"Are you serious?" She took Regan by the hand and started to lead her down the street. "You're too young to be tentative."

"I'm not tentative," Regan protested feebly, holding back a little as Callie practically dragged her along. "My track coach always warned us to stay away from any kind of contact sports to make sure we didn't hurt our knees."

"You're out of high school now, and no one will know," she whispered loudly. "It'll be our secret. And if you blow a knee out, I'll tell everyone you were helping an old lady across the street when a truck hit you."

They were put on different teams and every time they faced each other at the line of scrimmage, Callie put on a fierce expression and glowered at Regan, who was completely unable to keep a straight face. But she got into the game when their quarterback saw how quick Regan was. She kept trying to throw to her downfield, but she had a tough time throwing with anything close to accuracy. Time and again Regan was wide-open, but she never had a ball thrown within two feet of her.

Callie did better when she showed that she was fairly fearless and was able to jump over a fallen teammate or defender. She took a handoff and streaked along the sideline scoring a touchdown right before Regan caught up with her and pulled the flag from her pants.

Callie performed an exaggerated touchdown dance, then bent over and hiked the football between her legs to a surprised Regan who caught it defensively right before it hit her in the head. "You are fearless!" Regan said, clearly surprised.

"No, I'm not. I just love to win." She dashed away, singing, "I love to win. I love to win..."

The cool morning had turned into a lovely spring afternoon. They went to a coffee shop for drinks to go, then sat on a bench in front of the library and watched the parade of pa.s.sersby.

The warm afternoon sun made Callie's hair glow in a copper radiance. Regan shielded her eyes and gazed at Callie for a moment. "I don't think a minute has gone by without somebody checking you out. Your hair is impossible to ignore."

Callie smiled mischievously and tossed her red hair over her shoulder. "I bet they were looking at you."

"No. They look at you, then they look again, then they take a quick glance at me to make sure I'm not going to mind."

Callie slapped her leg playfully. "You're good for my ego."

"Seriously, do you always get this kind of attention?"

"Attention?

"Don't play coy. I'm really interested."

Callie looked at her curiously and said "I'm not sure what you mean. Are you being serious when you say people are interested in me?"

Regan exaggeratedly rolled her eyes. She couldn't be dense enough not to see it. No one could ignore the kind of attention she got. "You're playing with me again."

"No, I'm not. I thought you were teasing."

"Come on. I was minimizing it if anything. When I'm ready to start dating again, you're the last person I'll hang out with. I'd get nothing but your rejects."

Callie looked around quickly as though she could catch someone in the act. "Now you're making me feel paranoid."

"Do you really not know? All those women talking to you at the football game weren't just being friendly."

Innocently, Callie batted her eyes. "They weren't?"

Regan pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. "I can't tell if you're being straight with me or not. Do you know they're hitting on you?"

"I don't think they are. I think women are just friendlier than guys. They look a lot and make small talk, but that doesn't mean they want to jump on you. They're certainly not aggressive the way guys are."

"I don't know a lot about guys, but I think women are just as h.o.r.n.y."

Callie patted Regan's leg as though she were a child. "Then you really don't know guys. Women aren't nearly as pushy as guys are. I danced with a bunch of women last night and none of them acted like they'd laid claim to me."

Every one of those women would have paid to sleep with her, and they would have claimed her if she hadn't danced away before any of them could catch her. How could she have slept around Dallas for more than a year and not have figured out how hot she was? Maybe it just didn't click for her. "You were too fast for them. I saw you slithering through that crowd." She placed her hands together and made them dart to and fro in tandem.

"It's different with women. Trust me. That's one of the reasons I don't see myself going back to men. If a guy wants you, it's hard to tell him to knock it off if you're not interested. It's much easier with women. Heck, if you just don't return the look very few of them would come back for a second try. It's much more polite. More civilized."

"Whatever you say. All I know is that you don't ever have to go home alone if you don't want to."

Grinning, Callie said, "Well, I didn't say you were wrong about that."

That grin was so confusing. Had she been teasing? There was a part of her that seemed wily. Like she knew exactly what she was doing. But then she seemed truly oblivious to how appealing she was. She was an absolute ma.s.s of contradictions.

For the next hour Callie played a little game where she tried to match which woman would look best with Regan. Regan seemed to enjoy Callie's interpretations, but after a while she said, "I'm just not feeling it. It's been six months and I'm not much more interested now than I was the day after we broke up."

Callie leaned over and gave her a gentle hug. With her arms still wrapped around her, she said quietly, "I know how hard this has been for you. I think Angela hurt you as deeply as it's possible to hurt someone."

When Regan pulled away, her eyes were bright with unshed tears. "It's so nice to know that you understand. Most people think I should be over this by now."

