Goodbye Isn't Forever by Melanie Blake Page B

lot to get
off my chest.”
    Jennifer smiled at her younger brother. 
“Anytime, Zand.  You know where to find me.”
    Zand
smiled and walked to the door.  As he opened it, Jennifer called after
him.
    “Zand
wait!  I just thought of something.  That check.  The one you
gave to her parents.  What happened with that after you and Alex
graduated?”
    Zand
almost hated to tell her.  “It was still in an account, earning interest.”
    Jennifer
brightened, “Oh?  Did you at least see her parents then?”
    Zand
hesitated.  God, this was starting to sound really bad.  “No,” Zand
actually chuckled at his absurd luck, or, lack of it.  “The company was no
longer owned by her parents.  Apparently, it had changed hands the year
before, so….” Zand shrugged.
    Jennifer
stared at him in amazement.  “No word?  Nothing?  Until
tonight?”
    “No,
not a damn thing!”
    “Well,
look at it this way,” Jennifer tried to encourage him, “at least you two were
in the right place earlier.  It could happen again.”
    Zand
smiled at the memory of the shared kisses with Alex earlier.
    “Oh,
I’m not worried about that, Jennifer.  She will definitely find me.”
    Jennifer
looked dubiously at her brother.  He was evidently more tired than she had
realized.
    “Oh,
ok, Zand, are you awake enough to drive?  You can sleep here, you know.”
    Zand
chuckled.  “I’m fine, Jennifer.  I’ll see you at the bakery later
on.”
    Zand
opened the door and stepped through.  He leaned back in and grinned at
Jennifer.
    “It’s
not only the right place, Jennifer.  It’s the right time.”
    And
with a parting wink, Zand was gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
    Alex
was quickly brought back to reality when she heard a car door shut
nearby.  She watched as a blue car eased out of its parking space and
drove away.  She glanced at the dashboard clock and gasped.  It was
almost five in the morning.  She had been sitting in her car for nearly
three hours lost in memories of the past.
    Damn
it!  Alex was brought abruptly back to the present and her current
dilemma. She had come here in search of answers, but her mind had betrayed her
with its constant remembrances of Zand.
    Zand--laughing
and joking.  Zand--serious and intelligent.  Zand--powerful and
breathtaking.  Zand--warm lips and sensual body.
    Zand--damn,
damn, damn!!
    Alex
smacked her steering wheel and sighed as she laid her head against it.
    Did
she really want to know anything?  So many years had passed and Alex had
finally quit wondering what might have been.  She had buried those
adolescent feelings years ago and just concentrated on achieving her own
dreams.  And, now, a few months shy of thirty, she had achieved well above
her original goals.
    Promotion
after promotion had finally led to her taking over a film studio that she had
been a part of since its inception.  She was not that eighteen-year-old
girl anymore.  She was a confident, successful woman.
    Alex
sighed as the truth reared its ugly head.  She may be all of those things
now, but one part of that eighteen-year-old girl still remained.  As she
remembered the feel of Zand in her arms only hours before, she knew which part
that it was.  The part that was still reeling from the effects of Zand
Gabriel!
    Damn,
damn, damn!!
    #
    Jennifer
had watched Zand leave and marveled at the parting remarks.  Her brother
certainly didn’t lack in the confidence department, or else that kiss earlier
had just addled his brain.
    Jennifer
chuckled at that thought.  Maybe it had been mind-blowing for him, but
there was still a lot of water under the bridge.  She wondered if Zand
fully understood the ramifications of leaving Alex all those years ago at such
a vulnerable state.  Whether it had been intentional or not, that girl
never got the opportunity to find out.
    “Whoa!”
Jennifer mumbled to herself as she cleaned up her own dishes from the table.
    “That
is some story.  Zand may be right about her coming to