~ A Change Of Plans ~

by

Ann B. Morris

By the time Thursday came Zach was like a caged tiger. He hadn’t seen Cara all week and the thought that he might have to wait until the Fourth of July to see her again nearly drove him crazy. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, he decided as he snatched up the phone.

As it turned out, he couldn’t have picked a better time to call and invite her to lunch. Her morning appointment had ended early and her afternoon appointment had been pushed back an hour. "How does twelve-thirty sound?" she asked.

"Are you kidding? That sounds great. I was holding my breath until you answered, but to be honest I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in hell to see you today."

"Well, don’t start melting on me," she teased. "You’ve already committed yourself to buying me lunch. It has to be something fast, though. I can’t afford more than an hour."

"I know the perfect place. There’s a pizza restaurant with a wood-burning oven not far from either of us. They make great pizzas and the service is fast. We should be out in less than an hour."

He was waiting at the front door of the restaurant when she arrived twenty minutes later.

"I certainly hope that smile on your face is because of me," he said, holding the door open for her.

Cara treated him to one of her broadest smiles. "Well, it’s partly because of you."

She had to be teasing him. "Oh? And to what, or whom, do I owe the competition?"

They followed the hostess to a table by a window. He held out a chair for her and before she was seated she rushed on with the reason for her elation. "The real estate agent called right before I left. It looks like the sellers of the property across the Lake won’t need the extra time after all. Things should start moving fast now."

"That’s great news," he mumbled, handing her a menu. He took one for himself and studied it in silence for the next couple of minutes.

Caught up in her excitement, Cara chattered on. "Once the deal is closed and June is behind me I can really start digging in my heels and begin the renovation and remodeling. If things go smoothly I could be in my new home well before the end of the year, after all."

Zach felt as though he was on a sinking ship. He kept his attention focused on the menu. "I’m really happy things are working out."

The lack of enthusiasm in his voice didn’t escape Cara this time. "You don’t sound happy."

"Well, I am," he retorted. "I’m just not happy that you seem so eager to move fifty miles away right now. I thought we’d be spending more time together once your busy season was over." He snapped the menu closed and plopped it down in the middle of the table.

Cara caught her lower lip between her teeth. She opened her menu, ran down the list of toppings that were offered, quickly rattled off her three favorites, then just as quickly excused herself and made a dash for the ladies’ room.

He wanted to kick himself. He couldn’t believe he had made such a gaffe. The joy he’d felt just a few minutes ago had vanished. All he felt now was fear. Fear that he would lose her to more than distance.

He had known almost from the first minute they met that she was planning to move. But how could he have possibly known then that he would become involved with her and that her moving away would affect him so much? The extension of time had actually given him hope that she wouldn’t be moving in the very near future. But that seemed to be changing now and the realization of a more imminent separation struck him hard.

As soon as Cara returned, he set out to make amends. "I’m sorry for what I said," he blurted, reaching across the table for her hand. "It just hit me all of a sudden that before long you’re going to be miles and miles away."

"It isn’t as if you didn’t know I was moving," she said. "Besides, it’s only across the Lake, not across the country." She refused to look at him, although she made no move to take her hand from his.

Desperate to salvage what he could of the rest of their time together, he leaned toward her. "Go on," he ordered, "bite my head off, pour cold water on me, slug me, gouge my eyes out, do anything you can think of to hurt me. I deserve it."

Cara looked at him for a long time. He hoped she might break out in a smile for him, but instead she became notably serious.

"I have to know now if you can handle the fact that my business consumes most of my time." She slipped her hand from his, reached for her water glass and took a long drink. When she finished, she looked at him thoughtfully for a few seconds before she spoke. "Unlike yours, my business is far from where I want it to be. I’m more than willing to meet the demands it makes on me."

She was telling him nothing he didn’t already know. She was asking for nothing he wasn’t already prepared to give. He had rehearsed his answer to the question countless times, late at night when he lay in bed unable to sleep. "I can’t say the demands your business makes on your time doesn’t bother me, because it does. I’ve missed you like hell these past couple of days. Maybe I’m selfish, but I keep wishing you had more time for me."