"I wish you were. I really do. But I know you have to just let it go at its own pace. When Rob and I broke up, I was a mess for a long time. The thought of being with another guy was repulsive."

Curiosity showing in her eyes, Regan said, "Do you think that's why you started dating Marina? The mere fact that she wasn't a man?"

"It's impossible to know. I was definitely open to being with a woman, but I wasn't determined to go gay. It just happened. She came along at the right, or maybe the wrong, time."

"I don't think I know anyone who seems truly bis.e.xual. Most of the women I know who've been with men did it because of family pressure, or they were confused."

"I wasn't confused. That's for sure. I've always thought women were attractive, and I'm sure I would've dated a woman if I hadn't been with Rob for so long. I gave him my prime experimenting years."

"I'd think college was the prime time for that."

"Not for me. I spent my first two years partying, then the next one trying to get my GPA up. Then I met the coolest guy." She acted like she was on the verge of fainting, half falling into Regan's lap. "We were like a magnet and a steel bar. I was stuck to him for years. But he didn't ever get out of the frat boy thing and I had to move on."

"So just those two guys melted your heart?"

"Not hardly." She leaned her head back and laughed up into the sky. "I had boyfriends in junior high and high school too. I was into guys, Regan. Really into them."

"Well, I've got to say that once you decided to give women a try you did it in a big way. You went all in." Regan shook her head, looking both amused and amazed.

"Yeah, being with Marina probably wasn't the right choice for a beginner. But sometimes it's hard to see that when you're in the middle of it."

Somewhat tentatively, Regan asked, "If you had to do it over again would you change anything?"

"That's not a game I like to play. I made my choices the best I could. I just try to learn from them."

"What did you learn from Marina?"

Callie thought about the question for a long time. But image after image of Marina and Angela together a.s.saulted her brain. It hurt like a punch to the gut, so she shut it off, refusing to invite that pain back in. "I'm not sure what I've learned. I thought I'd protected myself against being two-timed, but I got screwed over again." She knew she should have a better answer, but she wasn't interested in this game. Dredging up old hurts didn't make them go away, it just made the wound fresh again. There was nothing to learn from Marina, other than to stay away from anyone even remotely like her.

After breakfast on Monday morning they packed up to leave. Callie was full of energy and she took off for a run while Regan read the paper and chatted with the other guests. When Callie returned, she was carrying a large bouquet of flowers that she presented to Regan, proclaiming, "Happy Birthday!"

Regan blushed, but took the flowers and gave Callie a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks. I love getting flowers."

"My pleasure. I've never given a woman flowers. Oh, wait. Does my mom count?"

Their host, a friendly gay man of about fifty smiled at the pair. "You two make a cute pair. How long have you been together?"

"Oh, we're not together like that," Callie said. "We've just been friends for a few months, but we're united by a common goal." She grinned at Regan. "We're working to rid the world of cheating girlfriends."

"Good luck with that, girls. You've got your work cut out for you."

Chapter Fifteen.

Because it was the end of a three-day weekend, the traffic back down the Cape was very heavy, but neither woman seemed to mind. They'd both had a terrific time and neither was in a huge hurry to get back to Scituate.

They were about five miles from home when Regan's cell phone rang. Callie searched through their bags in the tiny car and found it just after it went to voicemail. She handed it to Regan. "My older sister. Probably calling to wish me a happy birthday." She opened the phone and hit a speed dial number, then put it on speakerphone. "Hi, Delaney. What's up?"

A voice that sounded quite a bit like Regan's but with a stronger Boston accent said, "You're gonna kill me, but I screwed something up on the computer. It's messed up all of the orders. I know it's your day off and I know it's your birthday. Happy birthday, by the way, but you've gotta get me the name of the guy who does repairs."

Regan sighed heavily. "He's not gonna make a call today. If you broke it, I can fix it. I'm not far from home. I'll come by."

"I hate to have you do that. Isn't there some twenty-four-hour place that I can call?"

"I'll be there in a half hour. Don't touch anything." She hung up without saying goodbye, then shot a quick glance at Callie. "I can drop you off at my house first."

"No, I'll go with you. Then I can meet your sister."

"Yeah, you probably should meet her before I kill her."

A half hour later they pulled into a very large parking lot, then went around the back of a series of buildings. They got out of the car with Regan still mumbling her unhappiness. "There's no reason for Delaney to be messing around with the main computer. I barely know what I'm doing, and I know ten times more than she does. She's always sticking her nose into my business."

To try to improve her mood Callie said, "I want to go in the front door, like a guest would. Then I can see how it would feel if someone was having an event here."

