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“When you called, you said you wanted to apologize.” This time, she chose to sit across from him on the sofa. “And as I told you on the phone, it’s not necessary. I know you were upset about the way the media have been prying into your life.”
“That doesn’t justify the way I behaved, but I want you to know I...” He hesitated as the truth hit him like a ton of bricks.
He was here not simply to apologize but because of the way she had looked at him. As if he could give her something no one else could give her. He’d responded to her in a purely masculine way.
“I want to set the record straight,” he finally concluded.
“Well, you can consider it straightened,” she said with an indifference he found annoying.
At that point in the conversation, he should have excused himself and headed for the door. The air had been cleared. There was no reason for him not to walk out of her life and not look back.
But something kept him sitting in that chair. Maybe it was the haunted look in her eyes. Or maybe it was because he could smell the faint aroma of her perfume. Or maybe it was because he simply liked looking at her. Whatever the reason, instead of getting up to leave, he said, “I see the cast is gone.”
“Gone, but not forgotten,” she remarked dryly.
“I broke my arm as a kid and I still remember what it was like. Heavy. Itchy.” He shook his head wistfully. “Your leg’s going to be okay, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “The doctor said it healed remarkably well.”
She looked everywhere but at him when she talked. Tyler wondered what was going through her mind and finally asked, “And what about the rest of you? Has that healed remarkably well, too?”
Her head jerked up. “It’s been a slow process, but I’m getting there.”
“I’m glad to hear that” The silence that followed quickly became awkward. Tyler ended it by saying, “I should probably go.”
Just as he was about to get up, she said, “Do you ever wonder why we were chosen?”
“Chosen for what?”
“To survive.”
The question caught him off guard. “I don’t think we were chosen exactly. It just happened that way.”
She looked at him then, her eyes filled with uncertainty. “None of the others had a chance to escape,” she said quietly. “Why us?”
Tyler knew exactly what she was saying. He would have been lying if he’d told her he didn’t ever question the reason for their survival. But it was a subject he kept tucked away in the back of his mind in a file he didn’t want to access. That’s why he breathed a sigh of relief when his pager beeped.
“Is there a phone I could use?” he asked.
She pointed to the one on the end table, then stood. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
Tyler waited until she was gone, then phoned the number showing on his pager. It was the security guard at the plant wanting to let him know that a missing set of keys had been found. Nothing that needed his immediate attention.
Kristen didn’t know that. He could easily have said he was needed at the plant and left. He didn’t. He wandered into the kitchen where he found her filling a kettle at the sink.
“I thought I’d have a cup of tea. Would you like one?” she asked over her shoulder.
He glanced at the counter and saw a can of clam chowder for one. He had a pretty good idea that it was going to be her dinner as soon as he was gone.
“You like seafood?” he asked her.
“Yes, why?”
“I know a great place where they make good clam chowder.” He saw her glance at the can of soup. “Want to come with me?” The words were out before he could question their wisdom.
“Now?”
“You haven’t eaten, have you?”
“No, but—”
“So let me buy you a bowl of real soup.”
“That’s not necessary,” she said, blushing.
“You don’t need to eat?” he asked, trying for a lighter tone.
It didn’t work. “You don’t have to buy me dinner.” She set the kettle on the stove.
“I’d like to.”
“It’s a nice gesture, but...” She paused as if considering whether or not she should tell him the reason for the “but.” Finally, she said, “I find it’s better if I don’t go out in public”
“Better how?”
She looked a bit uneasy as she said, “Being on television makes me the object of attention. I prefer to stay home rather than have people staring at me.”
“Did you feel this way before the crash, too?”
“Not really. With a job like mine, I expect to be recognized, but what I don’t want is pity.” She hugged herself as if suddenly cold.
“Then you’ll like this place with the great clam chowder. It’s small, and all the people who go there only want a quiet dinner.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Really.”
“Really,” he repeated. “So will you come?”
From the way she hesitated, he thought she was about to turn down his offer. Then to his surprise, she said, “I’ll get my coat.”
KRISTEN DIDN’T UNDERSTAND why Tyler had asked her to dinner. Even worse, she didn’t understand why she’d accepted. She didn’t want to go out in public, yet here she was in his car on the way to a restaurant where people would stare at her.
Even though the swelling had gone down and the bruising had disappeared, the surgery had left subtle differences in her face that seemed more noticeable to her than to others—at least that’s what Gayle told her. And although she could hide most of the scarring with makeup so the rest of the world didn’t see, she knew what lay beneath the creams and powders.
As they pulled into the parking lot across from an old warehouse in downtown Minneapolis, Kristen felt her muscles tense. Neon signs identified several bars and restaurants in the building. Tyler led her through a door with an overhead sign flashing Eddie’s in red lights with an arrow pointing up.
