Salvatore: An In Too Far Novel by Cecy Robson

Author:Cecy Robson [Robson, Cecy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cecy Robson, LLC
Published: 2019-03-12T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Aedry

“Come shopping with me tomorrow,” Donnie chimes on the other end of the line. “We’ll hit a few shops uptown and maybe catch a late lunch.”

When I first met Donnie, I never expected someone like her to be friends with me. She’s a fabulous city girl, and I’m very much a small-town girl at heart. I was taken aback when she stopped by Sal’s the other week unannounced. I was making them dinner and I wondered how often she dropped in in my absence.

Sal and the boys weren’t particularly excited to see her. They assured me it wasn’t something Donnie often did. Sal especially appeared tense and he kept encouraging her to leave. I convinced him to let her stay for dinner. I’d made a lot of food and she seemed lonely and sad, despite the smile she repeatedly flashed.

Donnie chatted up a storm during our meal, insisting I give her my number. She left abruptly when it was time to clear the table. I didn’t expect her to call, but she had every day since, reinforcing my belief that she lives a lonely life.

“I can’t tomorrow,” I tell her. I race around my office with the receiver tucked between my chin and shoulder as I tidy up.

“Why not? We had so much fun Monday. And, you said yourself, Sal liked the dress I picked out.”

I don’t mention to Donnie that Sal also loved the shoes and the lingerie, but she can probably guess as much. “We’re taking the boys to a winter festival in Pennsylvania,” I explain. “Food, sleigh rides, that sort of thing.”

The first few times Donnie reached out to me, I made excuses to avoid meeting her. I had trouble believing that she and Sal were always “just friends.” She’d spent our entire dinner clinging to him and the boys. It was hard to watch and almost too much to handle.

Donnie is . . . gorgeous. I’m not typically insecure and I’m comfortable with the way I look. But Donnie has a face and body that belongs in Maxim. The only way I’ll ever grace Maxim is if I tape a picture of my face to the cover.

It’s when I realized how desperate Donnie seemed for a friend that I finally gave in. I’m glad I did. Like I suspected, she doesn’t have anyone in her life to lean on. Those women I saw her with at the club were more devoted to what she could do for them than what they could do for her. And regardless of how confident she is in her beauty, those uncertainties she hides beneath trendy clothes and expensive cosmetics poke through when she thinks I’m not paying attention.

“Would you like to come with us?” I ask, realizing how quiet she becomes.

She laughs. It seems forced. “Can you seriously see me on a back of a sleigh?”

I see her point. Our most outdoorsy excursion included a walk through Central Park, following lunch at Tavern on the Green. “No. Not really.”

“Vincent doesn’t like that kind of thing,” she adds quickly, trying to add merit to her argument.

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