A Weekend Getaway Read Online Free PDF Page A

for her purse, but
Parker insisted on paying the tab. The wait staff was pretty busy with other
tables, so he made his way through the crowd over to the bar while she headed
for the exit. When he joined her in the crisp night air, she tried to give him
his blazer back, but he refused. Instead, Parker put a hat on her head that had
been hidden behind his back. “There. That’s better.”
    She pulled it off and looked at
it. It was a pink baseball cap with the name of the bar embroidered on the
front: The Blue Note. She giggled. Back in college she’d often worn a baseball
cap when she was too busy to curl her hair. “You didn’t need to do that.”
    The two of them started walking
toward the union hotel when Beth thought about Ivy and that mysterious man. Was
it safe to go back? Beth stopped. “Wasn’t your apartment around here
somewhere?”
    The exact address was 124 Knight
Street, Apartment C, but Parker didn’t need to know that she’d remembered.
    He looked down the road. “Sure.
I wonder what it looks like.” His brown eyes twinkled in the streetlight.
    “Let’s go see.” They made their
way toward the apartments. Soon they were outside a three-story brick building
with wrought-iron balconies. Beth, on student loans and financial aid, had
lived in the dorms. But even back then Parker had had the best of everything.
Yet somehow he didn’t come across as spoiled or entitled. She’d loved that
about him.
    They both looked up to a dark,
second floor apartment. No parties tonight.
    She remembered kissing him on
that balcony. Making a fool of herself. God, how she’d fantasized that it was
just the beginning, but she’d been so wrong. She swallowed. “I wonder if they
still throw anti-Valentine’s Day parties there.”
    He chuckled. “It was so nice not
to have to pair up just because it was February fourteenth.”
    “You’re telling me.”
    “What I wouldn’t give to go
back...”
    “Really?”
    He stood there in the quiet,
looking longingly up at his old place. His gaze slid down to her face.
    Her pulse throbbed in her neck.
It was one of those moments. The moment before the big moment. She could sense
it. He tilted his head down as if he were going to kiss her. Her eyes closed
and her body screamed, “Yes, yes!”
    But something clicked in her
brain. She stepped back.
    He straightened and cleared his
throat. “Sorry. You probably think I’m a jerk. It’s just that. . . things aren’t going so well with Ivy.”
    “I’m sorry.” What else could she
say? And why had she pulled away? Even after Parker had broken her heart, she’d
kept dreaming of his kiss. His compassion for the downtrodden, his easy,
dimpled smile, everything about him seemed to cancel out his flaws.
    But now it was too late. Drew
was a good man. The first man to see past the number on her scale. The first
man to invite her to move in. Sure, he’d become engrossed in fixing up the
house and raising Emma, but he loved Beth. And she loved him.
    She sighed in frustration. “Do
you want to talk about it?” How selfish of her. Pretending to care but secretly
relishing that Parker’s marriage stood on shaky ground.
    “No.” He wiped his hands on his
pants. “I should go talk to her.”
    They walked back together, making idle small talk. Traffic
had diminished, just as their enthusiastic conversation had.
    Back at the union, the interior of the limestone building
echoed with their footfalls. Beth held her breath as Parker took his blazer,
then opened the door across the hall. She exhaled with both relief and
disappointment when he greeted his wife, who was apparently alone.
    # # #
    Bright and early the next
morning, Beth called home again. Still no Drew. Frustrated, she hung up and dressed
for the service project. The Leadership Club was all about giving back to the
community and today they were helping at the Salvation Army. Checking herself
out in the bathroom mirror, she placed her new pink baseball cap onto her head
and