soccer team and he played football—we were both too busy to spend much time together. There it is again. I do well in a relationship as long as I don’t have to regularly interact with someone. I guess I’m good at relationships as long as they aren’t really relationships.
I’ve been told I’m good looking. But when you grow up with a sister that looks like Klarissa, you learn early on that good looking is a very relative term. She’s breathtaking. When I walk with her down a busy street, men nearly break their necks to make sure they get a good look. Not at me.
I met Reynolds on the Cutter Shark case, which went almost half a year. We ended up going out for dinner a couple times. Things didn’t end well between us; par for the course in my personal history of dating. Halfway through my work on the Jack Durham murder—another one of those “whales” that Barnes alluded to—Reynolds showed back up in Chicago and we made up. We’ve sort of been an item since. I think. I’m never sure what is up or down when it comes to my love life.
He flew to Chicago and spent Christmas Day with the Conner family—my mom, my media star younger sister, Klarissa, and my oldersister, Kaylen, and her husband, Jimmy, and three children, Kendra, James, and baby Kelsey.
I still haven’t figured out why the grownup male in my sister’s family is Jimmy and the kid is James, but I need to let that one go. There are more important things to figure out that I’m still clueless on.
Spending time with my family is usually enough to scare anyone off, but Austin invited me to Schenectady, New York, to meet his parents. That was interesting if you like long discussions about the history of Schenectady and why the New York State economy north of the City is a sleeping giant while plowing seconds of Yankee Pot Pie, followed up by a huge bowl of Aunt Sylvia’s apple crumble with ice cream.
I went to the Y with Austin the next day and did a hard two-hour workout to burn off a few pounds of dead cow.
I survived a three-thousand-calorie dinner and that awkward moment when Austin’s mom was trying to figure out if we needed one room or two. I like Austin. More than any guy I’ve dated. Doesn’t mean he’s the one. Heck, my previous item—who really wasn’t an item—bought me a diamond ring after I’d told him I wasn’t going to see him anymore. He still didn’t believe me after I refused the ring. He said I could hold onto it in case I changed my mind. So not quite trusting my ability to spot a winner is a valid perspective on my part. When Austin and I worked the Cutter Shark case together with his ex-wife, a small detail he decided wasn’t something I needed to know, I pushed him away. Hard. I disagreed strongly with his decision that I didn’t need to know that Van Guten was his ex. He hung in there and I finally accepted his explanation and apologies.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t have reservations about him. He is smart. He has a good personality. He is good looking. He is successful. He seems to like being with me without putting any demands on me.
Maybe that’s what I like most. No demands.
Klarissa is a free agent these days. I wonder why he hasn’t dumpedme and made a move in her direction. Apparently they are in absolute agreement that I’m out of my mind. Not quite up to both of them kind of liking the movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s , but it’s a start.
Would that bother me? Of course it would. But the fact that I’m even wondering something like that doesn’t bode well for the dashing FBI Agent and me. That and him not knowing the one time in our relationship I really need a hug.
Klarissa begged me to come with her to NYC while she interviewed and did guest appearances for the gig with WolfNews. I think it’s a done deal if they agree on the money. Her agent is in New York and pushing hard to get Klarissa there. She’s done just enough modeling to generously supplement her pretty good salary, but
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