Enchanted Heart Read Online Free PDF

significant occurrence: Lance Heart Smith showing up at her store. Viv wondered at the omission and what that might be saying about her relationship with Julian. She’d been giving somewhat serious thought to marrying him. Life with Julian would never be dull, and they could be content together. She supposed.
    Content.
    Now there was a dull word if ever she’d heard one. There should be more than that to recommend a life commitment. Maybe, as Vicki always said, she was just looking for something that didn’t exist. Or, maybe she considered marrying Julian just because marriage represented something she’d never done. It was uncharted territory—and it didn’t have to last forever.
    It didn’t even have to last six months.
    That thought cheered her for about three seconds, long enough to realize just how pathetic it was. Julian was a nice guy, fun to be around and not bad—but not great—in bed. He deserved better than what Viv had to offer emotionally.
    By the time he cut into the ostrich he’d ordered and Viv stared at her plate of marinated mahi-mahi, the appetite she’d had earlier was gone, her mind on more important things. Like the future.
    â€œJulian,” she said, interrupting his story about . . . With a start, Viv realized she didn’t know what he was talking about.
    Did she make a habit of tuning him out?
    Everything was high drama with Julian, which usually meant everything sounded the same. He could talk about getting gas to fill the tank of his BMW and the tale would be filled with all the flair and adventure of an Arthurian quest.
    â€œYes, love?”
    She put her fork down. “Where are we going?”
    He blinked. “What do you mean? After we leave here? Well,” he said suggestively, wagging an eyebrow, “my place . . .”
    She shook her head. “I mean this relationship. Our . . . friendship?” She reached for her drink. Did she need the alcohol to have this conversation with him? On some level Viv knew she’d been putting this off for a while. She didn’t need to add dulled senses to what could turn into an unpleasant confrontation. Then again, maybe she did. She took a fortifying sip of her second Cosmopolitan.
    â€œWell, what brought that on?” he asked. “I thought that topic had a do not enter sign posted.”
    So had Viv when she’d turned him down the last time.
    â€œI met someone today.”
    His expression changed, grew wary. “Oh?”
    Viv detected a world of hurt and a river of regret in that one word from him. Her brown eyes connected with his green ones—well, green today given the contacts. Sometimes he had blue eyes, and occasionally gray. She wasn’t even sure what his real eye color was. Probably basic brown. But Julian didn’t like anything basic or average. That, she suspected, was why she appealed to him.
    She opened her mouth to explain, to give him some idea of the restlessness and the longing she felt—the sense that life was passing her by. But since even she didn’t know what it was that she longed for, it was impossible to describe her fears to him.
    None of the right words came. Her mind raced with explanations, reasons, apologies. She wanted to articulate the sense of time running out that she felt, even though the things that mattered to other people, the things that got them thinking they might be running out of time, didn’t apply to her situation. Other people worried about illnesses like cancer and AIDS, or divorce and the myriad problems that sent them into a tailspin of regret and pain and depression.
    Viv got there without the attendant drama.
    Julian reached for her free hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed it. “You say the word, Viv, and I’m standing next to you with a ring and a priest.”
    She cast her eyes up at him. Hadn’t she just barely an hour ago decided that if he asked her again she’d say yes?
    She knew