Can't Help Falling in Love by David W. Menefee, Carol Dunitz Page B

banana
sandwich.”
        
Allison was amused and shocked. She laughed and said, “Are you kidding? A fried peanut butter and banana sandwich?”
        
“You never had one?”
        
“No, but I’ll try it!”
        
He said to the waitress, “Bring two. And a big glass of milk
for both of us.”
        
He smiled warmly at her. Allison’s eyes met his, and she was glad that he had
his back to the restaurant so he could see only her. He held her gaze
affectionately, and neither of them batted an eye, which was especially
difficult for Allison because there was an awkward congestion taking place in
the aisle just behind him that he could not see. Their waitress had to sidestep
a group of three large men surrounding a dark-haired woman trying to push their
way down the aisle at the same time four people from another table were trying
to leave. The hostess had difficulty steering the arriving group toward the
empty booth across the aisle and practically at Allison’s elbow, but as soon as
the aisle cleared, the foursome noisily slid into the booth. Once the three men
were out of the way, Allison saw the woman for the first time at the same
moment she saw Allison.
        
“Miss Webster!” Sharon Eaton exclaimed with a smile. “Imagine the two of us
running into each other twice on the very same day!”

Chapter Nine
        
        
Allison’s jaw dropped. Sharon Eaton was the last person she wished to see. She looked
stunning in a smart sleeveless dress that revealed slightly sloping lily-white
shoulders. Her dark hair was pulled back and on top of her head with stray
curls that fell down her neck in a studied yet alluring way. Allison regained
her composure quickly enough to smile back, hoping that her shock had gone
unnoticed. She tried to smile, but she instantly perceived that the evening
would most certainly not turn out as she hoped, not with Sharon sitting across from them eavesdropping
on every word they said. Her companion was completely oblivious to the invasion
of their privacy, but Allison could not have been more perturbed if a
television camera and a microphone had been shoved in her face.
         Sharon grinned triumphantly, like a spider with
a victim in her web, and then she launched into a quiet monologue, while her
male companions sat in stony silence.
        
Allison remembered, Marshall warned me at lunch that Sharon didn’t mind stepping on anyone or anything in order to get where she wanted to
go, and that she always got what she wanted. Is she deliberately here to
antagonize and spy on me?
        
When Allison’s companion began sweetly telling her about his mother, she tried
to look attentive, but his words melted in her ears into something akin to the
soft strums of a guitar. She could not focus clearly on him while having to
continually glance back at Sharon, who she was certain was hanging on his every word. She noted the same hardness in her face that she
had become aware of earlier that day. Could it be that
she’s as tough as Marshall and Jeff said, or does she somehow feel threatened by my obvious bond to a
client she craves? Oh, that’s just tomfoolery! I’m sorry for her! She’s in for
a rude awakening! There’s no way I’m going to let her lasso my new client away
from me, or any of my other clients, for that matter! They all love me and are
100 percent satisfied with my work! I’m not going to lose this client in front
of me!
        
Suddenly, he completely distracted her by taking her hands into his. She felt
the warmth of his flesh and felt slightly tickled by the rough calluses on his
fingertips, no doubt the result of years of holding down guitar strings against
a fret.
        
He said, “You might think that because I travel a lot, there’s a girl in every
town. But there’s not. Being close to you like this makes me feel like I can
trust you.”
        
If the entire world had suddenly crumbled around them, obliterated everyone
else,