Blindsided (Indigo Love Spectrum) (3 page)

“Norris.” She approached him with open arms.

He returned her warm embrace. “It’s been a long
time.”

“Too long.” Gail took a step back. “Look at you. Just
as handsome as ever.”

“And you’re just as stunning. More.” Her flawless
dark skin was as supple as ever, and her warm brown eyes
still sparkled like two bright diamonds. “You never did share directions to the fountain of youth.”

“No directions, just a fact of nature. Good black don’t
crack.” She laughed, returning to her chair.

Norris chuckled with her. She used to always say that.
“My first taste of forbidden fruit.” He took the seat in
front of her desk. “That’s what you called yourself.”

“I was, wasn’t I?”

“Depends on what you call forbidden. I’m aware and
have always appreciated the many beautiful hues of the
world, but your race didn’t make you forbidden. The fact
that you were thirty-five and I was twenty is a different
story.”

“The old lady and the stud.”

“You weren’t old, and I wasn’t a stud. At least not until
you got finished with me.” He smiled. “I had some great
times with you. I was a little hurt when you disappeared.”

“I thought it was for the best.”

“Maybe.” He brushed his hands against his thighs. “It’s been nearly seventeen years. What prompted the call?”

She tucked a wisp of straight black hair behind her
ear. “I think that can wait a few minutes. I want to hear
about you. I know you’re an accountant.”

“I have my own firm downtown, but you already
know that. How long have you been back in South
Carolina?”

“Just over a year. I missed it here. ”

“Where did you go?”

“New York. Long Island. I wanted to spend some
time with my parents. They were up in age, and both
very sick. They died a few months after I moved back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Gail.”

“Thank you. It was very tough for a while. I was their
miracle baby. They were from big families and wanted a big family, but had a hard time conceiving. There weren’t
a lot of options back then, but when all hope was lost,
along came me. Mom was forty-three.” She expelled a
breath. “How did we get on me? I was asking about you.
What’s new in your life?”

Norris smiled.
What was new? Dahlia, Dahlia, and
more Dahlia.
“You know me,” he said.

“I do. That’s why I’m wondering. You got tired of it
yet?”

“It?”

“That playboy lifestyle. Back in the day, I could tell
you had a lot of living inside of you dying to be lived. But I also knew that need wouldn’t last forever.” She clasped
her hands together and perched them on her desk. “Your
blonde, blue-eyed friend. Your shadow, uhm . . .” She snapped her fingers.

“Ryan?”

“Yes. Ryan. How is he?”

“Wonderful.” Norris laughed, pulling out his wallet
and a snapshot of his best friend with his family.
“Expecting twins.”

Gail gazed wide-eyed at the photo. “His wife’s black.”

Norris gasped. “She is?” He laughed as Gail rolled her
eyes. “Ryan lost his first wife eight years ago, but after
three years of mourning, he and Justin found Lara, and
she’s fantastic. They’ve been happily married over four
years.”

“What a beautiful little girl they have.”

“Sweet Angelica.” Norris smiled with thoughts of his
precious goddaughter. “She’s incredible. A little heart
breaker.” He returned the photo to his wallet. “I feel like
a proud grandparent pulling out this picture. I don’t
know what’s happening to me.”

“It’s endearing, Norris. You’ve changed so much. A
good change. Not that you were a bad person before.
You’ve just . . .”

“Grown up?” He shrugged. “It was bound to
happen.”

“I guess so. You have snaps of your own little ones?”

“Can’t take photos of what you don’t have. No wife or
kids.”

“You don’t want children?”

“
Well . . .” He tilted his head from side to side. “A
thought has passed through my mind a time or two.
What about you? You ever find the right guy and have
kids?”

“Yes and no.”

“Sounds like a story.”

“It is quite a story. And somewhat involved.”

Norris crossed his legs and settled into the chair.
“Let’s hear it. I’m not going anywhere.”

Gail sighed. “Hmm. I honestly don’t know where to
start.”

“The beginning is always good.”

She nodded. “All right, the beginning. When you
walked into the E.R. with your severely sprained wrist, I
was at a crossroads in my life. You were young and flirta
tious, and I took advantage of you, and I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t take advantage. I was a willing participant.”

“I know, and that’s how I took advantage. I wanted
something from you, Norris, and when I got it, I left. No
good-bye, and no explanation.”

“We weren’t in a relationship. Not a real one. You
didn’t take anything I didn’t give. It was six great weeks.
I would have liked a goodbye, but I don’t have any
regrets. Is that why you called me over? To apologize?”

“No. I’m—I’m not sorry about what we shared. That
time with you gave me the biggest thrill of my life.”

Norris laughed. “I fancy myself a thrill-giver, so I’m
glad to have your joy confirmed. But, honestly, Gail, any
thrill I gave you was equaled by the one you gave me.
That was an incredible time for me.”

