Part 24 (2/2)

”The show isn't for another few weeks,” Rooke said. ”Maybe you could come down with me then. It's not that far and-”

Pops put his hand on her knee and squeezed gently, then returned it to the wheel. ”I guess I'll have to buy a new suit.”

Rooke laughed. ”Why? I'm not going to.”

a 223 a ”I wouldn't be surprised if one of those ladies doesn't convince you otherwise.”

”One of those...oh, Melinda and Adrian.” Rooke sighed. ”Yeah, Melinda will probably have something to say about that.”

Pops shot her a quick look. ”She looks like a woman who gets what she wants.”

”Uh-huh.”

”You two, ah-”

”No,” Rooke said as Pops turned into Adrian's driveway.

”Not that my opinion matters, and whatever you decide is fine with me,” Pops shut off the engine and sat with his hands on the wheel at ten and two, ”but I noticed Adrian has a way of looking at you like she sees you, all the way through.”

”I know,” Rooke said. ”Feels that way too.”

Pops nodded. ”That's good, then.”

”Yeah, it is. I better see if she needs a hand with her luggage.”

Rooke opened the door and jumped out, then leaned on the open door until her grandfather turned to look at her. ”Thanks, Pops. I couldn't ask for a better family.”

”Same here,” Pops said gruffly. ”Now go help the lady.”

v ”Really, Grandmother, there's no need for you to call out the cavalry,” Adrian said, trying valiantly to harness her irritation. With the phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, she crossed off items on her list as she took one more walk around the house. ”Everything here is under control, and I'm sure both my father and my brother have better things to do than drive up here to check on the things I've already taken care of. Besides, I probably won't even be gone a week.”

”I don't understand why you have to go back to the city so soon.

What can be so important, it can't wait?”

”I told you a few minutes ago. Rooke Tyler is going to be staying with me for a few days while she prepares for an upcoming show.”

Adrian sat down on the bottom step of the wide, curving staircase that led to the second floor and closed her eyes. Whenever she mentioned Rooke, her grandmother seemed to develop a case of selective deafness, a 224 a and she was tired of it. ”Rooke is very important to me. Why is that so difficult for you to accept?”

”Don't you think you've asked your family to accept quite enough,” Elizabeth Winchester said, her tone rife with disapproval.

”Really? And what would those things be? My desire to choose my own career? My refusal to let the men in the family plan my life?

Or maybe the fact that I'm a lesbian-”

”There's no need to be disrespectful,” Elizabeth snapped.

Adrian sighed, still amazed that her family could press her b.u.t.tons so easily. ”How could you condone Ida Hanc.o.c.k disowning her own daughter and then refusing to acknowledge her granddaughter? She's your best friend-why didn't you try to change her mind?”

”She had good reasons for her decisions.”

”What reasons could there possibly be? You have no idea what an amazing woman Rooke-”

”Really, Adrian, you're starting to sound quite taken with her.

I realize that you've always wanted to be different, so of course you would be enamored of someone who's different-”

”Different?” Adrian laughed harshly and dropped her head on her bent knees. ”Oh, Rooke is different, all right. She has no agendas.

She's completely honest. She's amazingly sensitive and more talented than anyone I've ever met. She's...” Adrian stopped short of saying, she's everything I've ever wanted in a woman. There were some things her grandmother would never understand and there was no reason to punish herself by trying to make her. ”Let's not argue.”

”We wouldn't have to argue if you would simply stop your stubborn insistence on casting aside every standard your family values.

You are well past the age for adolescent rebellion.”

Adrian shot to her feet. ”I'm not rebelling, Grandmother. I'm choosing my own life.”

”And I suppose you would choose someone completely unsuitable for you in every way, just to make your point?”

”No,” Adrian said. ”Not to make a point. To have an honest life.”

Elizabeth Winchester snorted. ”Oh my dear, such idealism. No wonder your parents despair of you ever coming to your senses.”

”I have to go now, Grandmother. Rooke is here. I'll speak to you later in the week.”

a 225 a ”Don't make a decision you'll regret,” Elizabeth said.

”Believe me,” Adrian said as she softly disconnected, ”I'm trying hard not to.”

Adrian put the phone back in the kitchen and pulled on her field jacket just as a knock sounded at the front door. She grabbed her briefcase and hurried into the foyer. The anger and sadness her grandmother's words had prompted melted away in antic.i.p.ation of seeing Rooke. She pulled open the door and Rooke was there, her eyes alight with the same expectation that trembled in Adrian's chest. Adrian dropped her bags and threw her arms around Rooke's neck, kissing her with abandon. Sometime in the middle of the kiss, Rooke must have wrapped both arms around Adrian's waist because when Adrian, breathless and exhilarated, tore her mouth away from Rooke's, her feet were no longer touching the porch.

Laughing, Adrian said, ”Put me down.”

In answer, Rooke kissed her and spun her in a circle, then gently released her. ”Hi. I missed you.”

Adrian's giddy excitement instantly coalesced into arousal. She gripped the front of Rooke's leather jacket in her fists and tugged her toward the still-open front door. ”You have no idea.”

”Adrian,” Rooke said, her voice low and husky. ”Melinda's car will be at Stillwater in fifteen minutes.”

”They'll wait.” Adrian unzipped Rooke's jacket and curled her fingers inside the waistband of Rooke's jeans. ”I missed you too.”

”Pops is in the truck.”

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