in advertising jingles just to be with the woman you love?”
“You seem to forget, I’ve been divorced three times. I’m not sure I’ve ever had the kind of love you two have. For a love as powerful as what I’m witnessing right here, right now, yeah, maybe.”
“I don’t believe it for a minute,” she countered. “You of all people know what it takes to get the kind of breaks we’ve had, to reach this level. You’d never throw it away, not for any reason.”
He gave her sad look. “Yes, I would. For just one glance like the one you’ve been casting toward him, I’d walk away from anything.”
It wasn’t the first time that Gary had hinted that he was half in love with her himself, but he’d long since accepted that her heart belonged to someone else. He leaned down now and pressed a brotherly kiss to her cheek.
“Think about it,” he advised. “We’ve known each other a long time. I can read you like a book. You’ll never be thoroughly happy or alive if you don’t find some way to keep that man in your life.”
“But how?” she whispered as Gary walked away without answering.
How could she keep Harlan Patrick in her life and have a singing career, too? If she made a choice, either choice, would she be able to live with it, or would resentment destroy whichever one she chose?
No sooner had Gary left than Harlan Patrick rose with the baby in his arms and came back to join her.
“I think it must be close to lunchtime for the little one,” he said quietly. “She’s been fussing for a few minutes now.”
“I’ll fix her bottle,” Laurie said, glad to have something to do.
“I liked the song,” Harlan Patrick said as she heated the baby’s milk.
“It’s still a little rough, and the last verse sucks.”
He grinned. “You’re never happy till it’s perfect, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“You know, it seems to me that perfection might be fine to strive for when you’re writing a song, but it’s not real practical when it comes to life.”
Her hand stilled as she reached to take the bottle from the microwave. “Meaning...?”
“There might not be a perfect solution to our dilemma.”
She sighed, accepting the truth of that. “But there has to be something better than what we’ve come up with so far, don’t you think?”
“Darlin’, I’m not even sure what we’ve come up with, unless you count you being on the road and me being in Texas and both of us being miserable. That’s not a solution. That’s settling for the easy way out.”
“It hasn’t been easy,” she objected.
“Okay, not easy. Convenient, then. Or maybe cowardly. Neither one of us has had to make any tough choices. We haven’t even considered compromise.”
She grinned at him and pressed her hand over her heart in a gesture of shocked disbelief. “I never thought I’d hear that word cross your lips.”
He grinned back. “It’s a new one, all right. You game to discuss it?”
“Oh, Harlan Patrick, can’t you see? Discussing it’s easy. It’s living it that’s impossible.”
His jaw set. “Anything’s possible if we both want it badly enough.”
Pretty words, Laurie thought, but that’s all they were: words. Their history told another story. It was Harlan Patrick’s way or no way.
With Amy Lynn’s future at stake, to say nothing of her own happiness, she would meet him halfway, though. “We’ll talk about it,” she promised.
“When?”
“Tonight, after the show. You can take me out to a late supper, since tomorrow’s not a travel day.”
“Why, Laurie Jensen, are you asking me out on a date?”
“I am,” she agreed. “And I hope you’ve got your credit cards, because my tastes have gotten a whole lot more expensive. You’re not going to get away with a hot dog and some cotton candy.”
“Steak and champagne?”
She nodded. “For starters.”
“Exactly where do you go next and when do you have to be there?”
“Ohio and not till the middle of the week. Why?”
“Just wondering,” he said, and excused himself.
“Where are you going?” she demanded.
He gestured toward his seat. “Not far. I’ve got some arrangements to make.”
“What kind of arrangements?”
“You’ll see.”
She didn’t like the gleam in his eyes one little bit. Nor was she crazy about the way he and Val had their heads together for the next half hour whenever he wasn’t on his cellular phone. Something told her she’d started something when she’d agreed to have dinner with him to talk about the future. He seemed to have taken it as a challenge. And