“She asked you out!” Logan stared at Daniel.
“Who doesn’t want to date this package?” Daniel teased.
“I don’t,” Logan said with a snicker.
“You have no taste.”
“I have great taste...in women.” Logan wiped his sweaty face with his towel. “And Greer is all woman.”
“She is beautiful, but she wasn’t beautiful enough to keep you from ogling Melody.”
Logan sighed. “I’m going to have to find a way to make that up to her.”
“Let it lie. Let her be angry with you for the rest of your life.”
Logan gave him a piercing look. “You like her. You like her a lot.”
Daniel saw the challenge in Logan’s eyes. “We’ve never sparred over a woman before.”
“That’s because I’ve always won the ones I wanted.” Logan’s face took on a dreamy look.
“Or one could say I allowed you to win the ones I wanted you to have.”
Logan burst out laughing. “This never gets old, does it?”
Daniel smiled. “I’m going to be your friend forever.”
Daniel had met Logan during their freshman year of high school on the football team. Logan had been the quarterback and Daniel the wide receiver. They both had loved football, but Logan had wanted to make a career out of it while Daniel just wanted to play the game.
Logan’s home life hadn’t been the best. His parents had never been around. His father, a talent agent, traveled a lot, and his mother, a character actress, was always on the set of some movie. Logan had been raised mostly by nannies. The first time Daniel brought him home, his parents had taken the boy under their wing and made sure that this spoiled little rich kid act turned into a responsible adult.
In their first encounter, Logan made a pass but had stepped out of bounds, and no one noticed. Daniel caught the pass, made the touchdown and got the win, but Daniel had called Logan to task for his maneuver.
Logan had been amazed that Daniel cared. Daniel had talked to him about fairness and doing the right thing. Doing the right thing had intrigued Logan because his parents hadn’t had that level of ethics. Daniel’s parents, on the other hand, were all about being ethical and insisted Logan fall into step with them if he wanted to be Daniel’s friend. Because Logan did want to be Daniel’s friend, he’d allowed Grace and Manny Torres to mold him. He’d once told Daniel that he liked the Torres family rules because he knew exactly what was expected of him.
“I’m not going to stop chasing after her,” Logan said after a long silence. “If you think she’s that intriguing, then she must be, and you know how I like to be intrigued.”
They lifted their water bottles and clunked them together. “Good luck with that. As much as you like being intrigued, you are easily distracted.”
Logan gave Daniel a look. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you aren’t playing fair?”
“The better man is going to win.” Daniel knew he sounded arrogant, but he really liked Greer. His mother would like her, and Grace didn’t give her approval easily. She expected her children to act with the highest standards and to find partners who would do the same thing.
What was he thinking? Why was he even putting the words marriage and Greer in the same thought?
* * *
Greer stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom. She’d tried on five cocktail dresses in the hope of finding just the right one. She finally chose her Anna Sui black-and-yellow-daisy cocktail dress with black lace inserts on the bodice. She brushed her short hair straight back from her face and added diamond drop earrings and a matching pendant on a gold chain. She was as ready as she would ever be.
She grabbed her black silk clutch, took a deep breath and walked out to the living room to wait for Daniel. She sat in a chair in front of the huge living room window.
She’d saved for five years to purchase her tiny Craftsman bungalow. The bungalow had been a fixer-upper. Though she didn’t have the skills to renovate the house for herself, she did know people. Half the float staff at the warehouse had pitched in and helped her, and she was proud of the results.
She’d decorated with Stickley furniture she’d gotten on sale at a local furniture store and hung her own vividly colored paintings on the walls. Oriental rugs covered the polished wood floors, and reproduction Tiffany lamps sat on tables, adding the vintage look she’d wanted.
When she saw a limo pull into her driveway, she stood, surprised. She hadn’t expected Daniel to rent a limo for the night, though she had to admit going to Norton Simon seemed like a limo-worthy affair.
Daniel stepped out of the limo and walked up the garden path to her front porch. A second later the doorbell rang. In the kitchen, her dogs barked. Her cat lifted her tiny black head, blinking in annoyance at the interruption to her nap.
Greer opened the front door and saw Daniel’s eyes widen in surprise as he dragged his eyes down her body from head to toe.
“Wow!” was all he said.
“I clean up nice, don’t I?” she teased. “You do, too.” He looked so handsome in his black suit.
He must have heard the dogs scratching the kitchen door, because he looked beyond her. “Your dogs, I guess?”
She nodded. “They’re in the kitchen and no doubt itching to get out and smell their guest.”
“Then let’s meet them.”
She opened the door to the kitchen. Two medium-sized white-and-tan dogs jumped out, their claws clicking on the wood floor. They sniffed Daniel’s shoes and legs and then looked up at him with their appealing brown eyes.
“This is Roscoe and this is Pip. Who could resist them?” She knelt down and ruffled their ears.
The cat jumped down from the chair she’d been sleeping in and walked over. “That’s Scooter. She had a litter of kittens that died, and she ended up adopting Roscoe and Pip as newborn puppies when their mother rejected them. It seemed sad to separate them. I’m kind of weak that way.”
When the dogs were satisfied Daniel wasn’t a threat, they went back into the kitchen and out the doggie door. Scooter returned to her chair and her nap.
“Shall we get going?” Daniel asked.
Greer grabbed her clutch and a black silk shawl. Even though the evening was fairly mild, a slight chill hung in the air when Daniel opened the front door.
“This is nice,” she said once they were settled in the backseat of the limo.
“I’m excited about the exhibit. I’ve admired Henry Ossawa Tanner since I first discovered him when I took an art class. How did you score the tickets?”
“My parents have always supported the arts and have been members of the museum for over twenty years. I’m keeping up the tradition.”
Daniel poured her a glass from a bottle of crisp chardonnay cooling in a bucket of ice. She accepted it and settled back to enjoy the ride. He motioned toward a tray of canapés on a tiny table that pulled out from the side. She sampled a couple.
“So tell me,” she said after another sip of wine. “Is there a possibility that Logan will show up tonight with your dream date?”
He laughed. “I doubt it. Logan’s idea of art is the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.”
“I wonder what he would