About Last Night...

Her thoughts about things like falling in love felt more urgent. Though she’d always been one to try new things and believed in living life to the fullest, her accident had somehow unleashed a passion for living. That passion was particularly powerful when she thought about Colin Jacobs, and she wanted to do something about it—something that she’d failed to do such a long time ago.

The tumble down the side of the mountain had also shaken more than her romantic sensibilities. She’d been drifting through life, working odd jobs since college, not really knowing what she wanted to do. While in the hospital she’d had a lot of time to think about it, and she knew she wanted to make a difference. The sight of the big brown eyes that were the first thing she’d seen when the rescue team found her—the dogs had reached her first—had inspired her to open her own dog-training school.

It was surprising she hadn’t thought of it before. For years she’d been volunteering at animal shelters and with dog trainers, helping to train abandoned pooches to behave better so that they could find homes. She loved working with animals and was good at it. She read about animal behavior, but also followed her instincts, and she’d done pretty well. She’d never thought of combining that experience with her business degree.

Her own two dogs, Chuck and Lucy, were so well trained that people always commented on how nicely behaved they were, and she was proud of that. Not being one to move slowly, once the idea struck her, Miranda had practically cleaned out her bank account to open a small office close by the veterinary office where Penny worked in south Portland. Open for just a little more than two months now, she was receiving referral customers steadily. The accident had nearly killed her, but in many ways it had gotten her to focus on just what her priorities were.

Turning her attention again to the magazine she was holding, she smirked at the cover story—“The Total Seduction: A Five-Step Plan to Jump-Start Your Love Life (or Your Lover).” She didn’t even have a lover to seduce—yet—though she had plenty of fantasies rolling around in her lust-saturated brain. She knew that what she needed was a plan to make those fantasies reality. No more waiting around for love to happen.

Colin was an old friend, true, but he also could melt her bones with just a glance. His sparkling golden eyes seduced her constantly and he didn’t have a clue. But things between her and Colin were…complicated. At least for her. They’d known each other since kindergarten; they had a lot of history, and that history had a habit of getting in the way of something more developing between them. When she’d come home, it was very much like old times—she and Penny, Colin and Travis, all back together again. She saw Colin all the time; in fact, he’d helped her move her mammoth desk into her office. The four of them usually got together at least once a week. But he didn’t really see her as a woman, certainly not as a lover—just as his old pal Miranda. It was beyond frustrating.

The hairstylist returned, lifting the hot dryers off their heads. She checked under the foil, blessedly proclaiming them both “done.” Miranda grimaced inwardly. She hadn’t been done in quite a while. Looking down at the magazine, she knew that one way or another she was going to have to change that. And soon.

COLIN BARELY AVOIDED the ball that whipped by his face and smashed into the wall behind him. He nimbly ducked, swung around, sweeping his arm in a powerful arc that sent the small blue ball whizzing across the court and back at Travis, who made an expert corner play back in Colin’s direction. Sweat soaked his shirt, and he dragged the back of his fist across his forehead, squinting to focus. Travis was on a brutal tear, and Colin knew he wasn’t going to win this one.

Travis, recently returned from medical school in New York, was almost a full-fledged doctor now, and pulling long shifts in rotating departments at the hospital. Colin was amazed that his friend had time or energy for things like racquetball, but Travis never seemed short of energy.

Sometimes their games of handball were low-key, a friendly volley with casual conversation, and other times, like tonight, they were all-out war. Jumping up, Colin fiercely pursued the ball, slamming into the scuffed white wall but missing the shot by a hair.

“Ha! Game! You suck!” Travis had won and, in keeping with tradition, he continued with the humiliating “I won, you lost” song and dance around the court. Colin chuckled, thinking Travis’s dance was more embarrassing for himself than it was to Colin—not that Travis was ever embarrassed about anything.

Colin was competitive, too, and he liked to win, but tonight he’d just wanted to push his body to exhaustion to loosen tense muscles. Teaching psychology to undergrads at the university along with doing his own research projects often left him feeling like a spring that had been wound too tight by the end of the day. So he pursued several physical activities to unwind. The body had to be exercised as well as the mind.

