"Brent," Christian murmured the man's name as he stepped back to give them both a little space. He couldn't resist catching her hand in his as he urged her to walk again, but it was better to keep moving. There was less temptation to kiss her if he wasn't looking at her. "Brent is the friend Gia was telling me about?"
"Yes." He felt some of her tension slip away. Whether it was because they were walking again, or just because she was thinking of her friend he wasn't sure.
"Tell me about him," he urged.
"Well, he's my age," she said slowly.
"What's he like?"
A fond smile came to her lips and-despite himself-Christian felt jealousy slither through him. He didn't like the fact that someone else was the recipient of an affection he couldn't yet lay claim to.
"Well, you'd probably like him actually," Carolyn said, her smile widening. "He's smart, funny, and certainly not lacking in looks. He's about as tall as you, with dark hair and a nice smile too." Carolyn grinned and then teased, "If he were still single I'd call and suggest he fly out so I could introduce the two of you. He likes redheads."
"I'm not a redhead," Christian muttered, trying not to show his horror at the thought that his lifemate, a woman he'd waited more than five hundred years for, wanted to set him up with her g*y school chum. Dear God! He hadn't expected this when he'd gotten the call that Marguerite wanted him in St. Lucia.
"You do have red in your hair," Carolyn said, drawing his attention again. "It's a lovely dark chestnut with red highlights. Dark auburn I guess."
Christian grunted. It was hair. He'd never thought much about it other than the fact that he'd obviously inherited it from his mother. Most Nottes had black hair, unless they dyed it like Gia.
"Anyway, Brent and I were both majoring in business when we met, but both wanted business law. We had a couple of classes together, found we had a lot in common, and started hanging out." She shrugged. "We became best friends."
"Gia said you were his beard?" Christian asked curiously, wondering how that had come about.
"Yes. That just kind of happened. As I said, he was good-looking and not effeminate at all, so naturally drew a lot of attention from girls at uni. But when we started studying and hanging around together, they backed off."
Carolyn smiled wryly. "It took us a while, but then we realized that because we were always together, people assumed we were a couple.
Then when we moved into an apartment together in our second year, they really thought we were a couple," she said with amusement.
"Which worked out nicely. It kept the she-wolves away."
"It would have kept the men away from you too, though."
Carolyn shrugged. "I didn't have time for them anyway.
I was on a scholarship. I had to keep my grades up."
"Your parents couldn't afford to put you through school?"
"Parent," Carolyn corrected quietly. "My mother was the only family I ever had, and as a single parent she worked two jobs to make ends meet. There was always lots of love, but not much money. I knew quite young that I'd have to earn a scholarship to go to university, so worked hard through high school. I was a complete geek," she admitted wryly. "Always studying, always working for extra credit. But Mom was proud of me for that."
"And where is your mother now?" Christian asked, worry sliding through him. If there had just been the two of them, they were probably very close. He could easily see that she loved her mother dearly. Carolyn might resist turning to avoid leaving her mother behind.
Carolyn blew her breath out, sadness sliding across her face. "She worked herself sick to raise me, and then died just before I graduated."
Christian was silent for a moment, considering everything he'd learned. It sounded like-thanks to all her studying and hard work in high school and university-she'd missed out on a lot of the sexual experimentation mortals now indulged in during their late teens and early twenties.
"So you spent your university years working hard and hanging out with Brent?" he asked finally, trying to figure out just how much she'd missed out on and what made her tick.
Carolyn smiled faintly. "And Genie and Bethany. We were all housemates."
"And you're still friends with all of them," Christian murmured, somewhat surprised. From what he understood, university friends tended to drift apart as life took them down different paths, but Carolyn nodded.
"Genie's major was travel and tourism, and after graduation she got a job at a resort in Puerto Vallarta. But she and I were pretty close and kept in touch through letters and e-mails.
We've kept writing all this time as she's moved from job to job."
"And Bethany?" he asked.