“And don’t let your mother know we had this talk,” Emily advised.
“Hey, what’s going on here? Didn’t I hear something about ice cream?” Peter asked.
~*~
After celebrating Molly’s release from the hospital for an hour or so, the party broke up and those who needed to, returned to work.
Colin drove Emily home, planning to drop her off before heading back to the station.
She unfastened her seatbelt and shifted in her seat to face him. “Why don’t you come by for dinner tonight?”
“I have a better idea. We haven’t been on a proper date since I got back. Why don’t I take you out? Someplace nice—it’ll be a surprise.”
“All right.” She gazed at him, full of curiosity.
“I was wondering something—I mean, after Delia’s confession—there’s just something I want to talk to you about.” He leaned over, put his arm around her, and drew her near. He studied her face, looked deeply into her eyes, then wove his fingers into her hair.
He looks so serious. I wonder what’s wrong.
He brushed his lips softly against hers. “I love you, Emily Parker.”
She brought her lips urgently to his and felt his passion for her.
After a long moment, he released her. “I hate to leave you, but I need to get back to the station. See you at seven?”
“Yes, I’ll be looking forward to it.” She flashed him a sweet smile and pushed the car door open. “I love you, too, Colin Andrews.”
She glanced back at him over her shoulder, noticing he was watching her sashay up her walkway to the front porch. The smile on his face said he was appreciating the sway of her hips.
Once she was inside, he drove off.
All afternoon she wondered what he wanted to talk about. He’d looked so serious. She hoped it wasn’t bad news, like his needing to return to San Francisco again. He’d said something about Delia, though. Maybe he was upset with Emily’s reaction to her comments and thought she wasn’t over Evan.
Emily hoped not. But if it was, she would just have to show him she was ready to move on with him.
Having fought through the last few hectic and stressful days, and wanting to keep her mind off negative thoughts where Colin was concerned, Emily decided to pamper herself for the afternoon.
With Jerry confined to the hospital, Delia under arrest, and the mysterious gun no longer in her possession, she felt safe in her home once more. She took a long bubble bath, polished her toenails, and gave herself a facial.
Then she took her time getting ready for her date, piling her loosely tousled curls in a twist on her head and carefully applying her makeup. She lightly spritzed a new perfume on her hair and both sides of her neck.
Standing before her full-length mirror, Emily slipped into a deep blue-green fitted dress that the salesgirl said played up the color of her eyes and showed off her slender figure. Checking the fit from all angles, she hoped Colin would be pleased with what he saw.
As she retrieved her cell phone from the nightstand, she noticed Evan’s little black address book sticking out from under one of the pillows on her bed. She pulled it out and flipped through the pages filled with names and codes, remembering the boxes of CIA files still in the storage unit. The sooner she got that book and the files into Isabel’s hands, the better—but it would not be tonight. She tucked the little book under her pillow again, for now.
Standing before the mirror in her bathroom, putting her dangly gold earrings on, Emily recalled she still had Camille’s white twinkle lights strung around the backyard garden and the gazebo. She considered the idea of flicking them on and inviting Colin out to the beautiful white gazebo that Evan had built for her. She had already taken him out to the deck, ready to show him the garden before they had been interrupted by the exploding potatoes.
Taking him all the way out to her gazebo at the edge of the garden would be a big step for her—proving to Colin she was, indeed, ready to move on. Tonight, if she led him out to it, she hoped he would realize the significance of it, that she had finally and completely closed the chapter on her life with Evan.
The doorbell rang at seven o’clock sharp, and Emily hurried to answer it, trying to fasten her necklace clasp behind her neck as she walked. She flung