“I’ve been too busy…. What about you?”
“The same.”
The waiter chose that moment to appear with their food, and they lapsed into silence for a time as they ate.
“Funny,” Web said at last, “I’d really pictured you with a husband and kids and a big, beautiful home in the country.”
She gave a sad laugh. “So had I.”
“Dreams gone awry, or simply deferred?”
She pondered that for a minute. “I really don’t know. I’ve been so caught up with running the business that it seems there isn’t time for much else.”
“You must do things for fun.”
“I do … now and again.” She stopped pushing the Parisienne potatoes around her plate and put down her fork. “What about you? Are you still working as hard as you did at first?”
“I’m working as hard, but the focus is different. I can concentrate on the creative end and leave the rest to assistants. I have specialists for my finish work, and even though I’m more often than not at their shoulders, approving everything before it leaves the studio, I do have more free time. I try to take weekends completely off.”
“What do you do then?”
He shrugged. “Mostly I go to Vermont. I have a small place there. In the winter I ski. In the summer I swim.”
“Sounds heavenly,” she said; meaning it.
“Don’t you still go to Camden?”
She straightened, and the look of pleasure faded from her face. “My parents still do. It’s an institution with them. Me, well, I don’t enjoy it the way I used to. Sometimes staying here in New York for the summer is a vacation in itself.” She gave a dry laugh. “Everyone else is gone. It’s quieter.”
“You always did like peace and quiet,” he said, remembering that day so long ago when they’d gone mountain climbing.
Marni remembered, too. Her gaze grew momentarily lost in his, lost in the memory of that happy, carefree time. It was with great effort that she finally looked away. She took a deep breath. “Anyway, I try to take an extra day or two when I’m off somewhere on business—you know, relax in a different place to shake off the tension.”
“Alone?”
“Usually.”
“Then there’s no special man?”
“No.”
“You must date?”
“Not unless I’m inspired, and I’m rarely inspired.” Just then her eye was caught by a couple very clearly approaching their table. Following her gaze, Web turned around. He pushed his chair back, stood and extended his hand to the man.
“How are you, Frank?”
The newcomer added a gentle shoulder slap to the handshake. “Not bad.”
Web enclosed the woman’s hand in his, then leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Maggie, you’re looking wonderful. Frank, Maggie, I’d like you to meet Marni Lange. Marni, these are the Kozols.”
Marni barely had time to shake hands with each before Frank was studying her, tapping his lip. “Marni Lange … of the Lange Corporation?”
She cast a skittish glance at Web, then nodded.
“I knew your father once upon a time,” Frank went on. “Gee, I haven’t seen him in years.”
“He’s retired now,” she offered gracefully, though mention of her father in Web’s presence made her uneasy.
