Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel (free ebook reader for iphone txt) 📗

They were both looking into the fire, as Norm turned and put a gentle arm around her. He was a big man, and she felt small next to him. Everything about him promised safety and protection. She hadn’t felt that way in a long time, if ever. She and Carson had a very different relationship, based on business, which was appropriate at the time. But she was in a different place in her life now. And Carson was six years older, always with an eye on the future, and a bigger deal. She was fine with it then, but wouldn’t have been now. He had tried to do the same with Jane, his new wife, but her work had never taken off the way Melissa’s had. She had a small following of faithful readers, but he had never been able to make a big deal of her. Melissa had been his star, and the star had closed up shop and gone out of business.

Norm didn’t say anything, and then he kissed her. Their silences were comfortable. She felt no need to fill them with empty words or clever repartee, nor did he. He kissed her for a long time, and she was breathless when they stopped. She liked the feel of his soft beard on her face. He kept it neatly trimmed, and never looked unkempt, just manly and rugged. There was something irresistibly masculine about him, as though it was the way men were supposed to look, and she was surprised by how attracted she was to him. She had thought of him as a friend before, but doors were opening and revealing vistas she hadn’t let herself consider until now.

“Do we know what we’re doing?” she asked in a whisper, as she searched his eyes and he nodded with a smile.

“I think so. I do,” he whispered back. “I’ve been waiting four years for this. This isn’t a new idea to me. It just feels like the right time.” She nodded, not wanting to disagree, and they kissed again.

“What happens after this?” she asked innocently, and he laughed at the question.

“Let’s see where it goes. There’s no rush to figure it out. Why don’t we just enjoy it?” She nodded. It sounded right to her too.

He tore himself away finally at midnight. He would have liked to stay and spend the night with her, but he didn’t want to rush it, and he didn’t want her to feel that he had cooked her dinner to seduce her. He had made the meal for her, for them both, for the sheer pleasure of it.

They kissed again as he stood in the doorway, and she thanked him for the delicious dinner. He had taken the garbage out for her, so the kitchen didn’t smell of lobster the next day, and she didn’t have to do it after he left. He thought of everything.

“I’ll call you,” he promised.

“I’m going to New York next week to see Ash…Michaela.” She smiled as she corrected the name.

“I want to hear all about it when you get back,” he said with an encouraging look, and she nodded.

“Thank you, Norm…for everything.”

“Never mind that,” he said, kissed her again, walked down the steps, and waved as he drove away a minute later. She stood on the porch for a few minutes, thinking about him, wondering why she had never noticed how handsome he was, and how attracted she was to him. All things in their time, she thought, and went back into the house with a smile.

Chapter 10

Melissa left for New York a week after her dinner with Norm. She drove herself, and had to concentrate on the road. She was so nervous and distracted, she was afraid she’d have an accident. What if she was killed on the way and never met her daughter? She could think of every kind of disaster happening, Michaela’s plane crashing on the way from L.A. to New York, taking her family with her. Melissa couldn’t believe it was going to be easy, and a happy event. She was sure something bad was going to happen to interfere with the meeting. But nothing had so far.

She checked in to a small, centrally located hotel in Midtown that she liked, which she used to recommend to friends from out of town when she lived there. It had a small elegant lobby, and comfortable rooms. Melissa had given herself two days to shop in New York before the meeting, so she’d have something decent to wear when she saw Michaela.

She had agreed to meet Michaela at the Mark hotel on East Seventy-seventh Street, where she would be staying with her husband and children. Melissa didn’t want to crowd her by staying at the same hotel, in case the meeting went badly. But Hattie said there was no reason why it should. Both mother and daughter were excited to see each other, and had waited a long time for this. David was going to join them, at the end, with the children, and they were going to have dinner that night, after a brief intermission.

Hattie was joining them for dinner on their second day together. And on the third day they were all leaving, hoping this was just the beginning. There would be many more occasions to be together after this, if all went well. Michaela wanted Melissa to come to L.A. for Thanksgiving, to meet her adoptive mother, the thought of which terrified Melissa. And she wanted them to come to Massachusetts for Christmas or just afterward. It would be beautiful and snowy and a white Christmas, and there was skiing nearby, on a small mountain suitable for the children.

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Melissa walked into Bergdorf, feeling as though she had traveled back in time. She hadn’t been to New York in four years, and a thousand memories crowded into her head and assaulted her. Living and working there, their apartment, taking Robbie