on Sunday evening after he presents.”
“All right, so it’s just a weekend, and you might not even see him again.” Beka glanced guiltily over at her sister.
“What did you do?” asked Anne.
“I sort of said we could have dinner together tomorrow,” Beka said, biting her lip.
“Why on earth would you do that?” demanded Anne.
“I don’t know. He asked, I said yes. It just felt right.” Beka sighed and lay back against the couch. “This is ridiculous. I am a grown woman. I shouldn’t be mooning over some guy like a teenager. I thought it was gone, you know?”
“Gone?” asked Anne. “What’s gone?”
“All that stupid stuff - the attraction, the racing heartbeat, the daydreaming about what he’s doing right now. I thought I got rid of it.”
“Your uterus?” asked Anne. “Sorry to break it to you, Sweetheart, but you’re stuck with it.”
“I know,” Beka groaned. “But it is most inconvenient!” She and Anne both laughed.
“Seriously though,” said Anne. “You’ll get through this.”
“I know,” sighed Beka. “I just did not expect it all to come flooding back the moment I saw him. Next time I will be more prepared for it. I just have to keep reminding myself that he’s married and just a guy I knew for a little while a long time ago.”
“Exactly. And in a week he will be out of your life forever.”
Chapter 4
For reasons he could not understand, Clarke found himself pacing restlessly around his hotel room. He could not get his mind off of Beka and her mysterious plans. What was she doing tonight? Who was she meeting? He shook his head, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. Why did he care? It certainly wasn’t his business who she spent her time with. She was just someone he knew a long time ago.
In fact, now that he thought about it, he hardly knew anything about her life. She had told him about her work, and they had reminisced about the past. Other than that, he knew nothing. Was she married? Did she have kids? Was she seeing someone? She could be in bed with some gorgeous, athletic, genius guy right now.
He heard a snap and looked down to see that he had actually snapped the cheap hotel pen he was fiddling with in two.
I want her. The thought struck him like a lightning bolt. That’s why he cared so much. He wanted to be that man in her bed. He sat down heavily. When on earth had that happened? For years he had hardly ever thought about Beka, and now he suddenly felt possessive of her.
It was ridiculous. After all this was Beka. Perhaps it was just a post-divorce early midlife crisis attraction. That had to be it. He had not thought about any other woman since Jen left. Maybe that’s just what he needed, a meaningless weeklong fling.
The more he thought about, the more sense it made. He was a long way from home, so he knew that he and Beka would not be running into each other all the time. Another advantage was that he knew her. Clarke had never really been the type to jump into bed with a complete stranger. Yes, he decided. Beka would be the perfect rebound hookup.
Chapter 5
Dinner with Clarke went surprisingly well. Beka had felt butterflies in her stomach as she saw Clarke approach the little diner, but as the evening wore on they fell into a comfortable rhythm.
He was different now that they were older. Age had mellowed him a bit, and he was less reserved than she remembered. He also had some grey in his hair now. Even so, he still had the same effect he had on her when they were young. Just the sight of him caused her blood to feel warmer in her veins.
After they had finished eating, he suggested they go out for dessert, so she took him to an adorable little frozen yogurt place just down the road from her apartment. Talking with him was so easy that she could tell if she wasn’t careful she would fall right back into love with him again. It was time to take drastic
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