This Very Moment by Rachel Ann Nunes Page A

about a bridge in San Francisco that I’ve been meaning to sell you.” She rolled her eyes. “It’ll make an excellent investment—right after a tract of swamp land in Florida.”
    Bill laughed. “I bought into that one, didn’t I? Okay, I’ll go. But no bridge or frisking, all right?”
    “Deal.”
    “So what should we do now?” He’d wanted to help get her mind off the charity and surgery delays, but he didn’t know where to go this late. If it were summer, he would take her to the beach and they could stroll along the shore and . . .
    Maybe it was just as well it was winter.
    “I play a pretty mean Yahtzee,” Kylee said. “And Rummikub is fun.”
    Bill smiled. “Why not? It’s about all the activity my muscles can stand.”
    “I’ll even roll the dice for you,” Kylee said in amusement. “Boy, you really have to start exercising more.”
    “I suppose you exercise.”
    “Nope. I’m allergic.”
    They drove to Kylee’s in separate cars as they had done the previous evening. For two hours they talked and played games, sipping soda Kylee had in the refrigerator and munching cashews from a can Bill kept in his car. Bill noticed that she maintained a comfortable distance between them and part of him was glad. The other part of him was frustrated by the situation, and he fought the strong urge to take her in his arms.
    It wasn’t until he had bid Kylee a friendly farewell and was driving home that memories of Nicole returned to haunt him.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER NINE
     
    A week crept slowly past, bringing in another six million dollars from around the country. Public officials and celebrities joined in the frenzy, and even more money poured into the coffers at Children’s Hope. Kylee kept busy with media reports, public appearances, and tracking the growing funds. She went to dinner twice with Bill, but each time their conversation was deliberately light and the distance between them marked with invisible lines.
    “Sometimes I want to hit him,” Kylee confessed to her friend Suzy in frustration.
    “How romantic!” Suzy looked thinner than usual in her form-fitting flight uniform. She had come straight from the airport, stopping at Kylee’s on the way to her own apartment. “A man tragically affected by his beloved wife’s death fights to hold on to her memories in the face of his growing love for her best friend. Wow, that’s good. I should be a novelist.”
    “Would you give it a break? I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I’m really falling for him.”
    Suzy’s smile faded. She put her arms around Kylee, her long blond hair swinging behind her. “You be careful. I don’t want to ever see you as down as you were when I met you. No man is worth that.”
    “I’ll be careful,” Kylee promised. She’d met Suzy on the flight home to visit her parents after Emily’s death. It was Suzy who had shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with Kylee for the first time, and that precious glimpse of eternity had given Kylee the will to survive. “But Bill isn’t like Raymond.” He was honest and good and kind—all important qualities for a good Christian man. Of course, he didn’t believe in God, but Kylee thought he might if he could feel the Lord’s love as she had.
    “I know he’s not like Raymond,” Suzy said, her ever-ready smile back in place. “But he’s still a man. That means he starts out with one strike against him.” She rolled her eyes and sighed.
    Kylee hugged her. “I’m glad you stopped by.”
    “I wish I could stay longer, but I’m on another flight tomorrow to Seattle. And I can’t miss it. Guess who’s the pilot? Yep, Mauro. We’re going to have dinner after the flight with my parents. Since I can’t be in Seattle for Christmas, I’m staying with them for my week of down time. They’re letting Mauro stay the night in my brother’s room. Imagine that! But I’ll see you when I get home.”
    “You’re taking him to meet your parents? Then