Falling into Forever. Phyllis Bourne

think of it? Do they have a good time?”

      Tony averted his eyes and kicked at a pebble with his shoe. “I usually volunteer to help, along with a dozen or so Martine employees.”

      “Do your kids have a good time?” Isaiah asked again.

      “Depends,” he said finally. “Am I talking to an old teammate or the boss’s son?”

      “My folks are Martine’s Fine Furnishings. Not me. Speak your mind.”

      “Well, my toddler liked it okay, but my other two, who were five and seven last year, were only interested in the candy.” Tony cast a glance at the boards stacked against the wall. “They said the games were boring, and wanted to leave to go trick-or-treating.”

      Isaiah couldn’t blame his friend’s kids for wanting to ditch the party. Now that Tony had mentioned it, he could remember feeling the same way when he was around seven. He’d always attended the party, not just because of his family connection, but because it was what kids in Wintersage did on Halloween.

      An idea began to form in his mind as he continued to stare at the antiquated games. He didn’t run the family business, but he was the host of this party. It was time to shake things up. Give it a twenty-first century update and make it fun.

       Fun.

      He turned the word around in his head. Then it hit him. What could be more fun than a fun house?

      Excited about a concept he could sink his artistic teeth into, Isaiah pulled his phone from his jacket pocket. First he checked Friday’s weather forecast, and then he began making a list of items and people he’d need to turn the recreation center into a Halloween-themed carnival fun house by Friday.

      He could make a hardware store run after his father’s treatment tomorrow. He’d also stop by the art supply store, where he already had a running list of items he wanted to pick up, including the Conté crayons he liked to use for sketching.

      Isaiah hoped to do some drawings of the seacoast at dawn and dusk before he left for London, and perhaps capture the late-autumn beauty of Wintersage’s beach in a watercolor if time permitted.

      “So have you seen Sandra yet?” Tony asked.

      Isaiah froze at the sound of her name. He’d been so caught up in thoughts of sketching on the beach, he’d forgotten Tony was there.

      His old teammate took his silence as a memory lapse. “Sandra Woolcott. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten her. Not as tight as you two were back in school.”

      No. He’d never forgotten Sandra, Isaiah silently admitted.

      “Yeah, I saw her tonight.” His outer cool belied the inner mayhem that seeing her again had stirred up.

      He kept his eyes glued to the list he’d been making on his phone as his friend continued. “She was cute in high school, but now...” Tony shook his head. “Man, is she hot. And those hourglass curves of hers.” He shook his head again. “Mmm, mmm. Thick in all the right places.”

      Looking up from his phone, Isaiah frowned, ticked off for no good reason. “Don’t you have a wife?”

      Tony pointed a finger in his direction. “Yeah, and if she gets wind of what I just said you’ll be responsible for the bruising of my other ribs.”

      Isaiah threw his head back and laughed. Just like in high school, his old teammate’s good-natured sense of humor made it impossible for anyone to stay annoyed with him long.

      Besides, what did he care if Tony checked out Sandra on the sly? She’d been seated when he’d seen her at the restaurant earlier, so he couldn’t cosign on his friend’s assessment of her figure.

      Yet the little he’d seen of her had left an indelible impression. Luminous dark skin, pillow-soft lips and a sultry laugh that shot straight to his groin.

      Tony snorted. “If anyone had told me back then that I’d be the married one and you’d still be a bachelor, I wouldn’t have believed them. I’d thought for sure you and Sandra would have gotten hitched as soon as she graduated.”

      His friend had handed him the perfect opening to ask the question buzzing through his mind ever since he’d seen her earlier at The Quarterdeck.

       Was she seeing someone? Engaged, or maybe married, with a couple of kids?

      She’d looked happy in the restaurant. Radiant.

      Reminding himself it was none of his business, Isaiah stuffed his phone back into his jacket pocket. Deep down, he knew he didn’t want to hear his friend’s answers to the questions. Isaiah didn’t want to think of his first love with another man.

      An ancient wooden pin from the bowling game fell away from the rest. Isaiah picked it up and tossed it back on the pile.

      “We were just kids with a bad case of, what do they call it...” He paused, trying to think of the term, and then snapped his fingers when it came to him. “Yeah, puppy love.”

      Tony shrugged. “All I know is she had your nose wide open.”

      “Hardly.” The lie rolled off Isaiah’s lips as if it were truth.

      “Come on, man. I was there,” his teammate said. “Remember the time when we were doing our pregame warm-ups, and you spotted Sandra on the sidelines in her cheerleader uniform?”

      Isaiah shook his head as he automatically reached to touch an old scar, hidden by his short-cropped hair.

      “Uh-huh.” Tony looked at Isaiah’s hand. “Isn’t that the spot where you damn near split your head open after you ran into the goalpost because of gawking at her?”

      Busted, Isaiah shoved his traitorous hands into his jacket pockets.

      Good thing high school was over, and he never had to worry about seeing Sandra Woolcott in a cheerleader uniform again.

Chapter 4

      Three days later, Sandra steered her yellow MINI Cooper with one hand and answered her cell phone with the other.

      “Where are you?” Vicki demanded.

      “Stopped at a red light, but I’m almost there.”

      “Good, because the longer you wait, the worse it’ll be for you.”