Their server, an older woman with dark hair pulled up in a bun, brought them menus.
"I thought we"d talk a bit before ordering," Robert said. "Would you like a gla.s.s of wine?"
"Thank you, yes." She grinned. "I"m walking tonight, so I can even have two."
"Wild."
"I have my moments."
They both ordered a gla.s.s of the house Chianti. A few minutes later the busboy brought over a basket of bread and a saucer of olive oil for dipping.
"The bread is excellent," Robert said, offering her the basket.
"I was afraid of that," Charity said. "I"ll wait and try it later." Closer to when they would get their meal, so she wouldn"t have a chance to inhale every slice. "How was your weekend with your friends?"
"Good. We went to a Giants game. They won. My friend Dan is getting married next month, so the trip was kind of a bachelor celebration."
"I"m impressed you went with baseball and not a strip club."
He chuckled. "We"re getting too old for that. Now if we were still in college..."
"Front row seats?"
"In our dreams."
The server appeared with the wine. When she was gone, Robert picked up his gla.s.s. "To a great evening."
She raised her gla.s.s, as well.
"Dan and his girlfriend already have a kid," Robert continued. "A little girl. She"s eighteen months old. It seems like a lot of people are doing that. Have a baby, then figuring out if they want to stay together. I guess I"m old-fashioned. I thought it was supposed to go the other way."
"I agree," she said. "But pregnancy happens. I guess a generation ago, people got married when they found out. Now they aren"t in such a big hurry."
He leaned toward her. "It"s been a couple of weeks. How are you settling in? Enjoying small-town life?"
"I love it. I"m meeting lots of people. I like that I can walk pretty much everywhere. You"re right. There aren"t any secrets, but then I don"t have anything to hide."
"Then you"ll be fine. Have you started looking for a house?"
"Not really. I"m still getting to know the different areas."
"I live on the golf course. Great views. The houses are well-built and a nice size. You should come see my place sometime."
"Sure." She wondered how he afforded one of those homes. She"d seen them on her drive around town and had even picked up a flyer for one. But unless the mayor had a secret plan to double her salary in the next week, Charity couldn"t begin to pay for something like that. Prices were great in Fool"s Gold, but even here a home on the golf course was pricey.
"You said you grew up in small towns," she said. "In California?"
"Oregon. I went to school in Eugene, which is a good-sized town. Got my degree in accounting and went to work for a midsized accounting firm. Then I went into the government side of the business. After about five years, I transferred to the private sector. One of my first jobs was auditing one of Josh Golden"s companies. That brought me here."
"Josh has companies?"
Robert raised his eyebrows. "You didn"t know?"
"No. It"s not as if we"ve spent much time together." The tour of the city had barely been an hour. "I know he used to be some famous bike rider guy."
Robert laughed. "There"s a description to make him proud."
"You know what I mean. I don"t follow many sports. I"d heard about him, but nothing specific."
"He owns several companies. The sporting goods store. He"s a partner at the ski resort, the hotel."
She reached for her wine and nearly knocked it over. "He owns the hotel where I"m staying?"
Robert nodded.
No wonder he chose to live there, she thought, feeling embarra.s.sed for implying he was irresponsible. "I had no idea."
"He hired the firm I worked for and I came out to do an audit. I liked the town. When I mentioned that to Josh, he said they were looking for a treasurer. I applied and got the job."
"It"s a long way from Oregon," she said, still trying to take in the fact that Josh was a business mogul.
"I don"t have a lot of family. I"m an only child and my parents were a lot older when they had me." He smiled sheepishly. "Mom always said I was a miracle." The smile faded. "They died a few years ago. I have a cousin, but that"s about it. I figured I"d make my own family."
"I know the feeling," she said, surprised they had so much in common. "I was raised by my mom. I never knew my dad. My mom took off when she was pregnant, and never told me where she was from. I always wondered if I had relatives out there, somewhere. If anyone knew about us. When I lost her, I felt really alone. I wanted a place to belong."
"So you came to Fool"s Gold?"
She nodded. "A recruiter got in touch with me. I was looking to make a change." Mostly due to a bad breakup, but why mention that?
"I"m glad you moved here," Robert said, his dark eyes gazing steadily into hers.
He was nice, she thought as she smiled at him. Warm and caring and he shared a lot of her goals. He was the kind of guy she was looking for. At least on the surface. If only there was some kind of physical connection between them. Something that...
The hair on the back of her neck stood up. An unexpected warmth spread through her. For one brief shining moment she thought the chemistry had finally kicked in. The second of relief was followed by a mental groan when she saw Josh walking past their table and being seated on the other side of the room. He was with Mayor Marsha and apparently here for dinner.
"Speak of the devil," Robert said lightly, nodding at the newcomers. Marsha waved.
"The downside of small-town life?" she asked.
"I told you. No secrets. Now everyone knows we"re out together."
She was aware of Josh sitting within her line of sight and it took every ounce of control not to stare at him.
"I don"t mind everyone knowing," she said, forcing herself to look at Robert as if he were the most interesting man in the world. The truth was she wanted to run over to Marsha"s table, push the older woman aside and snuggle up next to Josh. The fact that he had a steady stream of women ready and willing to be on call was the only thing that kept her in her seat.
"Good," Robert said, looking pleased. "Are you ready to order?"
