Harper closed her eyes, imagining the scene in her head, the private Cantor jet winging its way into the airport, a police escort through a hive of fans. “You’ll shut down the whole town!”
Kelsey pulled her dark sunglasses down from her hair, covering the top half of her face. “I can be all incognito about it.”
“There’s absolutely nothing incognito about you, Kelsey.”
Sighing, her friend pulled off her glasses, and with it, her smile wavered. “What am I going to do without you on this coast?”
“Same thing you always do. Go play with your swanky friends and break the hearts of the many gorgeous guys who ask you out on real dates.”
“It’s not like what you think, Harper.”
“Your life is all glamorous in my head.” She zipped up the duffel. “And I can’t handle any more surprises right now.”
“Not all surprises are bad.”
But in her experience, most of them were. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you either.”
Kelsey gave her a hug. “We’ll talk all the time.”
“Of course.”
“Friends forever.”
Harper nodded. “Forever.”
“I’ll take you to the airport when you’re ready.”
“Thank you.” She took a deep breath. “I need to find Wendi. Then I’m ready.”
“Come on.” Kelsey picked up the bag. “Let’s break you out of here.”
7:Olivia
“I’m mortified that I missed your lecture,” Olivia told Professor Farrow, her face flushed as he greeted her at the door of Antoine’s Eatery near Swarthmore. “Everyone was gone by the time I arrived.”
“It’s my fault.” He removed his stiff homburg hat and smoothed back a rogue lock, golden drops linking his French cuffs. “I noted the wrong meeting hall on my calendar and then gave that information to you.”
Her frustration at missing his talk turned quickly into compassion over his demanding schedule. “I thought I’d made the error.”
“The mistake was solely mine.” He opened the restaurant door, then followed her into a warm lobby that smelled like caramelized sugar and freshly baked bread. “I almost missed my own lecture.”
“The making of a nightmare!”
Professor Farrow hung his hat on a rack. “Fortunately, I arrived in time for a colleague to hurry me into the auditorium before my introduction.”
“That’s a relief.”
A waiter led them to a table before handing them menus. The professor sighed as they studied the dinner options. “I fear my age is catching up with me.”
If he considered himself old, she must look quite ancient. “I suspect you’ve barely reached the year of thirty.”
“Thirty-three,” he said. “And each year rolls by more rapidly than the last.”
“I wish I could tell you that the years slow with age.” Now—a blink of life—and she was rapidly approaching her forty-sixth.
“Everything seems to have slowed down since I lost my wife.”
Olivia’s eyes swept up from the menu, surprised at his admission, but he wasn’t looking at her. Instead, his head had turned toward the window as if he might catch a glimpse of his belated wife in the fading light.
