Wyoming Wildflowers: The Beginning Read Online Free PDF

her.
    No matter what.
    No matter how much he wanted her. No matter what he saw in her eyes. No matter how little time they had. He wouldn’t do that to her.
    She had to feel this, too.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Friday
     
    Relief so strong it smarted her eyes was Donna’s first reaction.
    Ed Currick stood outside the elevator when its door opened at the lobby the next morning. As if he’d stood sentry all night. Except he had shaved. And dampness in his hair and across the shoulders of his jacket showed he’d been outside in the flurries she’d noticed from her room window.
    Still, the notion that he’d stood here, in the spot where she’d left him, pooled irrational warmth in the pit of her stomach.
    She was going to see him again. She
was
seeing him again.
    “Ed.”
    Relief, and maybe something else
.
    “Good morning, Donna. You said you like to see the towns you’re in, and I hope you’ll see some of Denver this morning with me, then have lunch.”
    She tried to keep her smile from stretching too wide. It was daylight, and their ships weren’t passing. They were standing face to face—
    “Excuse me. The rest of us would like to get off the elevator.” Lydia’s voice from behind her made Donna jump.
    She and Ed moved sideways. “Oh, sorry! Uh —”
    “Hi, I’m Lydia, Donna’s roommate.” She stuck out a hand, and he shook it as the others started past, blatantly studying Ed. “And you’re Ed, and now I’ll make my much desired exit.”
    “Nice meeting you, Lydia.”
    “You, too, Ed.” She waved, then called to the others, “Wait up.”
    Perhaps in response to Lydia’s call, MaryBeth turned back toward them, her words reaching them clearly: “. . . if he does, we’ll get a week off from her dragging us to dusty old museums.”
    Lines fanned out from the corners of Ed’s eyes, though his mouth remained straight. “So, if I take you to dusty old museums, I can win points with you
and
your friends.”
    As if he needed any added points with them. Or her.
    “You’d think I was trying to kill them by getting them to know a little about the towns we’re in,” she said. “I don’t even try to get them on tours anymore. You should have heard —”
    “You do have a way of showing up at my door,” came the familiar — if not quite as famous as its owner liked to think — voice of Angela Ford from behind Donna. By stepping aside from the first elevator, she and Ed had moved in front of another, this one a direct trip to the exclusive floors.
    Angela addressed Ed, and only Ed. She placed a hand on his arm.
    Donna supposed Angela meant it to look as if she were gently guiding him out of her way. More like the woman was holding on to him with no hint of letting go.
    “Morning, Ma’am.”
    Ed reached up to touch the brim of his hat, easily dislodging Angela’s hold, at the same time grasping Donna’s elbow and drawing her to his side with his other hand.
    “Good morning, Angela.” She added a bright smile.
    “Oh. Good morning.” She looked from one to the other of them. Her smile disappeared. “My car’s waiting.”
    With that, she swept past.
    “Family, huh? Wasn’t that what you said last night?” Ed said, as the exterior doors swung closed.
    She chuckled. “Every family has a few difficult cases.”
    “So, what do you want to see first?”
    “Oh, Ed, I’m sorry. I can’t. I would love to, but I have to be at the theater. That’s where we’re all heading. Well, I don’t know where Angela’s going. But the rest of us. With everything going on, there hasn’t been a run-through for understudies.” It was her favorite part of their routine. But now, for the first time, she would have willingly given it up. “But after lunch —”
    He shook his head. “I have afternoon meetings.”
    “Oh.”
    “Would you go to dinner with me? Supper I guess, after the show?”
    “I can’t. I have —” She stopped dead, a sudden idea speeding through her head.
    “Plans,” he filled in evenly.