sexual, and I immediately get
turned on. She opens her eyes and smiles at me. “You do have great
taste, Alec.” 

“
Thank you.” I take a bite
of my salad — it’s perfect with just enough seasoning. I tell her
about the meeting with Mason, Bruce, and Donovan. She listens and
becomes excited when I tell her that in three weeks, I will be in a
partnership with Mason.

“
That is incredible. I am so
proud of you,” she says.

“
Thank you. I also wanted to
discuss when you wanted to move into the house. We can close on
Monday.” 

I watch her swallow the last bite of her
salad. “I didn’t realize it was so soon.”

“
Madison called me today.
School starts in three weeks,” I remind her.

“
And we need to be in there
before school starts,” she says. The waitress comes over and
removes the salad plates. “I guess we need to move in the next two
weeks.” 

“
Do you want to be in there
before your birthday? Your birthday is next week,” I remind
her.

“
It doesn’t matter. Before
or after, either would be fine. We have a lot going on in the next
month.” 

“
Changing jobs, schools,
moving, your birthday. It is a lot,” I agree.

“
We haven’t talked about
what we are going to do with my house.” 

“
What do you
mean?” 

“
Should we sell it, or rent
it out?” 

The server comes over and sets two white
plates down in front of us. I ordered chicken breast with garlic
butter, twice-baked potatoes, and sautéed green beans for us.

“
That’s up to you. Just wait
and then decide. Sell it or rent it, both are good
choices.” 

We eat our dinner and talk about the house,
the property, and the extra rooms in the house. She tells me she
would love to have a small reading room or a library full of
romance novels. We both laugh and I make a mental note of it. She
also tells me she and Brooke are going to their first book
signing. 

“
Where’s the book signing?”
I ask. 

“
It’s in Tampa. Brooke
started to write a book and she found this book signing she wanted
to check out. They have authors, of course, book models, cover
designers, and bloggers.” 

“
Really? Brooke is writing a
book? What kind of book: a children’s book?” I ask in
disbelief. 

“
No, it’s a romance
book.” 

“
What does Brooke know about
romance?” I laugh as soon as I realize how rude that was. “I’m
sorry, what I meant to say was, ‘So she is writing from
experience?’”

“
That’s what I asked her and
she said no. She said she has read enough romance books she figures
she can fake it.” 

We both laugh, and I wonder if Emma is
joking. Brooke is pretty funny, and this sounds like something she
would say as a joke. 

We finish our meal and share dessert just as
the sun sets. “Thank you for a perfect evening,” she says.

I look at her and say, “I love you.”

“
I love you, too. I like it
when you order our dinner before we get here.” 

“
You do? Thank
you.” 

“
It always makes for a very
private evening. We are interrupted only a few times and it’s like
we are in our own private dining room.” 

“
Thank you, Emma. That’s
what I was hoping for: intimacy.” 

“
Well, you have
succeeded.” 

“
Are you
ready?” 

“
I am.” 

We walk through the restaurant and see Bobby
and his wife at a table having dinner alone. I look at him, nod,
and smile as I continue to walk through the restaurant. It has been
a little over two weeks and he looks amazingly well. I search the
room as I wait for Emma as she uses the powder room. Leah walks up
to me and gently rests her hand on my arm. 

 “
Alec, would you and
your wife like to join Robert and me for coffee? I would ask you to
join us for dinner but we have already eaten.” 

“
We also just finished
eating. Emma’s in the powder room, I’ll ask her when she come out.
How is everything?” I ask, not wanting to be rude. 

“
It’s good.
He spent the first few days at home, sweating and
binging on TV and peanut-butter sandwiches and chewing gum. After
the first few days, however, he started binging on pushups and
sit-ups and jogging. He says that if he is going to sweat he is
going to have a good reason for sweating. He is in a big hurry to
get back in shape.
We still have a long
road, but every day is better than the one
before.” 

“
That’s good news.” I look
over at him and he looks very good. He is in a gray suit, white
shirt, and a gray tie. “He looks very well. He should be about done
detoxing.” Leah is wearing a gray dress and I wonder is it a
coincidence that the two are matching. 

Emma walks out of the powder room, and I
introduce her to Leah. Emma met her and Bobby briefly at the
hospital. “Hi, how are you? We met at the hospital, right?” Emma
says.

“
Yes, we did. I’m fine,
thank you. Robert and I were hoping you would join us for
coffee.” 

Emma looks up at me and I nod. “We would
love to,” she says. 

Emma

I follow Leah to her and Bobby’s table with
Alec walking behind me. Bobby stands as we approach their table and
buttons up his jacket. He shakes Alec’s hand before he extends his
large hand to me. I shake his hand and tell him how great he
looks.

“
We met at the hospital,
didn’t we?” Bobby asks.

“
We did, it’s good to see
you again.” 

He smiles as he pulls Leah’s chair out for
her. “Thank you, today is the best day I’ve had so far,” he says.
Once Leah and I are seated, Bobby and Alec both sit. “The Motrin
has definitely helped, thank you,” he says, looking at
Alec. 

“
Good to hear and you’re
welcome.” 

The server comes over and we all order
coffee. Bobby asks, “I was wondering about Molly? Have you heard
from her?” 

“
Robert is worried about her
symptoms.” Leah explains, “He told me she usually detoxes hard very
early.” 

Alec says, “I haven’t spoken to her, but her
mom and dad have. She did have a few rough days, but she stuck it
out and is now having better days.” 

“
That’s good, I’m glad she
is still there. Would you mind giving her my number and asking her
to call me the next time you speak to her?” 

“
No, I don’t mind. I don’t
know when it’ll be, but I’ll certainly give her the
message.” 

Bobby reaches into his jacket pocket and
hands Alec his business card. He reads it and smiles. “You’re back
in training?” 

He nods and Leah shakes her head. “I started
training last week. I’m still trying to get some weight on and I
have a long way to go, but I hope to be boxing again sometime next
year.” 

“
Or training others to box
next year,” Leah adds. 

Bobby laughs and says, “I
hope to be boxing, but Leah wants me to train others to
fight.
She is aware of the dangers of
boxing. Smokin’ Joe Frazer once said, ‘Boxing is the only sport you
can get your brain shook, your money took, and your name in the
undertaker book.’”

“
I imagine it’s tough for
your wife to sit back and watch you fight,” I say. 

“
I’m sure it is. I was going
to box until I won a championship then I was going to quit. I’m
good; well, I was good. I think I could get there again with some
training.” 

“
I’m sure you can. I
actually watched you fight once. It was very impressive,” Alec
states.

“
Tell me which fight you saw
and I’ll tell you if it was impressive or not,” Bobby says as he
drapes his arm over the back of Leah’s chair. 

We all laugh and Alec smiles and says,
“Grether vs. Kennedy.” 

“
Ouch.” Bobby says as he
holds his heart. “You had to pick a fight where I lost.” He laughs.
“That was not impressive. Now pick a fight where I won and that was
impressive.”