Chapter One

Ridley Kelsen is convinced she's not destined to find love. The singles scene is old and dating is terribly disappointing. Her closest friend tells her that love comes along when you least expect it and the very last thing Ridley expects when she accepts an invitation to join her friends for dinner, is that she will meet the most beautiful creature she's ever laid eyes on. Will this turn out to be yet another disappointment? Dana De Marco moves to Philadelphia after her dreams for the future are unexpectedly shattered. Her new restaurant, Café De Marco is located on the city's famous South Street and has opened to rave reviews. It seems as if the pieces of her life are finally falling into place, except for one minor detail… she's unable to let go of the past. The last thing Dana expects is that she's about to meet someone who will force her to face her demons head on. Does she have the courage to open her heart and love again?

Chapter One

RIDLEY PULLED INTO one of the last spaces in the high school parking lot and sat for a minute with the air-conditioner running while she inspected herself in the rear view mirror. Her wavy auburn hair had curled thanks to the high humidity and she admired the way it fell around her face giving her that carefree, tousled hair style she wished she could have every day. She reached her hand to tame a wayward clump behind her ear and pulled off her sunglasses. In the morning light her eyes were as green as emeralds and she could easily see the tiny specks of gold scattered around the rims of the irises.

The long summer vacation had come to an end, the Labor Day celebrations and fireworks were over and she was about to begin her first day as the new physical education teacher in a high school not too far from where she lived. She was eager to get started, especially since her friend Laurie Morgan taught English at the same school yet at the same time she felt anxious, two conflicting emotions she accepted as understandable under the circumstances.

As soon as she lowered her long legs and planted her sandaled feet on the sticky blacktop, she heard Laurie yelling at her from the other end of the parking lot. Even though they were the only two people around, Laurie jumped up and down and flapped her hands in the air above her head as though she feared Ridley wouldn't be able to locate her without some sort of visual signal. Something about Laurie's hand movements reminded Ridley of a robin frolicking in a backyard birdbath on the first warm day of spring, but then it wasn't hard to think about robins when one thought of Laurie because she held the promise of spring in her heart and she was as reliable as she was pretty.

" Hey, Ridley, wait for me! " Laurie hollered.

Ridley waved back to acknowledge Laurie's request, grabbed her work bags from the front seat of her Honda CR-V and slammed the door shut. Near the rear bumper, she stopped to wait for her friend and pressed the button on her key chain that locked her vehicle. Although she heard the metallic clunk of the locks loud and clear, she pushed the button a second time just to hear the high-pitched beep that told her the doors were already locked. It dawned on her that it was a peculiar little habit and one she did quite often. Sometimes, she even pushed the button three or four times in a row to create a series of beeps.

Laurie half-walked, half-ran to catch up, her chest heaving as she struggled to inhale the heavy air of another hot and humid morning. Once she stood next to Ridley, she set her bags down while she stopped to catch her breath. " If it isn't my old friend, Ridley Kelsen, " she said after fifteen or twenty seconds of deep breathing. " Imagine meeting you here."

" What do you mean, 'imagine meeting me here'? You're the one who told me to meet you in front of the school this morning, Ms. Morgan. Remember? "

" Sure I remember. Why wouldn't I? " Laurie's normally pale complexion was as red as the rising summer sun. " Is it hot enough for you? "

" Yeah, I'd say so. I hate September in Philadelphia and you shouldn't be running around in this heat. You look like you're going to self-combust." Ridley looked down at her sandals. " It's been so hot I think the asphalt's starting to melt. I thought my sandals would get stuck in it when I got out of my car." She bent her right foot up and inspected her sandal. " I think the bottom of my sandals might be melting."

Wet ringlets of medium-length, blond hair were stuck to Laurie's forehead and a stream of sweat wiggled a crooked path down the right side of her face. She swiped at it with her fingers, but that only served to send it trickling off in a new direction. " I think I'm melting."

