Read Online Never Too Late by Julie Blair - Free Book Online

of patients. She shoved out of her chair. I’m doing my best, Dad.

    *

    Carla clutched the steering wheel tight to stop the trembling in her hands. Had she just agreed to work for the woman who’d been on her mind lately? Sadness replaced the shock. Jamie hadn’t recognized her. She fingered her hair. It wasn’t much different. That night just hadn’t mattered to Jamie the way it had to her. Her heart sank as twenty years worth of fantasies crumbled and left her feeling exposed, and silly. Could she say she’d made a mistake and turn down the job?
    Curiosity wiggled its way into her thoughts. What was Jamie like now? Certainly any lingering feelings would fade in the light of current reality. She’d get this crush out of her system or…if Jamie was single, maybe something would spark between them.
    Two blocks from the office she realized she was going in the wrong direction. She pulled into a parking lot and sat, engine running, air conditioner blowing cold air on her, as she tried to calm her racing thoughts. How was it possible the woman who’d changed her life was now back in her life? Was it fate? Stranger things than this happened in the romantic comedies she loved. She smiled as she pulled back onto the street. Jamie might not recognize her, but anything was possible.

Chapter Six

    Carla pulled into her driveway. She gripped the steering wheel and let the car idle, her thoughts a muddled mess, her body hot in spite of the air conditioning. She wasn’t tired from her first full day of work in months but…angry. She hadn’t been this angry since her battle last year with the principal who accused Lissa and Steph of flaunting their relationship.
    Why had she thought she could be in close proximity to Jamie for eight hours and survive it? She felt like a hormonal teenager—elated by being close to the woman of her fantasies, then close to tears when she searched Jamie’s face for any inkling of recognition and found only polite professionalism. It had to be fate to have that night and its importance brought up so clearly at this moment in her life, but what kind of fate? Was Jamie single? She still didn’t know. She didn’t wear a ring and she’d heard nothing about a partner. Carla shivered. Jamie single scared her more than Jamie with a partner. Then she’d have to act instead of staying safely tucked in fantasies.
    On the surface it had been an uneventful day. She’d worked the front desk, setting appointments, taking phone calls, and talking with patients; then with Betty on the insurance billing. After she got up to speed on the billing codes specific to chiropractic, this would be a replica of what she’d done for Dr. Rose. Except for the volume, which was mind-boggling. Jamie saw more patients in a day than Dr. Rose had in a week.
    By lunch she’d been ready to jump in her car and not return, sure she couldn’t contain the volcano threatening to erupt and incinerate her manners. Feelings fenced inside the boundaries of memory for twenty years were now free to roam. She’d never reacted this way to any of her female friends, not one of Lissa’s teachers, not a grocery clerk, not the cute woman who walked dogs in her neighborhood. But a day around Jamie and her body had taken off at a full gallop. Being a lesbian in her mind was one thing. The full force of desire ruling her body was another. It took her a minute to realize Mike was tapping his knuckles on the window. She turned off the ignition and stepped out.
    “Are you all right, honey?”
    He seemed surprised when she wrapped her arms around his waist. “What are you doing home? I thought you and Rob were going to a Giants game.”
    “I cancelled. I want to celebrate your new job. Champagne on the patio, and then I’m taking you out to that new Italian restaurant. Hey, why are you crying?”
    “Just…everything,” Carla said wiping away tears. “Don’t mind me. I’m just being silly.” Mike took her hand, and they walked up the