Free A Chance in the Night by Kimberly Van Meter Page B

D’Lane.”
    “She’s out of the business,” he replied, sounding disinterested in furthering the conversation. “I heard she moved back to the cornfields of Idaho or Iowa. Something like that.”
    “Do you have a contact number for her?”
    “Surely you know she’s been out of the scene for the past five years?”
    “I know. Do you have a contact number or not?” he asked, irritated at the guy’s dismissive tone.
    He sighed on the other line. “So pushy.” The sound of papers shuffling, and then he returned, saying, “You’re in luck. I have a number. Now, what do you want her number for?”
    “I’m a huge fan,” he answered.
    “Not a stalker I hope.”
    “No, not at all.”
    “Well, she’s not my client so I’m no longer bound by client confidentiality. Here, knock yourself out.” He rattled off the number and Christian jotted it down. “Listen, if you see her, tell her no hard feelings. Some things just aren’t meant to be.”
    “Yeah sure.” Barry Friedman was a fount of empathy and compassion. “Thanks,” he said, and hung up, eager to get off the phone. Staring at the number he wondered if he ought to call her. It was one thing to acquire the means, quite another to actually put something into motion.
    Tomorrow, he decided. He’d call tomorrow afternoon before his shift started at the bar. But what would he say? He didn’t know. He needed strategy. But he hardly knew her so what could he use…a slow grin spread across his face as an idea came to him.
    But first, he needed to call someone else. If everything worked out, by tomorrow he’d have his in.

    S KYE COULDN’T SLEEP . She flopped onto her stomach and bunched her pillow beneath her but she might as well be lying on rocks for all the comfort she was getting. Her thoughts were a ridiculous mess. She had Belleni to thank for that, she grumbled to herself but even as she thought it, she knew that wasn’t entirely true. Of course, he was in her head but something—or someone—was also taking up space in her thoughts and frankly, it shocked her.
    Christian.
    A total stranger. A man she should definitely steer clear of. She didn’t need nor want another complication in her life. Yet, he kept popping up in her head, teasing her with that boyish dimple and those ridiculously blue eyes.
    For just a wild, reckless moment she wondered what it would be like to enjoy a little harmless flirtation. To allow herself the freedom to engage in playful banter that wasn’t a means to an end, an act she put on to charm the client. She wondered what it’d be like to go on a date with someone who didn’t have the expectation of sex just because he paid a little extra for her services. She wanted to remember what it felt like to go to dinner with someone and as they sat apart from one another, be just as ignorant of how the evening was going to play out as the other person. Would they kiss? Would they hold hands? Would they want to see each other again? It’d been so long since she’d enjoyed such simple dating rituals that she almost didn’t remember how they worked.
    She allowed her thoughts to wander further, tantalized by the engaging fantasy of mundane normalcy, to wonder where Christian took a woman on a first date. Was he the kind of guy who did the dinner and flowers thing or was he the adrenaline junkie type who took a date bungee jumping? She hoped he was somewhere in between.
    She smiled at the memory of how persistent he’d been at the park, the way his eyes had lit up for a boy that wasn’t related to him but still gave him joy. She allowed a small sigh. What would it be like to be with someone so generous? She turned on her back and stared at the ceiling. Once she’d thought Belleni was kind. But what she’d mistaken for kindness had actually been a calculated facade. How had she ever been so naive?
    Ten thousand dollars. Gone. Handed over to Belleni as punishment for her deception. It curdled her stomach to think of how close