“
Me, too. And you did give me joy, Norris, so much
joy, and that’s what I need to tell you about.” Gail closed
her eyes for a long moment, drawing a deep breath.

Norris watched her closely, curiously. Though it had
been years, he couldn’t recall ever seeing her at a loss for
words. It made him nervous. “Gail, what do you need to
tell me?”

She lowered her hands and met his gaze. “I think it might be easier to show you.”

Gail turned the picture frame on her desk in his
direction. A beautiful, smiling young woman with
flowing curls of dark hair and the golden skin promised
by tanning lotion companies stared back at him. Norris
held the picture closer. The girl had light eyes. Gray eyes.
His heart leapt to his throat. “Gail?”

“I was an only child, Norris. Before I left Denburg, I
thought long and hard about how it would feel to be all
alone, and I didn’t like it. I had my cousins, but it wasn’t
the same. I wanted my own family, and when you walked into my E.R., I saw a way to get it with no ties. You didn’t
see my seduction coming, but by the time I was done, I
had what I wanted. I had your baby, Norris. You have a
sixteen-year-old daughter.”

Dahlia picked up the phone a couple of times, but
after five minutes of start and stop, she finally stopped.
She hadn’t spoken to her sister in two years, but with that
Atlanta area code staring her in the face, calling Leslie
would remain impossible. Once inseparable, now more
than miles kept the sisters apart.

Dahlia folded the message in half and placed it in
back of her desk drawer. She needed potato chips.
Grabbing three quarters from the mug on her desk, she
checked in on Reese at the dryer and then high-tailed it to the vending machine.

Halfway through the bag of ripple chips, her com
fort food, Dahlia closed the package. Potato chips had
always been her weakness, but eating in itself was the
true culprit. Unlike her parents, Leslie, and her older
brother, Quentin, she had always struggled with her
weight.
‘You’re big-boned like your granddaddy,’
Flora,
her maternal grandmother, who was of slight build like
Dahlia’s mother, used to always say. Her grandfather
died before she was born, but Dahlia found comfort in
her grandmother’s words. Only after she’d lost the
weight during her sabbatical did she realize the fat on
the bones and not the bones themselves had made her big.

T
hat truth didn’t come easily. Grade school through
high school had been a nightmare. Fat, smart Dahlia.
You’re such a pretty girl, why don’t you lose a few pounds?
Dahlia tossed the bag into the trashcan next to the
vending machine. She still cringed when she thought of
that line from ‘well meaning’ family members and friends.
Older people seemed to feel reminding someone of his or
her physical imperfections was a God-given right.

Thanks to the chips, she’d have to spend at least thirty
extra minutes on the treadmill tonight. Losing eighty
pounds wasn’t easy. In fact, aside from accepting that her
lie of a marriage had come to an end, it was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

Dahlia smiled at her reflection in the glass of the
vending machine. Having gone from a round size twenty
to a curvy ten, she looked good and felt even better.
Norris constantly showered her with compliments. He
had a way of making her feel like the most beautiful
woman in the world. In fact, Norris had a way of making
her feel a lot of things, many of which she didn’t want to
feel.

Intelligent, funny, wealthy, gorgeous, and an incred
ible lover who wanted no ties, Norris personified a dream
walking. The fact that the no ties line had become a bit
skewed for her didn’t mean she couldn’t clear it up,
because a relationship was the last thing she wanted.
Relationships were hard and painful. What she had with
Norris worked because neither wanted that monkey on
their back. They were about making each other feel good,
and mixing emotions into that would break the magic
a
nd make things tense. And she wanted her life free of
tension.

Dahlia made her way back to Reese. She’d been under
the dryer ten minutes, enough to thoroughly condition
her thick mane of curls. She gave the girl’s shoulder a pat
and lifted the dryer hood. “Time to rinse.”

“I think you should cut my hair,” Reese said when she
was settled at the sink. “Preferably like yours, classy and
cute.”

Dahlia started rinsing. “I’m not cutting your hair.”

“Aw.”

“Reese, as grown up as you think you are, you’re only
sixteen. I’m not going to cut your hair unless your
mother says so.” Dahlia finished rinsing, wrapped a towel
around Reese’s damp hair, and ushered her back to the
booth. “How is Gail doing? With her wedding two weeks
away, I bet she’s excited.”

“She is. Excited and anxious. Ben’s the same way.”

“I hope their excitement turns into a lifetime of hap
piness.” Unlike her dozen years with a lying cheat.

“They’ll be very happy,” Reese said. “And who knows,
maybe you and your guy can keep the trend going.” She
smiled in the mirror at Dahlia.

Dahlia wagged an admonishing finger, a warning she
could use on herself. Because try as she might, she
couldn’t help thinking about Norris and having a happy
future with him.

* * *

“I . . . I don’t understand,” Norris stammered, his eyes
never leaving the picture. “How did . . .”