That seemed to pull Regan out of her funk. "I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to seeing our place. Let's cut through the parking lot. When my parents bought this place only the original building was here, but there was a very big building next door that had some kind of woodworking shop in it. When they got a little money they bought that too, tore it down, and built the big reception room. They did it really smart though, by leaving a big empty s.p.a.ce between the two buildings and landscaping that area really nicely. It's great for photos."

They got to the front and Regan's smile increased as they saw the entrance to the building. "The restaurant's here on the right and the entrance for a wedding or a big party is there on the left."

Both doors were beautifully carved and contained some lacy ironwork covering gla.s.s inserts. "It's lovely. Just beautiful."

"Wanna see the garden?"

"Absolutely."

They went in through the door to the reception facility and large gla.s.s doors looked out on a lovely garden, planted with leafy green plants and row upon row of annual flowers. A fountain spouted from a trio of large rocks, splashing water down the rock face and pooling in a small pond below.

"This is really, really nice. Anyone would be lucky to have a wedding here."

"This place is the result of a lot of years of very hard work, mostly by my parents. They should be coming up from Florida pretty soon; maybe by the end of next week. They're usually here by now, but they had some things to take care of before they took off for the summer."

They went back to the main entrance and Regan pushed open the door to the restaurant. As soon as they pa.s.sed the entrance, a crowd of people yelled "Surprise!" and dozens and dozens of balloons descended from the ceiling. Regan slapped both of her hands over her face and shook her head, laughing. She looked around to find her older sister. "I was so ready to kick your a.s.s!" She looked just a few feet away and saw her parents. "Mom! Dad!" She rushed over to them and they both wrapped her in a hug. She waved Callie over.

"Callie, I want you to meet my mom and dad." While Callie was shaking their hands, Regan reached out and clapped her arm around her sister's neck and pulled her over. "And this prankster is my sister, Delaney."

Callie was surprised at the family resemblance in all the Mannings. They were attractive people, but there was something special about Regan, some quality that made her shine no matter who she was standing by. A much younger-looking woman came up and introduced herself, "I'm Alana. You must be Callie."

Regan pulled her younger sister in for a hug. "This is the woman who made that delicious dinner for us the night you arrived. I know you'll be Callie's favorite because there's nothing she likes more than eating."

"That food was wonderful," Callie said. "If you were my sister and you fed me all the time, someone would have to stage an intervention."

"Well, I didn't cook today, but I think the food will still be good. Regan, introduce your friend around. Don't be such a lunk."

"I've been here two minutes," Regan said, with just a little bit of testiness showing in her voice. But she took Callie around and introduced her first to her grandparents, then to every cousin, aunt, uncle, friend and employee in the place. It was fairly crowded, with about forty people in attendance, and it took quite a while to make the entire circuit.

"Who are those people?" Callie asked, pointing at two men sitting at the bar.

"Customers. We're open today but don't have any parties scheduled because of the holiday. People tend to stay home on Memorial Day."

"You guys almost fill the place. " She looked around. "There isn't an empty table."

"We'll only have a few lonely guys like Johnny and Rich over there. They're the kinds of guys you don't want to make mad. They come here two or three times a week and they'd throw a fit if we shut them out."

"I guess you're always at the public's beck and call when you're in the restaurant business."

"That's an understatement. But this is the only job I've ever had, so I'm used to it."

They all ordered off the menu, but there was only one waitress on duty and she was inundated, so Delaney and Alana took the orders to the kitchen and helped serve the food. It was fairly chaotic, but it seemed what everyone was used to.

Callie had just about finished a truly delicious lobster salad club sandwich when Regan's father got to his feet and yelled in full voice, "Oh, no, you don't. You get out of my restaurant and you stay out!"

Callie looked toward the door but it took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the bright light. When they did, she was astounded to see Regan's father rushing towards a tall, elegantly dressed, beautiful black woman.

Regan leapt to her feet and reached the woman just as her father did. She wrapped an arm around him and pushed him aside as well as she could, saying something to him privately. Callie watched as Angela stood just inside the door, looking unsure of whether she should beat a hasty retreat or stand where she was. Regan was talking very animatedly, and her father at last nodded his head a few times. When she let him go, he approached Angela who, to Callie's respect, didn't flinch. He put out his hand and said, "I apologize. It's just that when my little girl gets her heart broken..."

"It's okay, George. I understand."

Regan's friend Sheila was sitting next to Callie. She said, "I think he should kick her a.s.s."

Callie nodded. "That wouldn't be a bad idea."

Sheila leaned closer and whispered, "You know the whole truth, don't you?"

"Yeah. I know more than I wish I did."

"Regan's too good for that b.i.t.c.h. What kind of an a.s.shole would cheat on her?"