This Matter Of Marriage. Debbie Macomber

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ off at the bank for cash. Her ATM card remained in her bottom dresser drawer, along with her credit cards—safe from temptation.

      Wanting to put the task of repaying her neighbor behind her, Hallie headed directly for his condo after she parked her car. His lights were on and she assumed he was home, but it was Meagan who answered the door. “Hi, Hallie!”

      “Hi, Meagan. Is your dad there?”

      “Yeah. He’s in the shower. You can wait, can’t you?”

      “I don’t actually need to talk to him.” She pulled the twenty-dollar bill out of her purse. “Would you give this to him?”

      “Sure.”

      “Give me what?” Steve strolled barefoot into the hallway, wearing jeans and an unbuttoned plaid shirt. A damp towel was draped around his neck, and his dark hair glistened with water. “Oh, hi, Hallie.”

      “Hi.” She smiled weakly, embarrassed about their last meeting.

      “Hey, Dad,” Kenny shouted, leaping off the sofa. “Hallie brought you twenty bucks. Let’s go out for pizza, okay?”

      “Uh…” Steve hesitated.

      Meagan’s eyes were as bright as her brother’s. “Can Hallie come, too?”

      “I…can’t. Really.” Hallie looked over her shoulder at her empty condo, tempted to suggest she had places to go, people to meet. It would have been a lie. “I just wanted to repay the loan and thank you for coming to my rescue. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t answered the door.” Well, she would have managed—she would’ve retrieved her bank card from the bottom drawer and…But Steve had saved her time and spared her inconvenience. She’d been in no shape to go driving around with a seriously annoyed cabbie, looking for a bank machine.

      “Can we go out for pizza, Dad?” Kenny asked again, his hands folded in prayerlike fashion. “Please, please, please?”

      “I don’t see why not,” Steve relented, grinning. He turned to Hallie. “You’re welcome to come along. Actually, I wish you would. The kids will desert me for the video games the minute we arrive and I’ll be stuck sitting there with no one to talk to.”

      She wavered. Even if she didn’t have any plans, she didn’t want to intrude.

      “Please come!” Meagan urged.

      “Sure,” Hallie said before she could change her mind. Although it wasn’t the thought of her empty condo or equally empty refrigerator that persuaded her. It wasn’t even Meagan’s invitation. It was the pizza. Pizza, loaded down with cheese, spicy sausage and olives. After nearly two months of exercise, after week upon week of eating lettuce and vegetables, skinless chicken and Dover sole, she deserved pizza. She’d walk an extra mile on her treadmill, but heaven help her, she wanted that pizza.

      “I’m glad you decided to come,” Meagan told her when they arrived at the local pizza parlor, a five-minute drive away. To Hallie’s relief, Steve had taken his car—not his truck, which he’d left at work.

      The place was filled with Friday-night family business, the noise roughly equal to that of a rock concert. While Steve stood in line at the counter to order their dinner, Hallie steered the kids toward one of the few empty tables.

      Steve returned five minutes later with two soft drinks, a couple of beers and a pile of quarters. Kenny’s eyes lit up like the video games he loved and he reached forward to grab the coins. “Twelve quarters each,” Steve said, gazing sternly at his offspring. “And they have to last you all night. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Got it?”

      “Got it.”

      The quarters disappeared along with Meagan and Kenny.

      Steve sat down across the picnic-style table from Hallie. She spread one of the red-checkered napkins on her lap, aware that it was taking her an inordinately long time to do so.

      “It was kind of you to invite me,” she finally said, slightly uneasy at being left alone with Steve. To her surprise she found herself revising her earlier estimation of him. He was really quite good-looking. Funny she hadn’t realized that earlier. The fact that he’d been willing to help her out only added to the attraction.

      “Hey, I appreciate the company. Mary Lynn and I used to bring the kids here once a month. Meagan and Kenny would like to come more often, but I feel stupid sitting by myself.”

      “What about trying your hand at the videos?”

      “Are you kidding? It’s an invasion of territory. None of the kids want me there. The one time I tried it I was banished and sentenced to sit out here with the rest of the parents.”

      Hallie smiled. She’d half expected him to ask her more about her awful date and was grateful he didn’t.

      They each talked about their jobs, which took all of five minutes. Their discussion of the weather took less than one. A not-uncomfortable silence followed before Steve spoke again.

      “Listen, you can tell me to mind my own business, but why was a gal like you going out with a creep like that?”

      She sighed. She might as well level with him, seeing that he’d already had her groveling at his front door in the middle of the night, needing a loan. “I guess you’ve gathered I’m trying to meet a man. I, uh, decided this was the year I’d get married.”

      His head came up and his eyes narrowed. “Women decide this sort of thing?”

      “Not all women,” she told him. “It’s just that I’m turning thirty in April, and—”

      “Hey, thirty isn’t old.”

      “I know, but I’m not really sure where my twenties went, if you know what I mean. I was busy, happy, working hard, and then one day I woke up and realized most of my friends were married, some for the second time. My dad recently died, and my younger sister just became a mother.” She struggled to explain. “Somehow, things changed for me. My goals. My feelings about what’s important in life. For years, I threw all my energy into my work—and now I want…more. I want someone to share it with.”

      “So you figure marriage is the answer.”

      “Something like that.” Hallie shrugged comically. “I’ve been dating since I was sixteen, and not once in all that time did I ever meet anyone like Marv. It’s appalling how slim the pickings are. You see, Donnalee made it look easy.” Maybe Donnalee was right; maybe she should reconsider Dateline.

      “Is she the friend who stopped by your place a couple of Saturdays ago? The one with the long…the tall one?”

      Men rarely had a problem remembering Donnalee. “That’s her. She found Prince Charming after one date.”

      “You mean to say she isn’t married?”

      “Not yet. She’s the person who suggested I sign up with Dateline. She plunked down her money, and first time out she met this fabulous guy. From everything she said, he’s wonderful.” Hallie couldn’t hide the wistful longing in her voice. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was married by summer.”

      “Slim СКАЧАТЬ