Winter Interlude (47 page)

P
aul glanced at his watch
.
He sat at the bar in RJ’s on Chestnut Street
, nursing a glass of chardonnay
. Judith was due any moment.
H
is thoughts
, however,
were on
Kate
,
a
nd Jame
s’
phone call the day before
.
His brother’s casual mention of
Kate
and their upcoming date ate a hole in his gut
.
She
obviously hadn’t broken things off
.
He didn’t want to care
that she
hadn’t, but he did
.
Plus
,
he didn’t want to be envious of their relationship, but he was.

To make matters worse, he had to be careful about what he said and how he said it around James
.
All part of the competitive game of one-upping they played
, s
ibling rivalry at its best
,
where neither missed an opportunity to goad the other
.

James was sharp
.
Paul had already caught the speculation in his brother’s voice
over
his reluctance to discuss the weekend
.
He could
ha
ve kicked himself after telling James to have fun and to treat
Kate
right
.
He snorted and rolled his eyes
.

Talk about giving him an invitation to dig
in
deeper
!

Since returning from Tahoe, he’d immersed himself in work to keep from going
crazy
.
Unfortu
n
ately,
after his conversation with James,
investing
money
and seeing it grow
failed to provide the usual escape
.

He wanted to storm over to
Kate
’s apartment and shake some sense into her
.
H
is desire to
force
her to see that she and James were wrong for each other was driving him
nuts
.
Jealousy over the fact that she’d gone out with his brother last night had also reared its ugly head, and Paul didn’t much like the feeling
.
Not toward James
.
And to top it all off
?
He now had to deal with Judith, who’d arranged to meet him for dinner
.
That had been another gut-eating phone conversation
,
to be sure. Especially when he’d zoned in on her solemn tone, indicating their meal would include one of her
‘
talks
’
about
‘
friendship
.
’

He shook his head and frowned
.
He looked forward to seeing her, but also dreaded it, wishing she didn’t feel the need to
set things right
one more time
.

He’d done some soul-searching over the last few days,
and
had
concluded
that Judith had always been upfront and honest
.
In all the time he’d known her, other than those few weeks they’d discussed marriage, she’d never wavered about just being friends
.
H
e
had simply
never accepted her
words at face value
.

He looked up just as Judith
stepp
ed through the door.

“I need one of those,” she said, nearing the bar and nodding at his drink
.

“Bad day?” he asked, meeting her gaze
.
He then signaled the bartender and ordered a glass of BV
c
abernet
—
her favorite.

“You don’t know the half of it
.”
She huffed out a huge sigh and plopped down on the stool next to him
.

“Our table should be ready soon
.”
As her wine appeared, he added, “So
,
tell me what’s put that frown on your face
.”

“Why do some men have to be such pigs
?”
Her grimace widened as she reached for her glass.

“Ah.
” Paul nodded
.
“I gather this
pig
has something to do with one of your jobs
?”
When she nodded, he gestured with his hand and said, “Let’s hear it
!
Who is it and what did he do to
earn
such a low opinion?”

“One of the inspectors on my strip mall project is giving me a hard time and won’t okay the permit on the electrical wiring
.
There’s nothing wrong with the work
.
But he keeps citing nonexistent infractions
.
I think he’s retaliating because I wouldn’t have drinks with him.”

“You want me to beat him up for you?” Paul joked, in an effort to make her laugh
.

“Would you
?”
Her lips curled
into a smile
and her shoulders relaxed
.
“I’d derive an enormous amount of pleasure at seeing him bowled over in pain
.”

“Let me check my schedule
.”
He pulled out his cell phone and pretended to
peruse his calendar
.
“I can fit
in
a beating on Friday
.
Will that be soon enough?”

She laughed
.
“I don’t know
.
I’ll have to get back to you on that
.”
She sighed contentedly
.
“It’s amazing what the thought of having someone beat to a pulp does for my mood.”

“I aim to please
.”
A frown replaced his smile
.
“
T
his guy’s really giving you a hard time?”

“No more than usual
.”
She shrugged
.
“I can get around it because I’ll just keep calling for an inspection
.
With three or four inspectors available on any given day, I have more than a seventy percent chance of not getting him
.
Since the odds are with me, it’ll eventually pass
.
But it’s a hassle, not to mention a lot of wasted time and effort
.”

“Just another day of being female in the city, right
?”
When she nodded, he added, “Hey
,
you could always marry me and then you’d have a better excuse to keep the jerks off your back.”

Paul groaned inwardly at her sharp intake of air and slight stiffening
.
How had it come to this
?
Had he been so clueless to the signals she put out over time
?
Regret filled him
.
What distressed him even more about this situation was that he’d spoken totally in jest, but she obviously felt differently
.

“I’m sorry
.
I guess it’s too soon to joke about that between us
.”
He valued friendship, especially Judith’s
.
H
e realized
at that moment
he wanted her to view him as a friend, like she’d done before they’d started talking about marriage
.
He vowed to
take the
necessary
steps
to make it right
.

She cleared her throat and pursed her lips, then met his gaze and hesitated, as if reaching for the right words
.
“Paul, you know I’m never going to marry you, don’t you?” she said with quiet finality.

Thankful to have the words out and in the open, he searched her sad eyes, his full of remorse
.

“Yes, Judith, I know that
.”
He never wanted her to feel that she had to keep up a barrier in order to deal with him again
.
When she was about to say something more, he placed a finger over her lips
.
“You don’t need to say another word
.
Let’s just leave it as it was
—
a thought of what might have been
.
I asked and you said no
.
End of discussion
.”

“
Wow!” she said, with a strangled laugh. “What are you drinking?” She picked up his glass and sniffed. “Maybe I should have one of these, too.”

She was obviously trying to put a lighter spin on the seriousness of the situation, but she couldn’t disguise the relief in her voice.

“Same thing I always get.”
He held up his glass
and changed the subject.
“Now
,
finish telling me about this schmuck who is making your life a living hell
.
Maybe I can give you some advice on how to handle him.”