He’d show up at the park tomorrow, at the usual time, and hope she was there. If she still wouldn’t agree to dinner he’d take it down a notch and persuade her to join him for something less likely to crush his spirit in the first five minutes.
There was a tap on the door and he minimized the screen a few seconds before Marsha walked into the room.
“Your two o’clock has canceled so I moved up Alan Bright.”
“No problem. Do you dance?”
“Excuse me?” Marsha stared at him.
“Dance. You know—tango, salsa, that kind of thing.”
She smiled. “Daniel, if I did the tango, I’d spend the rest of the week with a chiropractor. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.”
“You mean no reason you want to talk about. I’m intrigued.” She folded her arms. “Are you going to tell me why you asked?”
“No.”
Marsha rolled her eyes and made for the door. “That’s what I thought. But if you’re not going to share, stop teasing.”
The moment the door closed behind her, Daniel typed New York Salsa Dance Club into the search engine.
After two minutes he was able to understand Marsha’s response.
Why not join her at an activity she loves?
How about because he didn’t have a clue how to dance? He’d fall over his feet or, worse, he’d fall over her. That would hardly advance his cause, although it would be a novel way to find himself on top of her.
Dating was complicated. It was no wonder Aggie was busy. He was still in the process of trying to find out her identity, but right now it wouldn’t have surprised him if Aggie had turned out to be a team of forty people. Judging from the volume of advice that was given out, each of them was probably working full-time on researching answers.
And he didn’t need to write a letter to know what to do next.
It was time to tell Molly the truth. He’d tried to do that earlier, but she hadn’t given him a chance.
Thinking about giving people chances made him think about Brutus. He wondered whether the people who had come to look at him had liked him. Should he have mentioned to Harriet that the dog liked to drink from puddles?
He sat back in his chair, wondering how Molly was going to react when she discovered the dog wasn’t his.
Hopefully she’d be flattered that he’d gone to so much trouble to get her attention.
She had a keen sense of humor, so he was pretty sure she’d find it amusing.
He’d tell her the truth, she’d laugh and then they’d go out to dinner.
* * *
She’d overreacted. It was a kiss, for goodness’ sake. One kiss.
What she should have done was give him a smile, thank him and walk away with her dignity intact. Instead she’d run like Cinderella hearing the first chime of midnight.
Thinking about it made her cringe, and she’d cringed her way through a mostly sleepless night and woken early with a head full of cotton wool.
She’d taken Valentine for a quick walk in the park, going earlier than usual and taking a different route so that there was less chance of bumping into Daniel.
Valentine had been unimpressed by the change in routine and the lack of canine company.
She’d let him off the lead for a short time and sat on a strange bench, trying to think about the meeting she had with her publisher later, but only managing to think about Daniel.