Chapter 8

I got the story a few days later. Amanda told me over coffee. “Brian had a best friend in college and one weekend he invited him home to meet his family. On look at his friend’s little sister and it was over. They dated exclusively and married one week after he graduated. Then he brougt his friend home and while it wasn’t love at first sight the flames were there. We married a year later. Brian and Valerie had twin boys a year after they got married, little redheaded clones of their mother. Jim and I had Marcus the next year, and Tammy two years later. Both were very successful at their chosen professions and when Jim’s grandfather wanted to sell his old cabin on the lake Jim and Brian bought it together. We spent many pleasant weekends fixing the place up until it was a nice little vacation home.

She sniffled and I took her hand in mine. “You can stop if you want.”

“No, it’s all right. We were all going up for a long weekend. Brian was caught up in a trial that ran late and I had a committment to the school I had to keep, so Jim and Valerie took the twins and left to get the house ready. The truck driver tried to beat a light and make a left turn at too high a speed and the trailer fell right across the car. They had to use a Jaws of Life tool to get them out.”

“I believe Brian would have sold the house and moved if it hadn’t been for us. He made all the funeral arrangements, filled out the forms to collect on our insurance policies, and found a really good lawyer for the civil case against the trucking company. I got $500,000 and he got $750,000 before the case went to trial. Jim owned an insurance company and made sure we were all overinsured, so I have enough money to maintain my standard of living for the rest of my life and pay for college when the time comes.”

“How did Brian hold it together?”

“He went silent for over a year. He did his job, working ungodly hours for a while. It got him national recognition and the next year he started his own office and it continues to grow.”

“What does he do?”

“He’s a psychologist and has a private practice. He also does a lot of consulting work for law enforcement as a profiler. He mostly works with the F.B.I. and Homeland Security. Both have tried to hire him full time but he likes his independence.”

Well, that would explain how he got into my head so quickly. I finally asked the question I’d been dying to since the conversation started. “Does he date? Is he in a relationship now?”

Amanda sighed. “No.

“Not at all?”

Her laugh was sad. “The closest thing he’s had to a date was sharing ice cream with you. Too bad you’re married. I think you would be great for him.”

I secretly agreed but just said something inane about timing and left it there. I tried putting him out of my mind but every time I saw him I would daydream.

The economy at the time was in a bit of a downturn, and Mark came home from work really upset one day. I asked and he said all the managers had to take a temporary deduction in pay to keep their jobs. It wasn’t long until we felt the pinch. Frustrated, I offered to find a job but he shot that down immediately.

We’d gone from winter to spring and that cheered me up a little. I resumed walking again. I was in the park one day and saw Brian running the trails. He was shirtless and I was pleased to see he didn’t manscape. Mark did, and I secretly thought it looked funny with the little paunch he was developing. It kind of reminded me of a pudgy twelve-year-old who hadn’t hit puberty yet.

He wasn’t thickly furred, with just a light pelt of brown shining in the sun. I got an image of running my hands through it and tingled all over. Talk about being twelve, I was seriously crushing on this guy.

He wasn’t as chiseled as some of the other guys out running. It was sad, really. No one was looking at the younger guys. Every female in the vicinity was focused on him.