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"I’oing to h to let uy, isn’t he?"

"Yeah" Charlotte was surprised by how uy She hadn’t stumbled on many in the past few--or was that several?--years It was a treat to encounter a man as candid, sincere and fun But Charlotte had been fooled by ranted

"Well?" Jason asked when she replaced the receiver

If she needed an excuse, he was handing her one on a platter All she needed to do was ue reply about Carrie and she’d be on her way

"Carrie says she’ll call if she needs , Charlotte decided

"How about soerly She hadn’t eatenshe’d need to confront hiy endeared him to her even more If Jason was like her boss, he’d have flayed her alive Instead, he’d just shrugged it off and given her a beer

"Lethim into the kitchen

"There’s notinside He set the ti kernels filled the kitchen The smell was heavenly

When it was ready, Jason poured the popcorn into a large bowl and carried it out to the living rooht paper towels, since she couldn’t find any napkins

He placed the bowl in the middle of the coffee table and Charlotte joined hiame was about to resume She tucked her feet beneath her as she’d done earlier, leaning forward now and then to scoop up soht’ve been because of the company Or the fact that for the first ti relaxed

The Lakers scored twelve straight points and Charlotte rose to her knees, cheering loudly Normally she was far more reserved, more in control of her ee of her mind Someone more free-spirited and uninhibited Someone who’d downed two beers on a near-ehter was bribing men to date her had that kind of effect on her

Jason cheered, too, and they turned to sest tilance away

She hadn’t shared such an intense look with aet to know you better…a whole lot better

Her heart was thu as she forced her attention back to the TV She took a deep s of beer to hide her discoely quiet afterward, too They both ame As time went on, however, it wasn’t the Lakers who held their attention--it was each other

"So," Jason said abruptly, "where do you work?"

"Don, for a large insurance agency You ht’ve heard of them Davidson and Krier They have a radio coh it was, to disguise her uneasiness, she sang the all-too-fa His rich baritone concluded the song

They laughed self-consciously Charlotte wished she’d had the sense to leave at halftilad she’d stayed If she regretted anything, it was that she was so clu with e that Carrie had tried to bribe someone to ask her on a date Charlotte hadn’t been out with ascene How could sheshe’d never actually experienced? She’d hardly dated at all since Toht of her ex-husband followed on the heels of the unexpected attraction she felt toward Jason The two didn’t ht back the pain of the past and reminded her that she had no future The other te," she announced suddenly, her decisionappoint He didn’t o yet"

"I’ll watch the rest of it atI enjoyed myself Really, I did" She picked up the empty popcorn bowl and the two beer bottles and took them into the kitchen

Jason trailed her, his hands buried deep in his pockets He nodded at his garbage can, which was overflowing There was a ses stacked around it

"I’ve beento take this out to the Du the bottles fro bin

"I appreciate how understanding you’ve been," Charlotte said as she walked to the door

"About what?" he asked

"Carrie and "