Free Perfect Fit by Brenda Jackson Page B

that really isn’t there.
    Satisfied she had gotten her mind straightened out, she caught the waiter’s attention and asked for more coffee and that slice of cheesecake. She even became daring and requested that he squirt some whipped cream on top.
    Sage forced her thoughts away from her father and his dinner companion to Rose and Mr. Poole. She wondered if things were really as Rose claimed—a sex-only thing—or would Rose become involved with their boss on a more emotional basis. From what Sage could see, his past history indicated he never stayed with the same woman for long. She wondered if that would be the case with Rose. It certainly didn’t seem that Rose would lose any sleep over it if it was. She wished Rose would have shown interest in Parnell Cabot. He had seemed like such a nice person, a man who would treat a woman right.
    As she took another sip of her coffee, her thoughts went to Parnell Cabot’s boss, Gabriel Black-well. The man was as charming as he was handsome, but sometimes the charming, handsome men were the ones you had to watch out for. Hadn’t Erol proven that?
    Seeing that an attempt to get her mind off her father wasn’t working, she glanced over in their direction and wished she hadn’t. She took in a quick breath. Her father was holding the woman’s hand.
    Sage’s nostrils flared in anger. She was seconds away from losing it, big time. She began shaking so badly, she had to set her coffee cup down. She watched as they stood to leave at the same time the waiter was returning with her cheesecake.
    “I’ve changed my mind about the cheesecake, but charge it to my hotel bill anyway,” she said to the waiter, who was looking at her in surprise as she stood. A part of her had to know that her father and the woman were leaving. Then maybe, no matter how damaging things had looked, the woman was a client who had tried coming on to him, and he had played along with her.
    Deciding to keep a safe distance from the pair, Sage went into the gift shop that afforded a good view of the hotel’s lobby. She watched, almost suspended in shock, as her father and the woman stepped into the elevator when it opened.
    That doesn’t mean a thing,
her mind tried to tell her.
He’s just being a gentleman and seeing the woman to her room. Didn’t Gabe Blackwell do that very same thing with you in Anchorage? And it was all perfectly innocent with you and him, so why can’t it be that way for your father and her?
    Sage paused, wanting to believe what her mind was saying. Leaving the gift shop, she walked to the lobby and sat on the leather sofa where she could see her father when he left the hotel.
    Picking up a magazine, Sage began flipping through it. An hour had passed before she finally admitted to herself that her father wasn’t coming back down any time soon.
    With tears blinding her, Sage managed to make it back to her room with the realization that in the same day, the two men she had trusted most had let her down.
    She had sat downstairs in the lobby on the sofa for three, close to four, solid hours, refusing to move. She had to be there when her father camedown on the elevator; she had all intentions of confronting him. But when he did come down, and the woman was with him, Sage couldn’t do anything but sit there and stare, her body numb and glued to the spot, as she watched them leave the hotel together, smiling at each other and holding hands, not even noticing her presence.
    And that was when the tears she had fought so hard to hold back had come flooding down. How could he do this to her mother? Was he willing to throw away thirty years for a pretty face and a young body?
    Moving in slow motion, a grief-stricken Sage put on her pajamas. She then sat on the edge of the bed and checked the calls she had missed on her cell phone, not surprised to see that all of them but one had been from Erol. She automatically deleted Erol’s messages, not wanting to hear his voice, and retrieved her