But her test was over now.
“He asked me for pre-war sex,” she finally said. “In case he never came back. And I shot him down. And now I keep thinking, what if he never found his last lay? Helovedwomen. What if I was his last chance? What if he was flirting with me to make me feel better? What if I’d done the same for him? What if I’d stayed and kissed him and that changed everything in the rest of his life by the right number of milliseconds it would’ve taken to change his destiny? I don’t want tomarrythe guy, but I don’t want him dead either.”
“Anna, if you kissed him, those little puffs of air missing from when you flew out of that parking lot might’ve been the ones settling out the pressure in the jet stream and keeping a tornado from exploding over New York City next week.”
Right. And marriage was forever.
Kaci reached over and squeezed her hand. “You can’t butterfly-effect him back.”
“But what if it all means I’m supposed to get hit by a bus tomorrow and never kiss another man inmylife?”
“You got a man you wanna be kissing?”
Anna slunk back in her seat. “I don’t want to get married again.”
“Kissing isn’t marrying.”
“This is hardly appropriate. Look what happened to the last guy who tried.”
Kaci clucked her tongue. “You’re sitting here telling me a man who loved women wouldn’t want us talking about you and men? Those uptight sensibilities of yours are about as right as a rainbow without the rain. You still got some time on this here earth. You gonna live it, or you gonna let it live you?”
“I need to finish my classes and get my degree so I?—”
“Pshaw. You keep putting off living a full life during your todays, you won’t know fun tomorrows if they smacked you in the butt and called you honey-pie.”
“English?” Anna sputtered.
“Gotta find your balance.” Kaci slid an envelope across the table then plunked a small gold box of Godiva on top of it. That sly sparkle was back. “Speaking of, somebody thinks I’m nothing but your messenger girl.”
Anna’s heart pittered in an unsteady rhythm. Bold, masculine handwriting spelled outAnna Graceon the back of the envelope.
Kaci reached for her coffee mug. “What I hear, he ain’t so big on getting married either,” she said over-innocently.
Anna fingered the ivory envelope. It was thick and soft. High quality. The pen marks were clear, no streaks or smudges. No obvious indents in the letters either.
These days when Anna scribbled her name, she nearly went through the whole paper.
“You gonna open that?”
“What’s it say?”
Kaci’s eyes went big, and she clasped a hand over her heart. “That there’syourmail.”
“What’s it say?” she repeated with a smile at her friend’s feigned innocence.
Kaci took a sip of coffee. “Can’t do your living for you. ’Sides, Lance wouldn’t let me have it till I left to come up here to meet you, and that didn’t leave any time to steam it open. Couldn’t tell you if I wanted to.”
“I’ll look at it when I get home.”
She moved to slide the note and the box into her purse, but Kaci dropped her coffee and lunged across the table. “Now that’s no fun. How’m I supposed to giggle over it with you if you’re not gonna open it with me?”
Anna wasn’t sure there would be any giggling. But she slid a finger under the envelope flap anyway.
The note was written in the same bold handwriting on a linen note card. Not what she expected of a guy whose hand mixer had only one beater. His momma must’ve kept him stocked in stationery.
But she was pretty sure his momma wouldn’t have approved of the message.
Anna Grace,
