Free The Time of Her Life by Jeanie London Page A

jeopardize the acquisition by
mixing business with pleasure, Jay couldn’t possibly be in the running.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “The man is younger than I am. Seven
years younger. That’s another lifetime. And, oh, did I mention he’s leaving? As in selling this place?”
    “I hear what you’re saying. Now hear what I’m saying. I know
you. Listing all the reasons you can’t be interested in a man isn’t going to
change the fact if you are.”
    “I’m not. I just met him, for heaven’s sake.”
    “I’ll reserve opinion if you don’t mind. I’m the one you used
to drag through Ashokan High so you could accidentally run into Skip, remember? ‘He has second lunch so let’s
walk all the way around the freaking school to get to our lockers so we have to
go through the cafeteria.’ This ringing a bell?”
    Susanna crushed the phone against her ear as if that might
block out the sound of Karan’s voice. Her heart suddenly pounded too hard.
“You’re ridiculous, Karan. I’m not in ninth grade. I’m forty years old—”
    “You’re not forty yet, thank you very much.”
    Of course she wasn’t, because then Karan would be forty, as her
birthday was nearly a full month before Susanna’s. “Whatever. I outgrew crushes
a long time ago.”
    “So long ago you might not remember what one was?”
    “Puh-leeze.” She sounded alarmingly
like Brooke. Daughters grew up to be like their mothers but Susanna had had no
idea the reverse was true. “I’d remember a crush. Trust me.”
    “You sure about that, Suze? The last time you had a crush on
anyone you were a virgin. That makes the sum total of your experience, one man,
a really long time ago.”
    And he’d been the right man.
    “I had a lot of sex in my fifteen years of marriage, thank
you.” Likely even more than Karan, who’d had three marriages to two men plus one
long-term relationship and a lot of time off in between. Susanna kept that
observation to herself.
    “It matters. You were comfortable with your husband. You both
grew together. That’s different than dating.”
    “My kids are dating.”
    “Sounds like their mother might want to be, too.”
    “I have not had enough caffeine for this yet.”
    The path wound around the west side of the lake. Zipping past
her own office window, too dark to see inside except for the tiny red glow of
the emergency exit sign above the door, she headed toward the maintenance and
engineering building, relieved to see empty space where she knew Jay normally
parked.
    She didn’t want to see him, not with all these thoughts Karan
had planted in her head.
    “I have to go.” She needed to recover from their topic of
conversation.
    “Susanna, seven years does not make you a cougar if he’s an
adult and not a man-child. Biological age doesn’t make that distinction.
Maturity does.”
    Susanna mentally twitched. Cougar. Just the thought was enough to conjure visions of Jerry Springer and celebrities
older than herself who dressed like Brooke.
    “You are killing me here.”
    “Don’t be silly, and don’t shut me down. You’ve been alone a
long time.”
    “Like I’ve had time to even think about that. ”
    “I know you haven’t had time. But I don’t want to see you blow
right past something good if the time is right.”
    “Are you not listening to me? The time isn’t right. Even if I
was interested, we’re in two entirely places in our lives. I’ve raised my
family. He doesn’t even have one.”
    “Does he want one?”
    “How should I know?”
    “You could ask... Oh, wait. That’s personal.” There was a smile
in Karan’s voice. “I’m compelled to mention that you can enjoy yourself without
mating for life.”
    Susanna came to a sudden stop and stared into the mist over the
lake, unsure she’d heard correctly.
    “You know what I’m talking about, Susanna. Kissing frogs,
remember? Every date doesn’t have to be a potential bridegroom.”
    Susanna couldn’t even dignify this conversation