Color of Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

been placed directly under her chair. Before long Leah felt the beginning of a headache pounding at her temples.
    She finally spotted Allen in the front row of the audience to her left, seated next to Gail. They were laughing and Gail was trying to place a Stetson on Allen’s head, but he wasn’t going to allow it. Leah was grateful that for the moment her sister and Allen seemed compatible. Yet even as she watched them together, she felt isolation and envy engulf her. She didn’t understand why she should feel this way. Soon Gail was called away to see after yet another detail of the evening, leaving Allen alone.
    By the time the show was drawing to a close, Leah’s head felt ready to fall off her shoulders. There was too much cigarette smoke, mixed with the smell of spilled wine. Too many different perfumes and colognes in the air. Too much music and too many people. She was ready to go home.
    When Allen brought his car around to the side door of the store, Gail was ready to leave as well, and she stood waiting with Steven.
    “Can you give us a lift?” she asked Allen pleadingly.
    It was obvious to Leah that that was the last thing Allen really wanted to do. But he shrugged.
    “Where to?”
    Gail took hold of Steven’s arm and smiled up to him. “Steven’s place.”
    Leah felt somewhat grateful that Steven was paired with her sister, if for no reason than she hoped it might quell his interest in her, which he didn’t even try to hide. It irritated Leah that her sister would be attracted to someone so shallow.
    “Did you enjoy the show?” Gail asked conversationally from the backseat.
    “I thought the models looked like hookers,” Allen offered dryly.
    “I thought they were fabulous,” Leah said with a yawn.
    “Tired?” Steven asked her. Leah didn’t answer.
    “In other words, you didn’t like the show,” Gail said to Allen.
    “Do you really care what I think?”
    “Not especially,” Gail admitted airily. “If you knew what you were talking about, you’d have my job and I’d be in banking.”
    “Is this a domestic fight?” Steven asked with a laugh.
    Allen made an impatient sound.
    “Could you turn on the heater? I’m cold,” Leah murmured.
    “As soon as the engine warms up a little.”
    Gail chortled and reached between the seats to turn the heater on. “If you drove a better car, we wouldn’t have to wait,” she said.
    Allen made another impatient sound.
    Leah settled into her seat with closed eyes, letting the petty argument drift around her. She didn’t care what it was about. She just wanted to take some aspirin for her headache. She wanted the comfort of silence and solitude. She wanted her own thoughts and imagination to wrap herself in.
    Allen made the stop requested on University Place in lower Manhattan, and then he and Leah drove back to the Brooklyn brownstone.
    “I could really use something to eat,” Allen hinted broadly.
    Leah smiled benevolently at him. “If you’re willing to do the cooking, be my guest.” To her surprise, he did.
    Leah helped and together, at nearly midnight, they were having waffles with strawberry jam and hot coffee. The second round of coffee was taken in the living room as they sat on the sofa listening to a CD of Luther Vandross. Leah leaned against Allen’s chest, feeling sleepy and more generous toward him than she’d been in a long time. She’d forgotten how nice it was to be with him sometimes, like now, when it was quiet and romantic and he didn’t talk too much, but just held her.
    Allen had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and stretched his legs out in front of him. Leah had her head against his shoulder as she sat with her legs curled up, touching his thigh.
    “Ummm. This is nice. Very nice.”
    Leah just smiled to herself but didn’t say anything. She relaxed against him. She knew Allen well, knew what would happen next, and suddenly she didn’t really mind. She felt in the mood. He would begin to stroke her arm, and then