Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
“You’ve already had callers on hold for more than an hour tonight, and you haven’t even gone on the air yet,” Lucy said, her ever-present clipboard in her hands and five pencils stuck every which way in her hair.
“You can thank that feature piece in Cosmo —apparently being named The Voice of Love brings out all the crazies.”
Faith had forgotten about the magazine profile. Between the Halloween festival, her stalker’s unsettling gift, and Jake’s soul-melting kiss, the article had completely slipped her mind.
“I’ve pulled two interns to help me screen the calls,” Lucy continued.
“You have a couple of repeats we’ll put through so you can hear their progress.
Oh, and don’t drink the coffee. Miles Webber drank two cups and had to be taken to the ER with nausea.
Probably melted his stomach lining. I swear the man lost twenty pounds in ten minutes.
I’m thinking about taking some home with me in case I want to start a new diet. ”
Faith let her friend’s words wash over her, used to Lucy’s constant rambling, and looked over her notes for the show. She would pick tonight to talk about the key ingredients to a successful relationship.
She chose her topics for every show weeks in advance so advertising would know how to market, and also so she could do a few promos for the upcoming week.
She would pay any amount of money for someone to tear her notes to shreds and let her talk about something more mundane—like the importance of couples therapy.
“Well, let’s get started,” Faith said, already thinking of Jake, not that he’d ever really left her thoughts.
They’d barely crossed paths today—Jake had early meetings with suppliers, and she’d had back-to-back interviews with reporters wanting to feature her for their Women in Media specials.
The timing had been both frustrating and a relief.
Last night’s kiss beneath the maple tree still burned on her lips, a memory that refused to fade even as she’d tossed and turned all night, the silver charm bracelet hidden in her desk drawer a constant reminder that danger lurked even as romance bloomed.
The brief separation had given her time to think, though thinking had only confused her more.
The heart was a nuisance, and when her logical brain got involved it became an even bigger one.
“Hey, are you all right?” Lucy asked, concerned. “You seem a little down.”
“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”
“I’ve never seen you tired. You’re the Energizer Bunny. There’s something else going on and don’t think I won’t figure it out. I’ve got the nose of a bloodhound.”
“Maybe I should say I’m not ready to talk about it instead.”
“That, I’ll accept. But I’ll ask again,” Lucy said, leaving the booth for her own desk on the other side of the glass enclosure.
“I’d expect nothing less,” Faith muttered, adjusting her headset and listening to the fade out of the upbeat music that always introduced her show.
She took her cue from Lucy and wiped her palms on the fur-lined silk pants she wore.
They felt like heaven, and she was glad the matching top wasn’t fur lined because she would’ve overheated.
Texas wasn’t really the place to wear fur lined anything, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
“Welcome to Heart to Heart. This is Dr. Faith Hartwell, and tonight’s topic is something that affects us all. Relationships .
“What is the key ingredient to keep your relationship from falling apart? Is it one specific thing? Is love enough, or are there several ingredients that must be measured and combined before you have a healthy, lasting, loving relationship? And most importantly, where does trust fit into the mix? We’ll talk about the answers to those questions tonight, and I welcome you to call in and share your own experiences or ask questions. ”
Faith settled into the comfort of familiarity.
She’d never minded giving lectures, but there was something missing tonight.
She read the words from the page, her voice compelling and clear, but her heart wasn’t in it.
She was too busy keeping her mind and heart blocked off from listening to her own advice.
For the next half hour, she fielded calls from the lovelorn and confused, her voice a soothing balm that betrayed none of her inner turmoil.
She shifted in her chair, tucking one leg beneath her and letting the other dangle, her Ugg slippers sitting on the floor in front of her.
It was as far from glamorous as a woman could get, which was exactly how Faith liked it when she was working.
Tonight she’d twisted her unruly hair up with a pencil, securing it in a makeshift bun that threatened to collapse with each tilt of her head.
