Francesca's Kitchen by Peter Pezzelli

Author:Peter Pezzelli
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2006-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

Despite ample experience to the contrary, Loretta always hoped for the best. Life had left some deep scars on her psyche, especially when it came to love. Whatever luck she might have once had in that particular field of endeavor had, it seemed to her, vanished with the dinosaurs. Perhaps it was because she was a single mother and, as such, viewed as easy prey by the men she met, but all her romantic endeavors since David had left her inevitably seemed to end up as fiascoes. Each dismal encounter left a painful mark on her, but hope had a palliative effect. It dulled the sting and helped her forget the mistakes of the past. It was a powerful elixir without which she would have long since succumbed to despair and given up the dream. And so, whenever she met a man who offered the slightest prospect of bringing a measure of warmth and love and stability to her life, she pushed the hard lessons of experience from her mind and let hope have its day.

Such being the case, Loretta told herself that Ned Hadley had many appealing qualities. He had a good head of hair, a reasonably handsome face, and bright, playful eyes that never seemed to stop darting about. He had a pleasant enough personality and a certain charm about him, that easy air of confidence that comes from having money. He had excellent taste in clothes, and dressed every bit like the up-and-coming businessman he was. He had a great car. He had a membership at a private country club, to which he took Loretta that night for dinner. And there, it seemed, he had many friends, for as the host escorted them to their table in the dining room, couples inevitably looked up and greeted him as he passed.

“Hey there, Ned. Good to see you. How’s your mom and dad?”

“The Nedster! How’s it going?”

“Looking good, Nedley! When are you heading south to play a few rounds?”

These salutations came from the men, all of them exchanging winks and approving nods with him, as if they were acknowledging a shared secret or some private joke. For their part, the women generally just looked on, smiling vacuously while sizing up Loretta with cool, calculating eyes, much the way a scientist might regard a lab rat. Hadley greeted them all, tossing out casual banter to anyone who might say hello, as he and Loretta took their seats. He had a cheerful riposte for each of them.

As she settled in at the table and the busboy filled their water glasses, Loretta looked about at her surroundings. The lighting was a trifle too bright, she thought, and the tables, in her estimation, set too close to one another. The former gave the room a louder, less formal ambiance than it deserved. The latter gave those with big ears—and she guessed that there were more than a few in attendance—easy audience to private conversations other than their own. It was not an intimate room by any means.

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