Nothing In Common Read online

  "I feel terrible." She groaned, crumpling the note paper into a sweaty ball in her fist.

  "What’s this got to do with Mr. Gorgeous?" Darren took the paper away from her and tossed it into the trash.

  Lila shrugged. "Nothing. Everything. I don’t know. Nothing now, I guess."

  "But before?"

  "I told him when we met that men like him didn’t date women like me." The confession made her feel stupid.

  "What?" Darren yelled so loud Lila was grateful she had shut her door. "Damn, girl, what’s the matter with you?"

  He looked so righteously angry that Lila couldn’t help smiling. "I’m a moron?"

  "Yes, you are a moron. And I hope you get over that."

  "I just don’t want to get hurt again." Contemplating, Lila bit the end of her thumb. "And the way things are going, I think I could."

  "Could, shmould." Darren sounded so much like Rivka, Lila had to smile. "You never get anywhere if you don’t take risks."

  "Do I pay you to give me advice?" Lila still felt horrible about the scene with Ned, but Darren was right. William had hurt her on purpose. It didn’t make what happened with Ned right, but it did make seem less wrong.

  "You know what I got to say to that." Darren got up from his chair. "I thought we were going to lunch."

  "Sure, let’s go." She would carry the scene at the mailroom with her for a long time. Knowing she hadn’t meant to cause Ned pain didn’t make her feel any better about it, but at least it had made her think.

  CHAPTER 6

  Shoppers crammed the mall from one end to the next. Lila began to regret her decision to come at all. She hated being forced to press up against people she didn’t know, and long lines at the cash register made her crazy. If she hadn’t already scoured every specialty shop in downtown Harrisburg for the perfect gift to give her sister as congratulations on the gallery opening, she’d just turn right around and go home.

  "Let’s make a break for it!" Tom pointed to a spot in the crowd that had magically cleared.

  For such a large man, he moved with the grace of a dancer. Grabbing Lila’s hand, he wove them in and around the other shoppers until he had pulled her into the slightly less crowded food court. Spotting an empty table ahead, he dove for it and nearly knocked over a teenage couple more intent on seeing how many body parts they could press together than on watching where they were going.

  "Sorry," Tom told the young man, who merely shrugged. "C’mon, Lila, let’s sit down and have something to eat. I’m starved."

  "My treat for putting you through all this."

  "All what?" Tom looked around the crowded mall with mock surprise. "Being part of a stampede is my idea of a good time."

  She laughed. She laughed a lot when she was with him. It was just the way he made her feel.

  "Thanks for coming with me. I really want to find Rivka something special."

  "Any reason to spend some time with you is good enough for me." Tom leaned over and brushed a kiss against her lips.

  Lila knew she was grinning like an idiot, but couldn’t help it. The past two weeks with Tom had been like something out of a movie. When work or other commitments prevented them from meeting for dinner, he invariably called her before going to bed. They’d spoken every day for two weeks and had never run out of things to talk about.

  "What can I get you?" She wanted to kiss him again, but was well aware of the crowd around them. It wouldn’t do to get carried away, and she knew herself too well. She didn’t have a whole lot of self-control where Tom was concerned.

  He wiggled his brows lasciviously. "You know what I like, baby."

  Lila rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know what you like. But what do you want me to buy you for lunch?"

  "Cheeseburger, fries, soda. The heart-attack special."

  "Hold down the fort. I see a couple of mall crawlers over there eyeing this seat."

  "I’ll guard it with my life." Tom spread out his hands as though to cover the entire table. "Hurry back. I’m so hungry I could eat a bowl of lard with a hair in it."

  Lila screwed up her face in disgust. "You have such a way with words, Tom."

  "Thanks."

  "Modest, too."

  Tom grinned an aw-shucks smile. "You’ve got me pegged, Lila."

  She was pretty hungry herself. Shopping did that to her. She made her way through the throng, heading toward Mr. Burger. Though she tried to stay away from junk food, Tom’s order had suddenly got her mouth watering. She gave the order to the paper-capped teen behind the counter, adding a chocolate milkshake instead of a cola for herself.

  "In for a penny, in for a pound," she said wryly, mentally calculating the calorie load. "Or more like four or five pounds."

  While she waited for the food, Lila glanced back to where Tom sat. He was no longer alone. A tall, auburn-haired woman now sat across from him. As Lila watched, the woman laughed, tossing back her head until her gorgeous hair flowed halfway down her back.

  A tiny sense of unease crept into Lila’s stomach. She shook it off. She bumped into people she knew all the time at the mall. Tom had obviously just met someone he knew.

  And knew rather well. A sudden sick sensation flowed over her. The redhead leaned across the table to lay her hand across his. From Lila’s angle she couldn’t see Tom’s reaction, but the other woman’s face was clear as spring water. The redhead was smiling and fluttering her eyes. She was flirting.

  "Order’s up," the gangly youth in the Mr. Burger uniform announced.

  "Thanks." Lila took the tray.

  She didn’t really want to walk back through the crowd. Not with the redhead still sitting in Lila’s seat. Lila’s mouth felt like sand, and the tray felt as heavy as stone. She forced a blank smile to her lips and made herself put one foot in front of the other until she had reached the table.

  "Lila!" Tom seemed glad to see her.

  "Oh." The word came out from the other woman's painted lips in exaggerated innocence. "Am I sitting in your seat?"

  "That’s okay." It was a lie, but Lila set the tray down on the table and made room for it by pushing aside her own bag, though the redhead’s purse was actually taking up more space.

  "I was just leaving anyway." The other woman’s tone clearly implied her haste to exit was mostly because of Lila’s arrival. "I just saw Tommy here and had to stop and say hi."

  Lila nodded silently, a look of what she hoped was neutral interest upon her face. The redhead got up, obviously reluctant to leave Tom’s side though she’d already said she was going. Lila decided not to wait for the other woman to move away from the chair and instead made room for herself at the other end of the table.

  "Lila, this is Heidi." Even with Tom’s introduction, Heidi continued to hover over him. "We used to live in the same building before I bought my house."

  "Which you’ve never invited me to see." Heidi pouted prettily.

  Tom cleared his throat and looked from Heidi to Lila and back. "Sometime, Heidi, I promise."

  "All right." Heidi sighed and squeezed his shoulder in a way that made Lila grit her teeth. "But you promised. You heard him, didn’t you, Lila?"

  "I certainly did." Even to herself, her voice sounded faint.

  "See? Lila’s my witness," Heidi said. "Well, Tommy, I’ve got to run. It was great seeing you again. Call me…my number’s the same!"

  With a swirl of auburn hair, Heidi slipped off into the crowd. Lila kept her eyes fixed on the tray she was unloading. She refused to look at Tom. She wasn’t going to make a scene, though the other woman had obviously been flirting.

  "This burger looks great!" Tom enthusiastically tore open the grease-stained paper. "Thanks."

  "No problem." She forced the lightness.

  She nibbled her burger, though it sank like a stone into her stomach. Seeing Tom with the gorgeous Heidi hadn’t done a lot for her appetite. It was too bad, too, because the burger really did look great.

  "I haven’t seen Heidi since I moved into my house." He