believe that Zach is simply my friend? Nothing romantic going on there. Besides, he didn’t come to see me last night. He brought Lori home.” Sarah hesitated, then confessed, “She and Andrew had a fight, and he left her without a ride.”
Sage folded her arms. “That weasel. I hope she finally dumped him.”
“She’s okay?” Nic asked as she sank into an overstuffed easy chair.
“Yes. Angry, but okay. She finally came out and admitted what I’ve suspected for a while now. He’s pressuring her for sex.”
Nic scowled. “I hope she told him to tie a knot in it. She’s been nothing but clear about her views on that subject since she turned fifteen.”
“Fourteen. She asked me to buy her the promise ring on my thirtieth birthday. Nothing like being illegitimate to know for a fact you don’t want to repeat the mistake.”
“Don’t talk that way. You’ve never said that Lori was a mistake!” Nic jabbed a finger at the on button on the laptop she’d left on the chair’s ottoman the previous day. “I agree with Sage. I hope Lori broke up with that little slimeball. He knew her stance when he started dating her.”
“She’s thinking about it.” Sarah glanced up at the mantel clock and frowned. “I think she’s torn because she’s afraid she won’t have a date to the Christmas dance and she doesn’t want to miss it.”
“She should go alone or with a group of girls,” Sage suggested. “Girls do that in other parts of the country. They usually have more fun that way because girls actually like to dance.”
“I’m afraid Eternity is still behind on that trend,” Nic said as the Westminster chimes of the grandfather clock in the entry hall rang out the hour.
“Enough of reality.” Sarah said, standing. She grabbed the TV remote from the mantel and pointed it toward the small flat-screen Celeste had provided for entertainment while they labored. “It’s fantasy time. The game is on. Buffs versus OU. College basketball at its finest.”
“That’s why I smell popcorn.” Nic propped her legs on the ottoman, her computer in her lap, and settled in for the show. “Excellent. I’d forgotten we had a game today.”
“Not me.” Sage tossed her a bag of popcorn, still warm from the microwave. “I came prepared.”
As Nic tore open her bag, her gaze focused on the television. Thirty seconds later, the three women sighed as one. “Coach Romano.”
“Be still my heart,” Sage declared.
Nic clicked her tongue. “Slam-dunk.”
“Put me in, Coach,” Sarah said. “I’m ready to play.”
Standing a muscular six foot five, Coach Anthony Romano had wavy back hair, luscious brown eyes, and a perpetual five o’clock shadow. He was in his second season as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for CU, and according to his bio on the athletics department website, Coach Romano was a bachelor.
The most devoted sports fan of the three of them, Sarah had been the one to bring the coach to their attention after a three-margarita discussion led to an extended search for the perfect fantasy man. Coach Romano was the only man all three agreed on, and he’d become the focus of their tongue-in-cheek fangirls’ club.
It was silly, slightly embarrassing, and fun.
“That’s a new suit,” Sage observed.
“You’re right.” Nic took a bite of popcorn. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wear blue before.”
“He’s a god in gray.” Sarah clicked her computer mouse and a printer began to hum.
Sage nodded in agreement. “Not many men can pull off the suits-and-sneakers look, but I have to say, it really does it for me.”
“It’s the artist in you, Sage. You need something with a bit more flair than straight GQ.” Sarah clucked her tongue. “I wonder how he feels about sperm donation. Don’t you think the two of us would make beautiful babies?”
Something in her smile, a wistfulness, signaled to Nic that this wasn’t fangirl nonsense for Sarah. “Wait just a minute. Babies? What’s that all about? I thought you couldn’t wait for your nest to empty. That’s all I’ve heard about since Lori’s sixteenth birthday.”
“Yeah, well, it was easier to be happy about her leaving home when the date wasn’t staring me in the face.”
“Sarah, Lori is only a junior. She still has a year and a half of high school.”
“Don’t you know how fast that year and a half will go? We have to do college visits this spring!”
To Nic’s shock and surprise, tears welled in Sarah’s violet eyes, then overflowed. Sage and Nic shared a look, and the basketball game was forgotten. Both