Free Perfect Fit by Brenda Jackson Page A

day. When she’d casually asked him if anything was wrong, he’d simply responded no, but asked her that if Sage did come by, to have her call him immediately. Rose also added that he looked rather pitiful.
    As soon as Sage had taken a shower and changed clothes, she went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner. She hadn’t eaten a thing since leaving Anchorage, and her stomach was making hunger sounds. Twice she’d been tempted to call her parents but had decided against it. She sat in abooth, eating her dinner alone, trying not to dwell on her problems, when she happened to glance around the restaurant, noticing the other people and wondering what stories they had to tell. Were most of them travelers passing through, lovers or married couples wanting a few days alone to enjoy the solitude of seclusion the small town of Kannapolis offered, or were some like her, people who needed to get away for a night to deal with things complicating their lives?
    She had picked up her cup of coffee to take a sip when she recognized the couple who had just walked in. At least she recognized the man who was with the attractive woman. She smiled, wondering what sort of business dinner meeting had brought her father all the way from Charlotte. She was about to get his attention when something stopped her. Maybe it was the way his arm was placed around his dinner partner’s waist, or the way the woman was smiling up at him, that made things look more like an intimate liaison than a business affair.
    Sage inhaled sharply, forcing her mind and thoughts not to go there. She briefly closed her eyes and tried to convince herself that she was exaggerating; her mind was playing tricks. This mistrust thing with Erol had her on edge, suspicious of anything and everything, and now she was looking at a purely innocent situation through all-accusing eyes. Her father was an honorable man who loved her mother. Their thirty-year marriage was solid proof of that. There was no way he would be doing something sleazy and unfaithful by being involved with another woman, even one as young and pretty as the one he was with. The woman appeared to be in her midthirties, and although Sagewould be the first to admit that at fifty-four her father was a very good-looking man, there had to be a reasonable explanation why he was here with that woman.
    As a corporate business person, he often had dinner meetings with clients…. But while she continued to watch the couple, another deep, unnerving sensation settled in her stomach as it became obvious as time ticked by that the two were very familiar with each other.
    Sage continued to sip her coffee and watched them. From where she sat, they could not see her, but she definitely could see them. When it was time for her to leave, she would have to pass their table, so she decided she would stay put for a while and be observant. She hated the fact, the very idea, that at that moment for the first time in her life, her trust in her father was wavering. She just hoped and prayed that she was misreading the entire thing.
    She shook her head to clear her mind.
Stop being silly,
her mind admonished.
That man sitting over there is your father, for heaven’s sake. He loves your mother and would be the last man on earth to be unfaithful. Get up and cross the room and speak to him. It will be perfectly all right for you to let him know you’re here. But then you’ll have to explain to him why you’re spending the night here and not at home with Erol, and you aren’t ready to do that; so chill and stay put. Enjoy some more coffee. And go ahead and order that slice of cheesecake you’re dying to have. Then soon enough you’ll see that Satan has been busy today, and now he’s filling your mind with unrealistic thoughts because of what Erol did. You can’t become distrustful of everyone because of him. Open your eyes and see that there is nothinggoing on between your father and that woman. Don’t read anything into it