A Little New Year's Romance (8 page)

~~*~~

There was a comfort and security inherent to being in her own home. So it wasn’t a palace, or even a small house, but it was
her
place, and Allison wanted nothing more than to stay. However, with her current financial situation, she knew she’d have to go elsewhere in less than a month. How she would be able to afford it was a bigger question. She’d lost her job.

Wait a sec. What did Flanders say about it that day in the meeting? It had to do with the internet, or so it seemed. Think, Allison. What was it?

Then it came. Yes! He’d said that most publishers these days were hiring freelance editors on the internet because it was more cost effective. That’s what ultimately caused him to close Elite Editing Services.

With a renewed sense of hope, she turned on her laptop, opened the search website, and looked up freelance editing. She couldn’t believe the number of sites she found that would help her find work. It took some time to go through those that seemed the most reputable, but she found one that was highly promising.

Signing up to be a member of the site was easy and cost her nothing but a few minutes of her time. Once she’d gotten through the required steps and set up a way to be paid, she looked through the list of available jobs. There were literally hundreds. The pay wasn’t even close to what she’d been making at Elite, but most of them she could almost do in her sleep.

She felt giddy with excitement—and nervousness—as she picked out three that she was sure she could do. Even if she was chosen for all of them, it wouldn’t take her more than a week to get them done. Confidence and hope welled up within her when she’d finished applying for the last one. Now all she had to do was wait for the notice that she’d been chosen—or not.

Of course, she didn’t expect to get any of them instantaneously. She knew it was more probable a notification wouldn’t come for a day or two, but that didn’t stop her from being hopeful.

Two hours later, with still no word, she finally stopped checking for messages every five minutes. Besides, her stomach was launching a campaign to get her to feed it. That’s when it dawned on her she hadn’t had any breakfast, and lunch time was upon her.

Giving in to hunger, she went into the kitchen in search of nourishment. A can of vegetable beef soup would do just fine. She’d have to do some grocery shopping afterward if she wanted to eat for the next few days.

With her lunch finished, she decided not to concern herself with the computer or any messages that may or may not come in. A mission was upon her. She had a need to walk the four blocks to the local store and procure items for her cupboard and refrigerator. Starvation was not going to claim her this week—at least, not if she could stop it.

CHAPTER NINE

The weeks seemed to go past as if on a wild dash to usher in the Spring that was to follow. Allison had gotten all three of the freelance jobs she’d applied for. Each of the clients loved her work enough to keep giving her more. She didn’t question it—or even wonder why it was happening—but simply accepted it.

Although she wouldn’t have admitted it aloud to anyone, Daniel was never far from her thoughts. If nothing else, he’d taught her to be thankful for everything, and she was trying. Yes, she even confessed to herself that God knew how hard she was working to change her life. It was oddly interesting how good everything turned out when she let Him in and accepted His help.

Only two things saddened her just a little.

The first was that she had to give up the apartment she’d come to love. But she’d found another—though smaller—one in a nicer section of Greenwich Village. The kicker was that her rent went down a considerable amount. That was good, because even though she was making money with the freelance thing, it wasn’t as much as she’d made before. But she could pay her bills, and that’s what mattered.

The other issue that brought her a touch of sadness was that the crystal angel she wanted so much was no longer in the window at Tiffany’s. She’d waited a few days after the incident with the media before daring to venture out again. A desire to reconnect had pulled her there, only to find the figurine was gone. A salesperson inside—was her name Taylor?—had told her it was sold not long after Allison had last seen it.

When she thought about the bigger picture, however, she couldn’t complain. She felt happier than she could remember. Even calling her mother was becoming less of a chore and more heartwarming. Yes, it would be a while before she could handle a deep discussion with Mom on anything to do with faith, but she was making slow progress.

Even Marcy seemed to notice the change when they talked on the phone or met for lunch. Oh, and Allison even talked her friend into joining the website, so now Marcy was bringing home a paycheck again.

