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She nodded "Hours ago"

"Me, too"

"If you’re ready, we can be on our way" All he had to do noas stop staring at her…

A few minutes later, the valet took his ticket for his rental car, and they waited for him to drive the luxury sedan to the back of the hotel When the car arrived, the young man opened the car door and helped Summer inside Jae

They drove out of Las Vegas in companionable silence James had studied the map so he knehich freeway to take

"Do you ever think about her?" Su about "Who?"

She laughed "That’s answer enough Christy Your ex-fiancée"

"Ah yes, Christy" James mulled over Su especially lonely or when I see a couple with kids That’s when I wonder what Christy’s and my children would have looked like

"Do you still think about Brett?" he asked

She lifted one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug "Soh"

"Different?"

"From what you told me about Christy, she went to Montana to help her sister and ht away, but it see to do over the phone" Despite everything Jaet back, her ement party and I was extremely busy with an i ht away She had her reasons"

"I bla to do"

"You blame Brett, too, don’t you?" This hat their conversation was really about, Ja had happened recently that had hurt her all over again

"Right before I left," she said in a small voice, "a friend called to tella baby"

"A friend?" James wondered about that There see the first to deliver bad news

"I’ht next month," she told him

He smiled "From the way you said that, one would think you’re ready to apply for your retirement benefits"

Summer smiled back "I suppose I sound ridiculous"

"No, you sound hurt It’s only natural, but that pain will fade in tiet involved in another relationship"

"You didn’t"

Jaue "It wasn’t because I’d dedicatedChristy for the rest of ain It’s not like I made the decision not to"

"Do you date?"

"Occasionally" A few o, tomen had let him know that they’d welcoht out now and then, but he could never seee up much enthusiasm for either woman

"What about you?" he asked, then mentally kicked hi line ofto ask her out

"I don’t date all that often," Su "It’s funny, when Brett and I first broke up I saw a different ht Within aI didn’t care, sick of telling everyone about all the fun I was having"

"And now?"

"I haven’t been out all month Deceations and everything else In November, I went to a dinner party with a member of the cast, but it was as friends, and it was "

Silly as it seemed, Jaht before as a date He certainly had Their tiht of the year for hihtfully "They hinted at it over Christ Jati randchildren"

"I’ to marry just anyone," she insisted

"I feel the salanced at each other and then iain filled the car Ja, but he knehere his thoughts were taking him and it spelled trouble

As they neared the outskirts of Boulder City, James mentioned some of the local facts he’d read "This is the only city in Nevada that doesn’t allow ga"

"Why?"

"It was built for the uess it has so sure the workers wouldn’t squander their hard-earned cash on the ga tables If that happened, their families would see none of it"

"I wonder if it helped," Su over Hoover Dam They didn’t take the tour The day indy, and Jah protection against the cold