Only Forever by Linda Lael Miller Page B

for all time.
    The moment she’d hung up the receiver, she dashed breathlessly up the rear stairs and into her sparsely furnished bedroom. There, she slid open the closet door and flipped on the light, looking for the perfect outfit, the clothes to convince the producers of Seattle This Morning that their search for a host was over.
    Soon the bed was piled high with dresses, suits, skirts and blouses—none of which quite met Vanessa’s specifications. She had just decided to head for the mall when the telephone rang.
    Her cheerful hello brought a burst of blustering frustration from Parker.
    “Didn’t you get my message?”
    “Yes…” Vanessa sighed. “Parker, I don’t have time to tango right now, okay? Something really important has come up, and I’m going out.”
    “You’ve got a date with DeAngelo, I suppose,” Parker immediately retorted. “I could tell you a few things about that son of a—”
    The pit of Vanessa’s stomach twisted. Shewasn’t ready to hear the things Parker would say about Nick, not yet. “I’ve got to run,” she interrupted, almost singing the words, “’Bye!”
    The telephone started to ring again almost immediately after she’d hung up, and it was still jangling away when she dashed out of the house without turning the answering machine on.
    Five hours later she returned with a raw silk suit in a shade of ice blue. There was a Corvette to match sitting behind Rodney’s battered sports car in her driveway.
    Memories of the way she’d behaved in Nick’s apartment combined with a not-so-instant replay of the words they’d exchanged at the studio to make her cheeks hot. The man didn’t know the meaning of the word Friday, she fretted. Well, maybe it was just as well that he was there. Now would be as good a time as any to tell him that they shouldn’t see each other anymore.
    She unlocked the back door, let herself in and waited. Nick was obviously up in Rodney’s apartment, passing the time of day. In a matter of minutes he would realize that she was home and appear on some flimsy pretext.
    Twenty minutes passed with no sign of Nick. Vanessa had put away her new outfit, changed into jeans and a flannel shirt and even brewedherself a cup of tea when she finally heard an engine roar to life in the driveway.
    He was leaving without even saying hello!
    Incredulous, Vanessa raced through the house to peer out one of the front windows. Sure enough, Nick was backing the Corvette out into the road, Gina beside him and, as far as Vanessa could tell, he didn’t even glance in her direction.
    “I’m becoming obsessive,” she told the cat, who had come to steer her back toward the kitchen.
    Sari made her usual noncommittal comment, and Vanessa gave the animal supper before setting aside her pride and going outside to climb the stairs to Rodney’s apartment.
    “Hi,” he said, looking surprised to see her.
    Vanessa took in the very abbreviated cowboy costume he was wearing, raising an eyebrow.
    “I was just practicing a new number,” he told her, sounding defensive.
    His cousin smiled. “Speaking of numbers, I wonder if you’d mind giving me Nick’s?”
    Rodney eyed her curiously, then shrugged. “Sure, I’ve got it here somewhere. Are you going to ask him out or what?”
    “That’s kind of a personal question, isn’t it?” Vanessa countered.
    “Touchy lady,” drawled Rodney as he riffled through his burgeoning address book. “Here it is,” he said, scrawling the number onto a piece of scrap paper and holding it out to Vanessa.
    She took it, thanked him and left with as much dignity as she could manage.
    She gave Nick plenty of time to get home, systematically building up her courage as she waited, and then dialed his number. It was an irony of sorts that she got his answering machine.
    The message she left was simple and to the point. “Nick, this is Vanessa. I don’t think we should see each other anymore, and that includes dinner on Friday. Goodbye.”
    It was