All things taken into account, life was wonderful. With only one exception.

Most nights she’d lay in bed for hours thinking about Daniel. Sure, she had his cell phone number and she could call him. But he’d been so irate the last time she’d seen him. What if he was still upset with her? No. Best not to bother him further. Besides, he also had her number, but did he bother to call her? Nope. He’d likely forgotten all about her, anyway.

She tossed and turned on those nights, restless dreams interrupting her sleep, waking her up too many times before morning. One of those mornings was particularly difficult for her. Although she wasn’t aware of the fact, it was February 14
^th
. Valentine’s Day.

Dear Lord, why couldn’t she get him out of her mind? What was it about him that kept nagging and tugging at her heart? Okay, so she’d had a boyfriend or two in the past, but none of them affected her the way Daniel did. Was it possible that she’d found her true love? That she was
in love
with him?

No. That couldn’t be it. They’d had less than two days together. But then, every time their hands had touched, there was the sensation of millions of electrical impulses going off simultaneously over her entire body. Nobody had ever caused that reaction in her before. She suspected no one but Daniel
could
cause it.

Maybe she was wrong. Maybe she was in love with him. That would explain why she couldn’t stop thinking about him, and yes, even praying for him and Dylan. Although Daniel tried to be optimistic about his son’s diagnosis, she could tell that deep within he wasn’t as hopeful as he appeared.

She’d done some research on rare bone diseases and had printed out the information on each of the five most uncommon—including the experimental treatments for them. Not knowing which one was plaguing the boy made it difficult, but she figured it was likely one of these.

Of course, it was possible she’d wasted her time doing that. After all, she wasn’t sure Daniel ever wanted to hear from her again. Maybe she could have brought it to the church and left it for him, but there was no guarantee he’d actually get it. And she didn’t know where he lived, so she couldn’t mail it to him.

Even though she’d considered all these things, she still felt the desire to make the sacrifice of her time to compile and print the information. Just in case.

~~*~~

Daniel tried not to think about Allison, but it was a futile effort—not to mention a complete waste of time. The harder he worked to push all thoughts of her aside, the more insistent they became. He was losing sleep wondering if she was still upset with him.

Why had he accused her of such a heinous act? What had come over him that morning? Sure, she caught him off guard with her questions, but did he have to get so defensive? He knew he was only torturing himself with all of this, but he couldn’t help it.

Not one of his reactions that morning made any sense. That wasn’t how he truly was, but it didn’t matter any more, did it? It happened, and she’d stormed off. He hadn’t seen or heard from her since then.

How long had it been? Four, five weeks? If she’d calmed down, she would have called him by now. Wouldn’t she? He thought most any woman would—but then, she wasn’t ‘most any woman.’ She was Allison Benton, and he couldn’t shake her image from his head.

Dear Lord, when would he be able to forget her and have some peace again? Was it even possible that he
could
forget her? And even if he did, would that really bring him any peace? Why must these thoughts of her torment him so deeply?

Of course, he already knew the answer to that last question. He was in love with her. He’d known it from the moment he first looked into those stormy grey eyes that had haunted him. He’d known since the moment she first shook his hand and he felt a thousand volts of electricity hit him.

Yes. He was in love with Allison. Trying to stop his feelings for her would be like attempting to stop a subway train by standing in the middle of the tracks—impossible. That’s why he’d gone to her apartment building two weeks earlier looking for her. But he didn’t know which one was hers. He was lucky, though. A middle aged lady came out soon after he’d arrived, and he asked if she knew Allison. She did, but said the younger woman had already moved out. No, she didn’t know where Miss Benton went.

He couldn’t let that be the end of it. There were ways of finding someone, and he knew just the man for the job. That same afternoon, he’d hired Albert Colson. It hadn’t taken the Private Investigator long to locate her—less than a week—and Daniel gave him a healthy bonus for his speedy work.

