Follow Your Heart (Catalina Cove #4) - Brenda Jackson Page 0,9
him. Now there was.
“I suggest you continue to enjoy your freedom while waiting for Tanner to start noticing you,” Christy said.
“So you think I should date like normal?”
“I don’t see why not. The last thing you want Tanner to think is that you’re waiting for him to finally accept your place in his life. Heck, now is the time to have a hot, steamy affair if you’d ever thought about having one.”
“Christy!” Victoria said, throwing her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
“Why not? I’d thought about it and was about to act on it that time when Alex rejected me. I refused to let him think he was the only man I could want, or who could want me. That brought Alex to his senses real quick when he saw how friendly I was getting with other guys. Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with making Tanner jealous to kick-start feelings he might be fighting hard to suppress.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You do that. Sooner or later, Tanner will begin noticing you to the point where all those other women will mean nothing to him. That’s when he will only have eyes for you. When that happens, he’ll start monopolizing your time. Then it won’t be your time alone.”
Victoria understood everything Christy was saying, and she much preferred all that happen later, rather than sooner. She didn’t want any man to start monopolizing her time. She liked the way her life was now and loved the place she was renting in Catalina Cove. She enjoyed leaving work and driving home each day while listening to music or one of her favorite books on tape. It was such a pleasant and scenic drive and traffic wasn’t all that bad once you left the New Orleans city limits. When she got home, she didn’t have to worry about anyone but herself.
“Well, I know of one particular person who will appreciate the slow process of me and Tanner getting together,” Victoria said.
Christy lifted an eyebrow. “Who?”
“Corbin. He knows once I’m married off, Mama Laverne will turn her undivided attention to him. I can’t wait to see how he deals with it.”
Christy chuckled. “I can’t wait to see, either. After Corbin, there’s Chancellor, Emerson and Adam. I can just imagine how much trouble they will be in going along with any plans she has for them.”
Victoria took another sip of wine, then said, “You seem rather calm about leaving the babies in Alex’s care.”
Victoria could see the look of love that immediately warmed Christy’s eyes at the mention of her husband. “Alex will handle the kids just fine. He’s the perfect dad.” Christy and Alex had three kids. A daughter and two sons. They’d always wanted a large family and everyone figured they weren’t through making babies yet.
Alex Maxwell was a private investigator, and after they married, Christy became his assistant, doing the research for his cases. That’s where her skills as an investigative reporter had come into play.
“Of course, I’ll check periodically to see how they’re doing,” Christy added. “It pays to have family living close by if he needs them. However, I doubt he will. Alex is wonderful at almost everything he does.”
Victoria didn’t say anything as she smiled at her cousin and hoped things would be like that for her and Tanner. Of course, they would be. Mama Laverne wouldn’t be getting them together otherwise.
“Let’s do a toast,” Victoria said, holding up her wineglass. “To the man you love and to the man I’m destined to love.”
Laughing, Christy and Victoria clinked their glasses together.
CHAPTER THREE
“ARE YOU COMFORTABLE, Senator Malone? Would you like a glass of water or anything?” It was the third time the young woman who’d introduced herself as a production assistant had asked him in the last twenty minutes.
“No, I’m fine,” Roman said, smiling at her. “Thanks for asking.”
He’d been told the interview would last less than ten minutes and he was glad of that. Afterward, he would return to the hotel and check out, and then head to Catalina Cove. He couldn’t wait to get there. A whole month to himself—no media of any kind, social or otherwise, and if he was lucky no one in the small coastal town would recognize him.
And, more importantly, no women.
Because the media had practically hounded his tail throughout the entire campaign last year, and then after the election both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, of which he was a