Moment to Moment by Barbara Delinsky

Author:Barbara Delinsky [Delinsky, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Barbara Delinsky
ISBN: 0060876743
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2009-10-14T07:00:00+00:00

“How about dinner tonight?” he asked as they sat at her kitchen table Thursday morning sharing a last rasher of bacon. “I know you’ve got to work late, but I could wait here while you dress now, drop you at the library, then pick you up later so you won’t have to worry about your car. You don’t really want to come home at eight to fix dinner, do you?”

A date. He was actually asking her out! Before she could stop herself, she accepted. That was before she spoke with Liz.

It was late in the morning when she picked up her phone. “Circulation.”

“Rusty Ettinger.”

“Liz, is that you?” They’d long since shelved their differences over Dana’s motivations and aspirations. 182 / BARBARA DELINSKY

“It would have killed me until I remembered! I was just reading the local paper, an article about plans for next year’s Olympic trials, and there was the name, clear as day. Rusty Ettinger was a champion skier a while back. He was headed for the Olympics before he wiped out in a pre-trial race.” When she paused for a breath, she became acutely aware of a silence at the other end of the phone. “Dana, are you there?”

“I’m here,” she answered in a small voice, one commensurate with her feelings at that moment.

“Well, what do you think? Isn’t that exciting?”

“Exciting? That’s one word for it!” Humiliating was a second, intimidating a third, angering a fourth. It was the last that gave force to her words.

“Why are you angry?”

“He could have told me.”

“He told you he skied.”

“Sure. But never quite the extent of it.”

“Dana, it’s nothing to be angry about. I mean, he must have had his reasons.” She grasped at the possibilities. “Maybe it bothers him that he can’t race anymore. Maybe he’s put it all behind him. Maybe he wanted

MOMENT TO MOMENT / 183

you to accept him purely for what he is now. Maybe he even suspected you’d feel uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable? Hmph! That’s putting it mildly.”

“And what do you have to feel uncomfortable about?”

“Liz, if he is what you say,” and given his own sketchiness on the topic it more than was probable, “he’s a celebrity. Do you know how dumb I feel next to him, not to mention having been so far out of the sports scene that I didn’t even recognize his name?”

“So what? If he’s gone so far as to ask you out, he must not mind. And besides, you’re into the sports scene now. What difference does the past make?”

“It makes a difference to me.” And that was the crux of it. She cleared her throat. “Listen, Liz, I’ve got to run. Can I talk with you later?”

“Sure. Hey, when did you say you were seeing him again?”

“I didn’t. But we’re having dinner tonight.”

“Have fun.”

“Yeah.”

It seemed like wishful thinking. By the 184 / BARBARA DELINSKY

time Russ innocently sauntered into the library shortly before eight, she was ready to explode. Greeting him with a tight smile, she took longer than usual to gather together her

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