Now here he was, in the early morning of Valentine’s Day, buying two dozen of the most perfect long stemmed red roses he could find. Why was he so nervous? Surely she must feel something for him. After all, she’d experienced the electricity, too. Or did she just say that? No. He was sure she’d been truthful about it.

Even if she’d once had feelings for him that were now gone, he still felt he owed her an apology for his barbaric behavior. It didn’t matter any longer who tipped off the media, but he felt sure it wasn’t Allison.

On top of all that, Dylan had kept asking about her. He wanted to know when Daniel was going to bring “that nice lady” home for dinner. Maggie was no help, either. She’d insisted he wasn’t giving Allison enough credit, and that he should call her. That was what eventually prompted him to go to her apartment in the first place, only to find that she’d moved.

However, all of that was behind him at present. He would soon know what her feelings were for him—if she even had any.

He pulled the Lexus up to the curb in front of the address Colson had given him. He’d even found out which apartment was hers.

CHAPTER TEN

“So, are you all settled in your new place?” It was obvious to Allison that her mother was enjoying the more frequent calls.

“Well, there’s a few more boxes to go through, but I’m mostly settled in.” Luckily, the place was furnished—like the last one—and she didn’t need to haul all that stuff up to the third floor. Only a bunch of boxes.

“That’s good.” Ruby’s tone indicated that she had more than just small talk on her mind.

“I’m sure you didn’t call just to chit chat about things.”

There was a brief hesitation on Ruby’s end. “You’ve always been so perceptive, Allison. But you’re right—I did want to ask you about that young man. Have you called him yet?”

She rolled her eyes, even though her mother couldn’t see it. “No, I haven’t. And I probably won’t.”

“Why not, dear? He’s most likely gotten over that little spat by now.”

Allison couldn’t stop the giggle. “Yeah, yeah. I know. You want some grandkids. Neither of us is getting any younger. Yada, yada, yada.” Interesting. She could say this in a playful tone now instead of a sarcastic one. That was definitely something new.

“Don’t be a Miss Smarty Pants.” Ruby was giggling. “But that’s the general idea of it.”

“Well, don’t be surprised if I don’t find a man anytime soon. Daniel’s not the kind who’s easy to forget.”

“Okay, but just keep in mind that the clock is ticking. Tick, tock.”

“Mom! I’m only twenty-eight! Not thirty-eight. I still have some time.” She stifled a chuckle.

“I still think you should’ve smoothed things out with Daniel. Judging by the way you talked about him, it seemed like you really cared for him.” Her mother sounded almost melancholy.

Allison sighed silently. “I’m fairly sure he’s still mad at me, even though I had nothing to do with what he accused me of.”

“Has it occurred to you that maybe he found out the truth, and now he knows he had it all wrong?” That was an excellent question.

“No. I can’t say it has.” Why hadn’t it? Was she so wrapped up in believing he could hold a grudge for so long that a simple thought like that never crossed her mind?

“Well, you might want to give it some consideration. Wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t even care about that incident anymore.”

She made a good point, but enough was more than enough. She had to think of something to get Mom to hang up the phone before the woman made her crazier than Aunt Cindy ever dreamed of being.

“If anything changes, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do today. The sooner I get it done, the sooner I can get paid.” It wasn’t a lie. She’d been given a big editing job the previous day, and wanted to keep her reputation as a good, fast, and reliable editor. Besides, the more work she could put out, the better her financial situation became.

“Okay, dear. I’ll talk to you next week, then.”

“Love you, Mom.”

“Call me if anything changes with Daniel.”

Allison ended the call, giggling. Her mother was incorrigible.

Oh, well. Time to get herself moving. Breakfast wasn’t going to get cooked, nor the coffee brewed without her input.

~~*~~

This was it. The moment of truth.

Standing outside her door, Daniel didn’t understand why he was so nervous. What if she slammed the door in his face? Or worse, didn’t open it at all? What then? He wouldn’t know if he didn’t knock, but still he wavered.