Waiting for Your Love (Echoes of the Heart) by Anna DeStefano

Author:Anna DeStefano [DeStefano, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-06T04:00:00+00:00

“You’re not still planning on going to Charlotte,” Barbara Summerville complained the next morning as she watched Clair pack. “You’re still negotiating with those PetClub people?”

From her disapproving tone, you’d have thought Clair was packing for a “Girls Gone Wild” jaunt to Vegas. Instead of flying out in a few hours for a day of meetings at the heart of North Carolina’s tech corridor.

“I’m taking care of my business, Mom.” Clair left the bed to slip her best suit and two casual-but-not-too-casual dresses into her garment bag.

Not that she’d decided yet whether she’d wear the suit tomorrow, to PetClub headquarters. Or if a dress would be appropriate for the dinner scheduled later tonight with two of the company’s top executives. She’d also packed slacks and a silk blouse with a coordinating jacket, and khakis and a golf shirt, just to round out her options. Once she arrived and knew whether tonight’s destination was an authentic barbecue joint or five-star Italian or something in between, she’d sort out her look.

She headed for the bathroom to root in the bin beneath the sink for her travel hair dryer.

“Work business,” her mom chided. “What about the business of finally doing something with your personal life? You and Conrad looked so happy yesterday. His mother and I are thrilled. And he’s a doctor, honey, with family money coming his way one day. You don’t need to worry yourself to death about business anymore.”

“I don’t need to…?”

Clair tossed the hair dryer into the shoulder tote she’d carry onto the plane. She bit her lip to keep from screaming.

“I won’t have to worry about my business anymore, the life I’ve built for myself?” She faced her mom. She couldn’t remember a single instance of Barbara praising her for the tireless discipline it had taken to grow ALL PAWS and PAWSMatch into what they were today. “Because if Conrad and I stay together, I’ll have what? Snagged myself a successful doctor who’s going to save me from ever again having to decide anything more stressful than what to make for dinner?”

“Why would you want to keep doing things the way you are now? I’ve never understood this compulsion of yours to focus your energy on anything and everything except the people and things that should make a lovely young woman truly happy. Is work really all you think you need? The rest of your life must seem so empty.”

“Because my end-all, be-all should be finding myself a man and becoming compulsive about my life with him? The way you have with Daddy? Is that why you fill your days with playing tennis twice a week at the country club and volunteering for every committee in town? Is all of that making you happier about your empty life?”

Clair loved her mother to distraction, but things between them couldn’t go on like this, not without clearing the air. Especially if Clair was about to move hours away.

“I’m not the one who needs to rethink her personal life,” Barbara said pleasantly.

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