It was her secret rebellion against the polished image her growing fame tried to impose on her—that and the bag of chocolate-covered pretzels she’d smuggled into the studio despite Lucy’s constant lectures about the dangers of crunching near a live microphone.
Lucy caught her attention through the glass, pointing to her watch and then holding up two fingers.
Two more calls before the break. Faith nodded, suppressing a yawn as she adjusted her headset.
Her body was here, her voice was working, but her mind kept drifting back to a moonlit kiss beneath autumn leaves.
“ Smitten in San Francisco , you’re on the air.”
“Um, yeah. I have a question about women.”
“Okay. What about women?” Faith had no idea where her patience had gone, but for some reason it had deserted her tonight.
“Well, it’s just they’re so confusing. How am I supposed to know what my fiancée wants when she says one thing but means another? And then she gets mad because I don’t know what’s wrong. What should I do?”
“It sounds to me like the two of you have some communication issues to work out. Do you always tell your fiancée what you’re feeling?”
“No, but that’s different. Guys aren’t supposed to do stuff like that.”
“Maybe you’re both building your relationship on misconceptions, and it won’t be long before it crumbles to the ground.
Your fiancée obviously believes you should know her well enough to read her mind, and you feel because you’re a man, it gives you the right to keep things bottled up inside.
I want you to both make a list of everything that bothers you about each other, no matter how small, and then I want you to make another list of the things you love about each other.
Read over each other’s lists and then talk about how the list makes you feel.
These are things that need to be said before you say I do.
Otherwise, several years and a couple of kids later, the things will come back to blow up in your face. ”
Faith looked at the flashing lights on her control panel and then at the clock.
She was going to go insane sitting here for the next two hours.
Why hadn’t she had the courage to tell Jake that she was afraid?
Afraid of losing her heart to someone who was bound to break it?
She couldn’t go through the pain of betrayal again, of being a noose around any man’s neck, as Steve had so often liked to remind her.
She’d had enough pain in her thirty years to last a lifetime.
She took a quick sip of water and rolled her head from side to side, trying to loosen the knots that had formed during her realization.
“ Determined in Fort Worth , you’re on the air with Dr. Hartwell.”
“Hi, Dr. Hartwell. I really enjoy your show. I enjoy everything about you,” he said, giggling. “You see, I’ve got a serious problem. I hope you can help me out.”
The hair on the back of Faith’s neck tingled at the man’s voice, a singsong voice that told her some silverware was missing out of his top drawer.
It had the same unsettling quality she’d felt from the doctor in the haunted courthouse, that same crawling sensation on her skin. “What’s your problem?”
“There’s this woman that I’m madly in love with. She’s real smart, a doctor. I’m determined to get her to love me back,” he said, his voice hard and then softening once again to a childlike quality. “How should I do that?”
Faith’s throat was as dry as dust, and she looked at Lucy through the glass.
It made her feel marginally better that Lucy’s finger was already on the disconnect button, but she shook her head slowly, telling her to wait to sever the connection.
She wanted to hear what the man had to say.
She remembered the note that lay wadded at the bottom of her purse and the silver charm bracelet hidden in her desk drawer.
She’d had secret admirers before, and it always helped to have as much information as possible before going to the police. And the man didn’t sound dangerous, just fixated.
“Have you told her how you feel?”
“No,” he said. A high-pitched laugh slithered across her skin. “I’m just at the watching stage. I watch her all the time, even when I’m supposed to be at work. I told you I’m in love with her. Do you think I should try to get her attention?”
“I think you should go about your day-to-day routine, including your job, and if she notices you and shows interest, that’s when you should try to get her attention.”
“Now, I can’t do that, Dr. Hartwell. She’d never notice me. She thinks she’s in love with someone else, but that’s just because she hasn’t gotten to know me yet. I think I’ll just have to make her notice me. By the way, Dr. Hartwell, I really like your house. It has a lot of…character.”
Faith cut to commercial immediately and put her head between her knees. He knew where she lived. Great. Now she’d have to watch out for a crazy admirer on top of everything else that was happening in her life.