Love Finds You in Holiday, Florida by Sandra D. Bricker

Author:Sandra D. Bricker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Love Finds You in Holiday, Florida
ISBN: 9781935416258
Publisher: Guideposts
Published: 2011-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

15 ACROSS: Enticing; captivating; beguiling

Receiving an invitation from Cassie Constantine at seven o’clock at night to come over and have a latte seemed rather out of character, but Richard wasn’t one to look a gift-Gidget in the mouth. By seven thirty, he was standing at her front door and waiting for her to answer the bell.

He glanced at the palm tree in the yard, its trunk illuminated like the stem of a red-and-green candy cane. At its feet were two freakishly ugly flamingos, both of them wearing collars of lights and so neon in their neon pink that they clashed with the Christmas lights, even in the Florida twilight.

“Richard, come on in,” Cassie said as she pulled open the front door. “I’m glad you could come.”

As he ruffled the fur behind Sophie’s ears, he had the urge to look around with caution for signs of a trap door or a net that would scoop him up and hang him from the ceiling. He comforted himself with the reminder that she would certainly get to the point as soon as they were settled. Was she finally going to address the admission of interest that had spilled out of him on Christmas? He’d wished at least a hundred times since then that he could pull back those clumsy words, edit them a bit, and then reissue them as a better first draft.

“It’s decaf,” she told him, setting two mugs of foaming coffee on the dining room table. She sat across from him and began scratching something on the handle of her mug.

“Thanks,” he said, and then he took a sip from the cup for lack of anything better to do. “Mmm. Pretty good.”

“Yes?” she said with a smile that brought up those perfect round apples in her rosy cheeks. “Good. I’m…I’m glad.”

They were as silent as a stockpiled bomb in the next seconds that ticked by, and it was just about all Richard could do not to call attention to it. But at last Cassie pulled open the casing and exposed the missile in the room.

“Richard, I hope you won’t mind me bringing this up. I was wondering, though, if you could possibly tell me… I mean, I probably have no right to even ask…but I’ve heard some things and…”

“It’s true,” he said, breaking the ice with a steel pick.

“It is?”

“Yes,” he said while nodding, “I tried out for Dancing with the Stars.” He took another drink of the latte.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I know I’m not a big star or anything, but I just can’t live without that big glittering disco ball trophy. I have to take the chance.”

She stared at him, a queer little question mark forming on her face.

“I’m kidding.”

“Uh. Oh. Of course you are.” She released a chunky little “Ha!” and then rubbed her temple. “That was…funny.”

“Cassie, you obviously have something to say to me. Just relax and say it.”

He took another drink from his coffee cup to give her preparation time, and then he set the mug

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