Cole looked as confused as Robin felt.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” She wanted to reassure him, but was having too much trouble analyzing her own reactions.
“Let’s sit down and talk about this.”
“No,” she said quietly. Adamantly. That was the last thing she wanted. “I’m sorry, Cole. I really am. This has never happened before and I don’t understand it either.”
“But...”
“The best thing we can do is chalk it up to a long workweek.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Probably, but I’d prefer to just forget it. Please?”
“Are you all right?”
“Emotionally or physically?” She tried to joke, but didn’t succeed.
“Both.”
He was so serious, so concerned, that it was all Robin could do not to dissolve into fresh tears. She’d made a world-class fool of herself with this man, not once but twice.
This man, who had suffered such a tremendous loss himself, was so gentle with her, and instead of helping, that only made matters worse. “I’m sorry, really I am,” she said raggedly, “but perhaps you should go home now.”
Four
“You know what I’m in the mood for?” Angela Lansky said as she sat on the edge of Robin’s desk early Monday afternoon.
“I certainly hope you’re going to say food,” Robin teased. They had shared the same lunch hour and were celebrating a cost-of-living raise by eating out.
“A shrimp salad,” Angela elaborated. “Heaped six inches high with big fresh shrimp.”
“I was thinking Chinese food myself,” Robin said, “but, now that you mention it, shrimp salad sounds good.” She opened her bottom drawer and took out her purse.
Angela was short and enviably thin with thick brown hair that fell in natural waves over her shoulders. She used clips to hold the abundant curls away from her face and looked closer to twenty than the thirty-five Robin knew her to be.
“I know just the place,” Angela was saying. “The Blue Crab. It’s on the wharf and worth the trouble of getting there.”
“I’m game,” Robin said.
They stopped at the bank, then headed for the restaurant. They decided to catch the Market Street cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf and joined the quickly growing line.
“So how’s the kid doing?” Angela asked. She and her salesman husband didn’t plan to have children themselves, but Angela enjoyed hearing about Jeff.
“He signed up for baseball through the park program and starts practice this week. I think it’ll be good for him. He was lonely this weekend now that Blackie’s back with Cole.”
“But isn’t Blackie over at your place as much as before?” Angela asked.
Robin shook her head. “Cole left early Saturday morning and took the dog with him. Jeff moped around for most of the weekend.”
“Where’d your handsome neighbor go?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Robin asked with a soft laugh, hiding her disappointment at his disappearance. “Cole doesn’t clear his schedule with me.”
The way he’d left—without a word of farewell or explanation—still hurt. It was the kind of hurt that came from realizing what a complete fool she’d made of herself with this worldly, sophisticated man. He’d kissed her and she’d started crying. Good grief, he was probably doing backflips in order to avoid seeing her again.
“Do you think Cole was with a woman?”
“That’s none of my business!”
“But I thought your neighbor said Cole spent his weekends with a woman.”
Robin didn’t remember mentioning that to Angela, but she obviously had, along with practically everything else. Robin had tried to convince herself that confiding in Angela about Cole was a clever way of thwarting her friend’s matchmaking efforts. Unfortunately, the whole thing had backfired in her face. In the end, the last person she wanted to talk about was Cole, but of course Angela persisted in questioning her.
“Well?” Angela demanded. “Did he spend his weekend with a woman or not?”
“What he does with his time is his business, not mine,” Robin reiterated. She pretended not to care. But she did. Too much. She’d promised herself she wasn’t going to put any stock in the kiss or the powerful attraction she felt for Cole. Within the space of one evening, she’d wiped out every pledge she’d made to herself. She hadn’t said anything to Jeff—how could she?—but she was just as disappointed as he was that Cole had left for the weekend.
“I was hoping something might develop between the two of you,” Angela murmured. “Since you’re obviously not interested in meeting Frank, it would be great if you got something going with your neighbor.”
Robin cast her a plaintive look that suggested otherwise. “Cole Camden lives in the fanciest house in the neighborhood. He’s a partner in the law firm of Blackwell, Burns and Dailey, which we both know is one of the most prestigious in San Francisco. And he drives a car with a name I can barely pronounce. Now, what would someone like that see in me?”
“Lots of things,” Angela said.
Robin snickered. “I hate to disillusion you, my friend, but the only thing Cole Camden and I have in common is the fact that my small yard borders his massive one.”
“Maybe,” Angela agreed, raising her eyebrows. “But I could tell you were intrigued by him the very first time you mentioned his name.”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“It isn’t,” Angela insisted. “I’ve watched you with other men over the past few years. A guy will show some interest, and at first everything looks peachy-keen. You’ll go out with him a couple of times, maybe even more, but before anything serious can develop you’ve broken off the relationship without really giving it a chance.”
Robin didn’t have much of an argument, since that was true, but she made a token protest just the same. “I can’t help it if I have high standards.”
“High standards!” Angela choked back a laugh. “That’s got to be the understatement of the century. You’d find fault with Prince Charming.”
Robin rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hold back a smile. Angela was right, although that certainly hadn’t slowed her matchmaking efforts.
“From the time you started talking about your neighbor,” Angela went on, “I noticed something different about you, and frankly I’m thrilled. In all the years we’ve known each other, this is the first time I can remember you giving a man this much attention. Until now, it’s always been the other way around.”