Ridley touched Laurie's sweaty cheek and studied the thin film of moisture coating her fingers before she wiped it off on the side of her shorts. Even Laurie's cool blue eyes looked hot. " You're sweating like crazy. Too bad this school of yours doesn't have air-conditioning because after two weeks of temperatures like these, that old stone building's going to feel just like an enormous sauna inside."

" The entire city feels like a sauna, " Laurie pointed out. " And the school has never had any air-conditioning except for a few select places." Laurie brushed at the stream of sweat on her face again. " The library isn't one of those places."

" The library isn't air-conditioned? Isn't that where we're having our meetings? " The staff was required to come in the day after Labor Day for two days of meetings before the official start of the school year. In these meetings they'd go over the District's goals for the coming school year as well as any changes in the curriculum and they'd be treated to a video pep-talk from the head of the school district thanking them in advance for their hard work.

" Yes, unfortunately, " Laurie confirmed.

Ridley imagined how miserable her face must have looked as she absorbed the full impact of Laurie's words. " That's great, but I can't say I'm surprised. All the older schools in the city are like that. My last one was."

Laurie plucked at the front of her shirt. " Look at me, my shirt's soaked and we're not even inside the building. By the end of the day, I won't have an ounce of fluid left in my body."

Ridley groaned as she thought of how hellish the next two days would be. " I'm getting heat stroke just thinking about it--as if those meetings aren't intolerable enough."

As though Laurie felt she needed to offer Ridley a thread of hope, she added, " If it makes you feel any better, the weather report said it'll be a lot cooler by the weekend."

" Anything would feel better than this, but first we have to find some way to survive the rest of this week." Ridley lifted one of her bags. " I brought plenty of bottled water and I'm praying the teacher that was here before me left a fan in the gym office."

" If not, I've got an extra one." Laurie glanced briefly at her clothing and then at Ridley's. They both wore shorts and sleeveless polo shirts. " Thank God the students aren't here so we can get away with dressing like this. I don't know what I'll do if it's still this hot when I have to get dressed up to teach class."

" That's one good thing about being the Phys. Ed. teacher. I get away with casual clothes most of the time because no one expects me to dress up."

" And there's no need to. You'd just get dirty down in that gym." Laurie stared at Ridley for a moment and as she did she must have discovered something amusing which caused the corners of her mouth to turn up. " You couldn't pull off wearing a dress anyway. You'd look kind of funny in one. When I think of you, I think of handsome rather than feminine. It's not that you're super butchy or anything, but..." Laurie appeared worried about that last statement.

" Relax, I know what you mean, " Ridley said, to put her friend at ease. She'd made it clear to Laurie on more than one occasion that she didn't like to dress too masculine or too feminine. She preferred a more neutral appearance and was attracted to the same kind of women although she did tend to favor women who leaned a tad more toward the feminine side. " And you're right, I would look funny. If I did dress up I'd have to wear dressier pants because I don't own a dress and I can't remember the last time I wore one--twelve years old, maybe? "

Laurie took a quick peek at her watch. " We'd better stop standing around chatting and get in there." She picked up her bag with one hand and took hold of Ridley's arm with the other as they started toward the main entrance. " When did you get back from the shore? "

" Last night around nine-thirty. I waited until the traffic thinned out before I hit the road. As you know, there's no sense in leaving any earlier on a holiday weekend because if you do, you just end up sitting in your car on the road while you crawl all the way home with everyone else who left early. You get home just as late."

" Bet you hated to leave. Is your Mom still down there? "

Ridley's nod answered Laurie's question. " September's one of her favorite months. It's still summer and still warm, but the vacation crowds are gone and it's peaceful again."

" It must be a lot more peaceful, but then we wouldn't know because we have to get back to work." Laurie let out a squeal after she said that and joggled Ridley's arm to and fro with gusto. " Speaking of work, I can't believe we're going to be working at the same school! I was thrilled when you told me your transfer was official."

