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realized that she had promised to call him as soon as she got home. She laughed aloud and dialed his number.
    “I haven’t done a thing since you left me but wait for this call. I haven’t even had dinner.”
    “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I just remembered that I’m the one who was supposed to call.”
    “You were waiting for my call? Serves you right. Kiss me.” She made the sound of a kiss.
    “I’ll see you Friday evening around seven. Don’t meet me at the airport. It’s bad enough that I’ll have to kiss you in the presence of your family.”
    “Passengers at the airport won’t care, but I can just see Clark getting in between us when he thinks you’re about to kiss me.”
    “You’re exaggerating. Besides, I haven’t met a man who’d make that kind of mistake with me.”
    They talked for a while, neither willing to end the conversation.
    “I spoke with Edward right after I got here,” she said after a brief pause in the conversation.
    “Who’s Edward?”
    She told him about her relationship with Edward.
    “Was that necessary?”
    “It was something that I was prepared to talk to him about,” she said.
    “He could have ended it. But he did the next best thing.”
    “I suppose so. But he should have told me that he didn’t see me as someone to take seriously in a relationship. I’d never thought anything of flirting. But after that, my attitude has changed. I stopped playing with men. It is no longer fun.”
    “You had a moment of truth.”
    “After we talked, I felt better about the relationship.”
    “You were with him?”
    “Yeah. I called him and told him I wanted to see him. I couldn’t discuss that over the phone. I wanted him to look me in the eye.”
    “You’re satisfied now that your disappointment had nothing to do with you?”
    “I knew that before you took off my dress. Nothing about it was the same. Honey, if I had a lollipop, I’d give it to you.” “ What? What the hell does that mean?”
    “When I was little, my daddy used to reward me with a lollipop, because I loved them. I’d better get to sleep, because I have a ton of work tomorrow. Good night, honey.
    “Good night, love.”
     
    Mike hung up and spent the next half hour musing over his conversation with Darlene. When first meeting her, he had thought that she possessed an innocent manner, but he couldn’t have been further off the mark. What he’d observed, but had not correctly surmised, was that Darlene’s insistence upon being truthful abouteverything had nothing to do with her naiveté. She joked and teased, but even in that, she didn’t lie. What you saw was exactly what you got. She wanted to make love to him, and she let him know it. A woman without guile—she was a rarity, and he intended to treat her that way. There was much about her that he didn’t know and should get to know before he got in deeper, and he meant to use the coming weekend to good advantage.
     
    Darlene marched through the doors of Myrtle, Coppersmith & Cunningham, LLP, and headed for the third office on the right. “Hi, Ann,” she called to her secretary. “I see the place is still here.”
    “It sure is, and your in-box is crammed. Say, what happened to you?”
    Darlene paused. “What do you mean?”
    “You’re glowing. If I thought ninety-five-degree heat would make me look the way you do, I’d head South right now.”
    “There’s nothing like the sun to make your cheeks rosy,” Darlene said and rushed into her office to hide her embarrassment. Could everyone see what had transpired while in Memphis? She briefly glanced over at the voice-mail light blinking on her phone, checked her emails and went to the conference room for the regular Monday morning meeting.
    “Apart from what must have been a trying weekend,” Sam Myrtle began, “I hope you got something out of the trip.”
    “I got some important interviews, and I’m almostcertain we can forget about my client’s alibi in Memphis. He’s trying to