"Um, sure." She glanced at her menu, wondering how she was going to be able to eat. Acting something close to normal was going to take all her energy and attention. Honestly, when she got back to the hotel, she was going to have to figure out a way to get over this Josh thing.
She randomly picked a chicken and pasta dish, then closed the menu and reached for her wine. Inadvertently, her gaze slipped a little to the right. Josh was looking at her, his eyes bright with humor. She found herself wanting to laugh.
Reluctantly she turned her attention back to Robert, who was a very nice man. A far better bet than Josh. Apparently she was going to have to keep reminding herself of that over and over again. Eventually it would sink in. It had to.
JOSH LEANED BACK IN his chair. "You did this on purpose."
Marsha didn"t look up from her menu. "I have no idea what you"re talking about."
"Sure you do. You"re one of the smartest people I know."
She set down the menu. "And let me say how much I appreciate you saying people and not women."
"You"re welcome, but not the point. You knew Robert and Charity were coming here for dinner."
"Did I?" Marsha managed to look both innocent and smug at the same time. "Are they here? I didn"t notice."
Josh knew better. "You asked for this table. You wanted me facing her."
Marsha smoothed her white hair. "I am a very busy woman, Josh. I don"t have time to worry about your latest conquest, however interesting she might be."
"Don"t play matchmaker."
"Afraid it might work?"
The real problem was he didn"t want to hurt his friend. Marsha had been good to him and he owed her. "Setting up people never goes well. Don"t you watch reality television?"
"No," she said. "And neither do you. Why don"t you like Charity?"
He studied the woman in question. Despite the fact that she was on a date, she was still dressed like a conservative schoolteacher. A plain dress, b.u.t.toned all the way to the collar. The loose fit and boxy jacket revealed nothing. Did she lack confidence or feel she had something to hide?
He found himself wanting to know which, nearly as much as he wanted to slowly unfasten each and every b.u.t.ton and reveal the smooth, warm skin underneath. Just as troubling, he found himself wanting to talk to her. Just talk.
Not gonna happen, he reminded himself. At least s.e.x was safe. But getting involved? No way.
"I like her fine," he said.
"But?"
"She"s not my type."
"You don"t have a type. That would require being picky."
He raised his eyebrows.
Marsha sighed. "I didn"t mean that the way it came out. It"s just you haven"t gotten serious about anyone since Angelique. The divorce was over two years ago. It"s time to move on."
His lack of dating or interest in dating had nothing to do with Angelique, but he wasn"t going to tell Marsha that.
"I appreciate your concern, but I"m fine."
"No, you"re not. You"re lonely. And don"t pretend otherwise. I"m old and you have to respect me."
"Even when you"re wrong?"
She stared at him, her blue eyes unyielding. "Then tell me I"m wrong. Lie to me, if you can."
He couldn"t and she knew it. "Charity"s looking for something I can"t give her."
"Such as?"
He shrugged. "She"s not the one."
"You can"t know that until you"ve spent some time with her."
"Can you be bought off?"
"How much are you offering?" She shook her head. "I"ll stop pushing. At least for now. You know I care about you, right?"
"I do." He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "You"ve always supported me."
"I just want you to be happy. Men don"t do well alone. You need someone in your life. I think Charity needs someone, too. She hasn"t said anything, but if I had to guess, I would say she"s coming off a bad breakup. So she would understand."
"About the divorce?"
Marsha nodded.
What his friend didn"t get was that the problem wasn"t his divorce. That was just a symptom of everything that had gone wrong.
The truth was, he"d enjoyed a lot about the theory of being married. He was basically a homebody. Angelique had wanted to go out more nights than not, but his best times with her had been spent with just the two of them. He wanted that again-a connection, the familiarity of knowing everything about someone. He"d always thought he would be just like everyone else, with a wife and a couple of kids.
But until he fixed what was wrong inside of him, until he was whole again, he couldn"t be with anyone. He wasn"t asking to rule the world, just be the man he"d been before.
"I"ll be quiet now," Marsha told him.
"If only that were true."
She laughed.
Josh felt his gaze slipping over Marsha"s shoulder, where he could see Charity speaking intently with Robert.
They looked like they belonged together, like they could be a couple. Charity would be better off with someone like Robert. A regular guy without a lot of baggage. Without the ghosts that kept him always searching for an answer he could never find.
THE REST OF CHARITY"S week flew by in a blur of meetings and planning. She"d managed to set up an initial conversation with a large hospital that was thinking of expanding. She was determined to convince them that Fool"s Gold was the best possible location for them.
By late Friday she was tired and oddly restless. She tried to watch television and when that didn"t work, she went downstairs where the hotel kept a small library of DVDs. None of them appealed. On a whim, Charity went back to her room, grabbed a green hoodie and headed outside.
It was a little after nine, dark and cool, but warmer than it had been. Spring had finally arrived, chasing away the last of the below-freezing temperatures. Streetlights flooded the sidewalks and made her feel safe, as did the women she saw who were out and about. There weren"t a lot but she knew several of them by sight, if not by name.
She walked by the bookstore but Morgan was long gone. She usually saw him sweeping his front porch and stopped to talk at least a couple of times a week. Knowing he was a part of the landscape of Fool"s Gold made her feel as if she"d made the right decision to move here.