" Back when we were in college, did you ever think we'd be working together someday? " The two of them had been friends ever since Laurie chose the seat next to Ridley's in their first freshman class at Temple University. Ridley's smile evolved into a wry grin. " I do hate to put a damper on your enthusiasm, but you'll be up on the third floor teaching English and I'm going to be down in the gym so we'll hardly see each other."

" So what? I'm just happy to have you here. We can eat lunch together and go to meetings together, can't we? " Laurie cocked her head, a habit Ridley was quite familiar with. " We can talk about the same people and we'll both know what's going on in the school. It'll be fun."

" When you put it that way, it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun." Ridley cocked her head to match Laurie's and mirrored her friend's silly smile.

Laurie straightened her head. " You don't need to make fun of me."

" I was only teasing you." Ridley covered her mouth and yawned. " God, I'm so tired today. I think I slept about four hours at the most. I couldn't get to sleep, I couldn't stay asleep and then I couldn't get up once I finally fell asleep. You know how out of whack our systems get after we've been off the entire summer."

" I didn't sleep much either, " Laurie said. " Every September I go through an adjustment period for a week or two until I get back into my work routine."

" I go through the same thing, but on top of that I think I was anxious about going to a new school. I was happy to leave my old school, but..."

" I understand. Just don't be nervous about working here, " Laurie said.

" I know, I know. You told me how much you love it here. Still, it is a new job and you can't blame me for being a little nervous and excited."

" No I can't, but I know you're going to love it here. That's why I called you the minute I found out our gym teacher was retiring. I..." Laurie didn't finish her sentence and her gaze became fixed on Ridley's. " I'm sorry, your eyes distracted me. I almost forgot how they change colors from one moment to the next. They can be different shades of green depending on the light and in the next second, they've got flecks of gold in them. They're so pretty they make you lose your train of thought."

" You should be used to them by now." Ridley was accustomed to other people's remarks about the color of her eyes, although she appreciated the compliment more when it came from Laurie or someone dear to her. " They probably have dark circles under them, today."

" Not really." Laurie paused on the sidewalk and inspected Ridley from top to bottom. " I haven't seen you in a few weeks and you may be tired, but you look fantastic and I love your tan. Not that you needed to, but did you lose a little weight over the summer? I didn't notice it when we came down to visit at the end of July, but now I can see it."

Ridley looked down at Laurie who at five feet five was a good two and a half inches shorter than she. " I lost about twelve pounds. I always lose weight in the summer."

" I usually lose a few pounds, too, but not because I'm as active as you are. I just don't feel like eating as much." Laurie stopped when they reached the high school's massive cascade of steps that led up to the main entrance. " Here we are. Nowhere left to go but up."

" My, isn't this is an attractive building." Ridley paused to study the dilapidated and dingy structure that loomed in front of them like an abandoned insane asylum. She'd seen the high school many times before, of course, but she'd never paid that much attention to it. In its day it must have been a stately building and in spite of its current state of disrepair, she could almost make out the ghostly image of the building's former grandeur.

" Isn't it? It's definitely seen better days."

" I'd say it's long past its heyday. Now I know what the 'P' stands for."

Laurie cast her friend a curious glance. " What are you talking about? "

" The P--the P in Calvin P. Hayes. It has to stand for prison."

" You're totally nuts. You know that, don't you? "

" Why do you say I'm nuts? " Ridley pretended to be wounded. " It looks just like a prison and look at the windows, they have bars on them. That proves my point." She pointed to the iron security bars on the ground floor windows.

" That doesn't prove anything. All the schools have bars on the windows."

" Laurie, I'm just teasing you and believe me when I tell you that I do not care how it looks as long as I enjoy working here. Anything would be an improvement over my last school. The last straw in a long line of last straws was that new principal we got last year. There's nothing worse than a bitchy woman armed with absolute power."

" All the principals are dictators. It's just a matter of whether you get a benevolent one or a malevolent one." Laurie climbed the first two steps and motioned with her hand for Ridley to catch up. " Hurry up. We don't want to be late or we'll miss out on the free coffee and bagels."