They climbed two flights of stairs before he pushed open a door that led into the restaurant. The atmosphere was casual, the lighting dim. Piano music drifted across the room, muting the sound of clinking silverware. They checked their coats at the small counter inside the door, then waited to be seated.
Judging by the maitre d’s enthusiastic greeting, Tyler was a regular guest. Their host led them to a table for two in a corner of the room, smiling knowingly as he held Kristen’s chair for her.
Before she could sit, however, Tyler said softly, “Why don’t you take this one. That way you can see the piano player.”
Kristen knew a better view wasn’t the real motive for his suggestion. In his chair, her left side would be hidden from the other guests.
“Thank you,” she said, changing places with him. Suddenly self-conscious, she fumbled with her napkin, adjusted the silverware and took a drink of water. Then she glanced across the room to where a woman sat at a piano playing a medley of pop tunes. “This is an interesting place.”
“I like it because you can hear yourself talk and because Eddie makes the best clam chowder in town.”
“Then you come here often?”
“Not anymore. At one time, Brant Electronics used to be just around the corner, so we spent a lot of time here.”
They hadn’t been sitting there long when a couple walked by. Kristen reached for her purse on the floor.
When she straightened and looked at Tyler, he asked, “What bothers you more? That they’ll recognize you as the Channel 12 anchor or that they’ll see your scars?”
She looked into his eyes expecting to see pity, but there was none. There was merely an interest she found comforting.
“Both,” she answered honestly. “Before the accident I knew people often thought I looked different from the way I looked on television, but maybe now they’re wondering if that difference isn’t because of the accident. Everyone knows I’ve had plastic surgery.”
“That sounds like a normal concern someone in your situation would have.”
“I haven’t been out in public much since the crash.” She toyed with her silverware again and finally said, “Look. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.”
“Wait Give me a couple of minutes,” he said, getting up from the table. He was only gone maybe two or three minutes before he returned with the maitre d’. He bent and whispered in her ear, “We’re moving.”
They followed the host to a door marked Private. It was a banquet room with several long tables. Tyler pulled out a chair for her at the end of one of them, as the maitre d’ left only to return moments later with a tablecloth, silverware, wineglasses and a bottle of sparkling wine. When he finished setting the end of their table, he poured them each a glass and said, “I’ll send someone in to take your order.”
As soon as he was gone, Tyler asked, “Is this better?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Another silence stretched between them and again Kristen had to wonder why he’d brought her to dinner. Not once on the way over in the car had he mentioned the crash, and from the sober expression on his face, she wondered if he wasn’t regretting his invitation.
Finally, she said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For your having to sit in here. You can’t hear the music.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t come for the music.”
“Why did you come?” she couldn’t resist asking. “Or maybe I should ask why did you bring me?”
His eyes met hers. They looked uncertain, something she was convinced was a rarity. Tyler Brant appeared to be a man who knew what he wanted. “Maybe I just don’t like to think of anyone eating soup for one.”
She lowered her eyes. He felt sorry for her. That was the last thing she wanted to hear. “I’m usually not alone. You forget I have a fiancé.” She waved her diamond solitaire in front of him.
“Then the crash hasn’t delayed your wedding plans?”
“No. Why should it?”
“KC’s column in the paper said—”
“Do you always believe what you read in a gossip column?”
“I usually don’t read the gossip column.”
“Good, because it’s very often just based on hearsay.”
“Then you haven’t put your personal plans on hold?”
“No, nothing’s changed,” she answered, knowing perfectly well that her answer wasn’t the truth. However, her relationship with Keith wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with Tyler Brant. She lowered her eyes, worried that what she was thinking might be reflected in her eyes.
“That’s good,” he answered.
“Yes, it is,” she agreed with a false confidence. “What about you? I know that you were on your way to Hibbing to survey the damage from a fire to one of your plants that day. Is your life back to normal again, too?”
“Yes. Busy as usual. Never enough hours in a day, it seems.”
“You have a daughter, right?”
“Yes. Brittany. She’s six.”
“What’s she like?”
He smiled affectionately. “Precocious. Knows far too much for a six-year-old.”
“Does she know about the plane crash?”
He nodded grimly. “She saw my picture on the front page of the newspaper when she was at the grocery store with my mother.”
“Did it have any lasting effect on her?”
“No, she’s fine,” he answered.
“What about you?”
“I’m fine, too.”
Kristen felt a wave of disappointment. She’d been hoping he’d give her some hint that he, too, hadn’t completely recovered from the emotional trauma of the crash.
“You’re lucky,” she told him.
Any warmth that might have been in his face disappeared. He looked her straight in the eye and said, “No. I wouldn’t exactly call myself lucky.”
She wanted to ask him what he meant, but the appearance of the waiter preempted any further conversation. At Tyler’s suggestion, Kristen chose the evening special along with a cup of clam chowder.
