Free The Gift of Love by Peggy Bird Page B

invited someone who wants to meet you.”
    “Yes, he told me, although he didn’t say who it was. Do you know?
    Marius arrived with a flute of champagne before Cynthia could respond. “Here you are, Bella. And if you’re asking about your secret admirer, no, he’s not here yet. I expect him soon, however. When he gets here, I’ll find you and make the introductions.”
    Two glasses of champagne, an hour, and at least five times around the gallery later, Bella decided to say her farewells and leave. She’d looked at Cynthia’s work so many times, she was sure she could draw each piece from memory. And she was more and more convinced her mysterious admirer, whoever he was, had gotten cold feet. She didn’t need to stay there any longer feeling rejected.
    Marius tried to convince her to stay for a few more minutes, but she was tired of hanging around, waiting. She was beginning to feel desperate, too much like she’d felt the first time she’d met Cynthia Blaine, and she didn’t like it.
    When she begged off, Marius switched to asking her if he could pass along her phone number to the man. She asked him not to, unwilling to seem overeager, and slipped out into the dark, rainy night, headed for home.

Chapter Eight
    Damn the traffic. Damn the parking around damned Pioneer Square. Most of all, damn the iBit executives for running hours over their allotted meeting time. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t curse the hand that would be feeding him business and income for the foreseeable future. But as fascinating and important as the company was, the dinner meeting with them had gone on for far too long. And now he was stuck trying to find a place to park so he could get to the gallery with some hope of meeting Cinderella.
    After fifteen minutes of having no parking karma whatsoever, he decided to double park and run into the gallery so Marius knew he was on his way and could keep Isabella from leaving until he could find a place to ditch his car. But before he could, a red car indicated it was about to pull out from the curb only a half block away from the gallery. Taylor flipped on his turn signal and waited for the driver to leave the space so he could park.
    He knew as soon as he walked into the gallery he was too late.
    “Where the hell have you been, Taylor?” Marius asked. “I kept her here as long as I could but she decided you’d changed your mind and left. Can’t say I blame her.”
    “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I was at a dinner meeting with a new client and couldn’t break away.”
    “You could have called. It might have helped convince her to stay.”
    “I did call. Twice. But you didn’t pick up.”
    Marius pulled out his phone and checked the call log. “Oh, hell, you did. I forgot Cynthia asked me to turn my phone off so I wouldn’t be distracted.”
    “Well, can you give me her phone number at least?”
    “I asked her if it would be okay, and she said no. I think she was embarrassed.”
    “Oh, come on, Marius. Please?” He was begging, with no shred of pride. It wasn’t like him, but damn it to hell, he’d decided he wanted to meet her and he always went after what he wanted with enthusiasm.
    “Sorry, Taylor. I gave my word. What I can do is try to set up another way for you to meet her. Maybe a dinner party at our house or something. I’ll have to check with Cynthia and work it out.”
    “I’d appreciate it, Marius. I
really
want to meet her.”
    “Yeah, I get it. I’ll see what I can do.” Marius clapped him on the shoulder. “Meantime, take a look around at my wife’s work and have a glass of champagne.”
    Frustrated to have lost Cinderella again, Taylor wasn’t in the mood for art or wine. So after a quick trip around the display cases, he left. If Marius wouldn’t help, maybe Sandra Daniels could. She’d been talking to Isabella at the Chamber event, too. Even if she didn’t know Isabella well, at least it was possible she knew how to contact her.
    When he called Sandra the