" In that case, we had better get moving." Ridley tucked her chin in, threw her chest out and squared her shoulders. " Are you ready to take on the challenge of another exciting and rewarding school year? I have no doubt it will prove to be more memorable than the last."

" I'm ready if you are, my fellow idealist." Laurie stood tall as she trudged all the way up the steps with Ridley and straight through the front door.

" Are you going straight up to the library? " Ridley asked once they were inside the main office. " It's cool in here. I wish I could stay in here all day."

" We've got about a half-hour to kill, so I'm going up to my classroom." Laurie reached inside her mailbox and removed some papers and a folder. After she did that, she pointed to another box one row over. " Check this out. They already gave you a mailbox with your name on it. Isn't that cute? " Without asking for permission, Laurie reached inside, grabbed the contents and handed it to Ridley. " Here are your materials for the meetings."

" Stealing someone's mail is a federal offense."

" So have me arrested why don't you? " Laurie's eyes drifted to the clock on the wall. " I've got to get going. I'll meet you in the library in twenty minutes. Save me a seat and get me a cup of coffee and a sesame bagel or a cinnamon raisin. And don't forget the cream cheese, regular not light." Laurie scurried out of the main office without another word.

" Anything else I can do for you? " Ridley mumbled to the wall.

AFTER LUNCH, THE staff was given the rest of the afternoon to get their classrooms in order and that gave Ridley an opportunity to check out the gymnasiums as well as her office. Horrified by a cluttered desk and closets stuffed with junk, she wasted no time launching her attack. Like any teacher who had to take over for someone who'd long ago lost their spark, she'd have to get rid of anything she didn't want or couldn't use and make the place her own.

" Those meetings bore me to tears." About an hour later, Laurie appeared out of nowhere and spoke from the doorway to Ridley's office. " It's the same old stuff every year and those group exercises..." She held her hands up to the ceiling. " Is there no mercy? Is there no God? "

" They drive me insane, " Ridley said.

" Me, too, " Laurie agreed. " Last spring at one of our meetings they made us pick someone we didn't know and take a walk with them. We were supposed to share something that we'd never told anyone. Now, if there was something you didn't want to tell to someone you knew why would you want to tell it to someone you didn't know? "

" They're definitely running out of ways to torture us." While she talked, Ridley kept on throwing huge piles of yellowed forms into trash bags. " Look at these old forms. Some are thirty years old. I'll bet you only the pentagon and the IRS have more forms than the school district." Ridley scraped an old wooden chair across the floor for Laurie. " Here, keep me company while I clear out this junk."

" I can't stay long." Laurie flopped in the chair with a sigh and gulped down the rest of the bottle of water she'd carried in with her. " How can you work in this heat? "

" I have to get it done before I get busy because I can't function in this mess. I have to have a neat and organized work space."

" This is such an appealing gym." A vinegary expression transformed Laurie's typically sweet face. " And it's so modern."

Ridley knew the reason for Laurie's sarcasm and although they'd both become accustomed to working in impoverished conditions, it never got any easier. She'd expected the drab green peeling walls, the exposed pipes and crumbling ceilings. It looked just like many other schools in the city and even better than some. " I'll never understand how the students can feel good about themselves in buildings like these."

" They always promise us new schools, but I don't see it happening, " Laurie said.

" No money, that's the bottom line as the saying goes--a saying I've always hated, by the way." Ridley turned her attention to a couple of enormous cardboard boxes. She grabbed a filthy, deflated soccer ball out of one of them and shook it at Laurie. " Look at this." She threw it onto a pile of torn nets and cracked knee pads. " This broken junk has to be thrown out, but I'm afraid housekeeping will have a fit."

" They will if you put it in the regular trash. Call Ernie, our custodian and he'll send a couple of his guys over to get rid of it for you."

" Thanks. I'll do that." Ridley realized that Laurie was sitting around talking while everyone else was getting ready for school to start. " Don't you have to get your classroom in order? "

" I came in last week and did it." Laurie shrugged. " You know how I am. I hate doing things at the last minute. So what do you think so far--about working here, I mean? "

" I talked to Dr. Wilson after the meeting and she's very supportive about what I want to do, especially the health education part. She wants the students to take a half-year of health education as a graded course in addition to gym classes."