He reached across the table and found her hand again. When she didn’t pull it away, it gave him courage to continue. "I can’t promise I won’t growl about it, or try to wrangle extra time with you. But if you forgive me, I will promise never to act like such an insensitive ass ever again. I don’t want to lose you."

Later, after Cara was settled behind the wheel of her car, Zach leaned inside the open window and lifted her chin with his finger. "I know this next week is going to be murder for you, but if you get another chance for a quick break, just remember, I’m available."

"I’ll remember," she replied.

He waved her on her way and then walked back to his car. His step wasn’t as light as it had been when he arrived. But, then, his heart wasn’t as heavy as it had been when his brusqueness had driven her from the table. It would take patience to deal with this situation. He had always considered himself a patient man. But that was before he met Cara Lewis--he knew she was going to test his patience to the limit.

~ * ~

Sunday evening Zach flew to Houston. And Sunday night, as she had for the past several, Cara lay awake for hours thinking about what her move would mean in terms of their growing relationship. A lot could happen in the next few months. They could drift apart or they could discover that they wanted to get even closer. If that happened, how would he fit into her plans?

Zach’s roots went deep. Everything that was most important to him--his business, his home--would soon be miles away from the things most important to her. Her life was taking on new dimensions. How ironic that the dream she had held for all these years might well be in conflict with the one person who had finally, after all this time, touched something deep inside her.

Monday morning, when Zach called her at work to tell her an unexpected problem would keep him away an extra day or two, she was keenly disappointed. When he called on Tuesday to tell her he wouldn’t be home until late the following night an ache spread across her chest. Until that very moment she hadn’t known what being physically separated from him really meant. For the first time in two years she was in no hurry to begin the next phase of her expansion, and that realization frightened her to her core.

When she arrived at the office Wednesday morning there was a message from Zach waiting for her. He was home at last. Eager to hear his voice, she dialed his number while she riffled through a stack of papers on her desk.

"Do you know what day this is?" he asked excitedly the moment he picked up the phone.

She was so happy to hear his voice, she felt giddy. "It’s Thursday, Zach. Are you getting early memory loss?"

"No, I mean the date. It’s July second. I’ve been a free man for twenty-four hours. It’s all over and done with. Let’s have dinner tonight."

A groan escaped her lips. "I can’t."

"Why not? We’re out of June now," he was quick to remind her.

"It’s my niece’s sixteenth birthday. There’s a big party tonight."

"Well, can’t you plead exhaustion and leave early?"

"I can’t. I’m catering the party. There are fifty guests invited." Surely, he could tell she was as disappointed as he was.

"Damn. I was looking forward to seeing you tonight. I had a celebration of my own planned--a nice dinner, some dancing. Hell, I just realized, I don’t even know if you like to dance."

"I love to dance."

"I even had a babysitter lined up for the boys."

She felt terrible that she couldn’t be with him tonight, but there was really nothing she could do about it. "I’m really sorry, Zach. But this is a big family affair and it’s been planned for six months."

"Then what about tomorrow?"

Her stomach twisted. "I have a golden wedding anniversary to handle. It was Patty’s event to work but her father’s having by-pass surgery tomorrow morning. She needs to be there." Certainly, he could see that none of this was of her choosing. That she wanted to see him every bit as much as he wanted to see her.

"Then I won’t get to see you until Saturday? With all those people around?" Disappointment punctuated every word.

"Looks that way," Cara drawled, trying to downplay what she knew was a big letdown for him.

"I think you’re having fun torturing me," Zach said, with just enough laughter in his voice to make her relax.

"Just wait until you see my chains and whips," she replied.

"Promises, promises. I may make you deliver on that you know."

She smiled inwardly at their bantering to get over the rough spot.

"Seriously," Zach said, "I want us to celebrate as soon as possible. I want to take you someplace where you can sit back and relax and let someone else do the waiting on you for a change."

"And what about the dancing?"

"We can dance all night if you like." He paused, then whispered suggestively, "On second thought we could spend part of the night doing other things."

"Oh, you," Cara scoffed. But imagining what those other things might be brought a rush to her cheeks and a hard thump to her heart.