Night Talk. Rebecca Daniels

you mind if I sit down?” Jake asked.

      When Kristin looked up, Jake was smiling at her and she felt herself becoming stupidly awkward. “Oh, s-sure.”

      “Turned out to be quite a party,” he said, gesturing to the group and Ted weaving his way toward the karaoke stage.

      “Quite a party,” she agreed. Just then Cindy and Dana broke into another song. “And quite loud too.”

      He nodded and took another sip of water. It was really too loud for conversation, which was fine with her. She wasn’t sure what to say to him anyway. She’d been so rude earlier she was a little surprised he was willing to speak to her at all.

      It took a little concentration but she forced herself to focus on Cindy and Dana as they mugged it up onstage, but there wasn’t a moment she wasn’t aware of Jake beside her. She knew every time he took a drink, every time he laughed, every time he turned to look at her.

      Why was she so supersensitive where he was concerned? He was a longtime friend of Ted’s so it was obvious he wasn’t the type of stranger she needed to be wary of. So why not relax and just enjoy herself? He was another member of the wedding party—no more, no less.

      But when she glanced at him as Ted stepped up onstage and joined Cindy and Dana in their song, he was smiling at her and she felt her heart leap to her throat.

      “If it even looks like they’re coming anywhere close with that microphone,” he said in a loud voice, talking over the noise, “I’m making a break for the door.”

      “I’ll be right behind you,” she called back.

      He smiled at her and she felt her throat close off again. She quickly turned away in an effort to avoid the danger of any further conversation. She concentrated instead on Ted and Cindy as they entertained everyone with their best Sonny and Cher impersonation while murdering the song “I Got You Babe!”

      Despite all the laughter and good feelings, Kristin felt herself becoming angry and frustrated. He was there. Him. That nameless, faceless stranger who had stolen her freedom, and it just wasn’t right. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. This should be one of the happiest times in her life. Her only sister was getting married. Cindy had found the man she loved and they were beginning a wonderful life together. Nothing should be more important and nothing should get in the way. Yet, there was something—someone who threatened to take center stage. The poison that touched her life touched theirs as well, and made her the angriest of all.

      From her peripheral vision she was aware when Jake turned and looked at her, and felt a surge of frustration. How much longer was this going to go on? How much longer was she going to greet every new man she met as if he were him, as if he were the stranger who knew her only as Jane Streeter, who had muscled his way into her life and made it a living nightmare?