" I told you she's a great principal."

" Stay put, I'll be right back." Ridley walked to the other side of the gym and came back with a huge trash can bouncing behind her. She kept right on talking as she worked. " She said she welcomed fresh ideas and liked my enthusiasm."

" The guy who was here before you did as little as possible and I hate to say it, but the kids hated him. He was an odious man."

" Odious? " Ridley stopped what she was doing and put her hands on her hips. " You've read way too many nineteenth century novels."

" I'm a classics buff, what can I say? I love those Jane Austen words like 'felicity', 'condole' and 'trifle'. I don't know why we don't use any of those words anymore. They were so poetic and descriptive. I loved the way she wrote phrases like, 'you take great delight in vexing me' or 'I am excessively diverted'."

" Don't ever talk like that when the students are around. You'll never hear the end of it."

" Don't I know it? " Laurie remarked as if she'd had experience in the matter. " But be honest, doesn't 'don't trifle with me' sound better than 'don't fuck with me'? "

" I guess it sounds better, but..." Ridley hesitated and a mischievous smile formed in the corners of her mouth. " It doesn't feel nearly as good."

" I might have known you'd say that." Laurie sounded deflated.

" Sorry, but it's true. You know it is."

" Yeah, I guess so." Laurie leaned forward in her chair. " I hate to change the subject, but I want to know about that girl you were dating at the shore. Are you still seeing her? "

" You mean Melissa? No. It fizzled out and I let it. All she wanted to do was to drink and party with her friends and she made me feel like an ornament hanging on her arm. To tell you the truth, I'm getting tired of the lesbian singles scene. Maybe I'm tired of lesbians in general."

" What a thing to say. You can't blame all lesbians for your dating woes."

" I don't know who else I'm supposed to blame."

" I'm sorry it didn't work out with her, " Laurie said.

" Don't be. It doesn't matter and I only said I was tired of lesbians because I'm frustrated with the whole dating scene. It never seems to work out for me. Most of the women I've dated are only looking for casual sex and casual relationships and I guess I'm ready for more."

" I thought you enjoyed being alone and playing the field."

" Being alone is not a problem for me. My mother taught me to be self-sufficient and she taught me never to depend on someone else for my happiness." Ridley poked at her chest as she said the next words. " She said real happiness comes from inside here."

" I can't argue with that, " Laurie said.

" She also told me that being able to survive on your own makes you stronger. Even as a young girl, I promised myself I'd never be one of those people who fell apart every time they found themselves alone. Being alone isn't such a bad thing, you know."

" I agree, but why do I get the feeling it's getting to you? "

" Because it is." Ridley took in a deep breath and forced it out. It wasn't easy to admit what she knew she was about to say, not to herself or to her best friend. " Look, it's not that I can't be alone, it's that I don't want to be, not anymore. I want someone in my life."

" I didn't know you felt that way. You've always been my single lesbian idol."

" Well, idols tend to disappoint. Toward the end of the last school year, I used to come home from work and dread the thoughts of eating another dinner alone or spending another evening with the only other voice I heard coming from the television. My apartment doesn't feel like my home anymore, if it ever did." Ridley grabbed a chair and straddled it so she was facing Laurie. " I feel like I'm missing something important, something I can count on."

" I think that something is love."

" My mother said the same thing to me, just the other day."

" You told her how you feel? I wish I could talk to my mother like that."

" I know you do and I know how lucky I am. I can tell her just about anything." Ridley took in a deep breath and made another admission. " Falling in love hasn't happened to me and I guess I'm having a hard time believing it ever will. I used to, but not anymore."

" Don't you ever give up hope. Love has a way of seeking you out when you least expect it and it has a nasty habit of sneaking up on you when you're looking off in another direction. It shows up when you've decided you don't need it and worse yet, when you don't even want it."

" Do you really think so? " Ridley wanted so much to believe Laurie's words. She hated to acknowledge it, even to herself, but she had pretty much given up believing in love.

" I know so and I also know that when you fall for someone you're going to fall hard. In the meantime, while you're waiting for Ms. Right to come along, you should come over to our house when you're tired of being alone. You can have dinner with us anytime or you and I can have dinner together is closer to the truth since Karen is always working late."

" Thanks for the offer. You're a good friend."

Laurie laid her hand on top of Ridley's. " Karen and I always say how much we hope you'll meet someone. We'd give anything to see you end up as happy as we are."

" I'd love to have what you have with Karen, but I'm not sure I'll ever get it." Ridley hung her head. " Maybe I'm not destined to fall in love. Some people never do, you know."

" It has nothing to do with destiny. You just haven't met the right person. You're a real catch and someday, someone other than me and Karen is going to figure that out."

" You're a sweetheart." Ridley lifted her head and gazed into Laurie's brown eyes. " I know we've talked about this before, but don't you sometimes wonder why we never fell in love? "

" Yes, I do. I used to ask myself that same question before I met Karen."

" And what was your answer? "

" I don't have a clue, but I do know we have no control when it comes to love. You and I would have been a brilliant match, but we never had one single molecule of chemistry between us. One week after I met Karen, on our second date to be precise, I knew I'd fallen hopelessly in love." Laurie fanned her face with her hand. " Talk about chemical reactions. We would have burned the entire lab down."

" I think you still could. The chemistry is obvious to anyone who knows the two of you or is around you for any length of time."

" Things have cooled down a bit since then, thank God. You can't go around in that state for the rest of your life. That reminds me, how do you feel about going out with us this weekend? If you don't already have plans, that is? "

" I don't know. My mother wanted me to come back to the shore for the weekend, but I think I've had enough of the shore for a while. I'd rather stay home and get my life together before things get busy at work. I have nothing to eat in my apartment and I need to clean and tackle a mountain of laundry. What did you have in mind? "

" Karen and I have been invited to try a new restaurant on South Street. It's supposed to be one of the best new restaurants in the city. I wish you'd come with us."

" I don't know, maybe. What do you mean you were invited? "

" The owner is an old high school friend of Karen's. She just moved back here from Chicago to open this restaurant. We went to visit her a few years ago, but then Karen lost touch with her. We probably told you about her, but you may have forgotten. Say you'll go with us, please? It'll be fun." Laurie batted her eyelashes as she often did when she wanted to charm you into doing something. " Come on... please? Pretty please? "

" All right already. I can't stand to hear you beg. When are we going? "

" On Saturday. Our reservation is for seven o'clock." Laurie got up and stood by her chair. " I've got to meet with the roster chairman. Why don't you come over around six and we'll all walk to the restaurant together? " She walked out of Ridley's office.

Ridley hurried to catch her. " Laurie..." She waited for Laurie to turn and face her so she could look into her eyes because what she had to say was crucial. " Before you go, convince me this isn't another plan to fix me up. You know what happened the other times you tried to play matchmaker." Laurie's prior attempts to find the perfect person for Ridley had been disastrous and Ridley had made her swear she would never try again. " You promised, remember? "

" I remember and it's going to be just the three of us, I swear to God." Laurie made the sign of the cross on her chest, a residual habit from her Catholic upbringing.

" It had better be." Ridley glared at Laurie, her eyebrows drawn together.

Laurie raised her arms in the air as if to surrender. " I swear. I meant it when I said I'd never meddle in your love life again and I won't. You'll have to find that one special person who sets your soul on fire without any help from me."

" Good. I see you've finally learned your lesson."

" I have and I'm glad you're joining us on Saturday. Karen made me promise I'd ask you today. So, don't work too hard and I'll see you tomorrow morning? " Laurie managed to escape this time and hurried through the door that led into the hallway.

" I'll be here, " Ridley said to the empty gymnasium.