He slumped down to the floor and watched Travis boogie around. Colin looked skyward after hearing giggles floating down from the ceiling. About a dozen female undergrads were watching them from the observation deck. He waved a tired salute, recognizing one of the faces from his freshman psych seminar, and the giggles increased. Great. Travis looked up and then extended a hand to him. Colin grabbed it, pulling himself up.

“They want you, man. They’re hot for teacher.”

Colin laughed and ducked as Travis chucked the ball at him, hitting the wall to his side.

“Yeah, right. I don’t think so.”

Travis smacked the ball again, glancing up at the girls. “Chicks that age dig older men, especially their professors. It’s all that power and mystery. Haven’t you ever been tempted?”

Colin jumped forward, swiping at the ball before Travis could hit it.

“Making time with a student? God, no. For one thing, I could lose my job, and for another, well, you know, it would be like you looking at your patients as prospective dates. I just don’t see them that way. They’re just students.”

Travis grunted as he lunged for the ball.

“I knew some students who dated professors in school. Seems like it goes on a lot, even though they have the so-called rules. Academic policy doesn’t really restrain human nature or raging hormones. Depending on the circumstances, I don’t see the problem with it, as long as it’s mutual.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my thing. I prefer women my own age.”

“Graduate students, then?”

Colin grabbed the ball out of midair before Travis could pop it back against the wall and pinned his friend with an inquisitive stare. “Why all this sudden curiosity about whether I’m letching after my students?”

Travis looked up again, smiling at the girls, setting off another wave of bubbly laughter. “Just curious. I mean, look at them. They’re cute. It’s not the same as me with patients. My people are sick, and they are coming to me for help. That’s totally different. Even if you don’t do anything, I can’t believe you don’t look. I mean, even think about it.”

Colin rolled his eyes, giving in. “I might notice if they’re pretty, sure—”

“Ha! Dawg! I knew it!”

Colin chucked the ball at Travis, bouncing it off his forehead. “But I’ve never thought about a student in a sexual way. I like women who have lived a little, you know, who have more life experience.”

“I’m willing to bet some of those girls have had considerable experience.”

“Is your mind always in your pants? Or someone else’s?”

Travis laughed and shook his head. “Only when I’m off duty.”

“And only when you’re around Penny?”

Travis’s jaw dropped, and he stared at Colin. “Huh?”

“Well, it’s obvious you’re totally into her. Might as well come clean.” Colin grinned and watched Travis shift uncomfortably. He rarely got Travis on the ropes, and it was fun.

Travis didn’t answer right away as they exited the court, and Colin was even more intrigued. When he looked over, his friend’s face was as serious as he had ever seen it.

“Okay, yeah. I’m crazy about her. When I got back I asked her out once and it didn’t go well. She freaked, so I backed off and we never talk about it.”

“Why’d she freak?”

“I don’t know. She just got all stressed and I told her not to worry about it. Though now I wish I’d pushed it a little more. I guess it was because of her father leaving them, and her and her mom being on their own, or whatever. I don’t know. She can be crazy sometimes, but it’s cute.”

“You know it’s love when crazy is cute. How come you never said anything about asking her out?”

“I only like to brag about my conquests, not my rejections, dude. How about you? Any non-student hot-ties I should know about?”

They walked through the gym doors and grabbed towels from a fresh stack by the door. Colin sat down on the wooden bench, shaking his head.

“Too busy. I was seeing that woman I told you about in the anthropology department, Sophie, for a while, but she took off to Europe on a grant project, and since then, well, no one’s really caught my eye.” Except for Miranda, the little voice in his head taunted him. He ignored it.

“You know, I always thought you and Miranda would get together.”

Colin nearly choked as he heard the words come out of Travis’s mouth.

“Excuse me?”

They headed to the showers, and Travis shrugged. “No reason, just that it would be cool if we ended up as couples, you know, me and Pen and you and Randi. We would get married and then our kids would all play together like we did.”

Colin turned the shower on full blast, enjoying the wash of heat against his sore shoulders. “Maybe you and Penny could work, but Randi and I could never be more than friends.”

Travis tossed him the soap, his brow furrowed inquisitively. “Why not? Are you interested?”

Colin shrugged. “Even if I were, it’s out of the question.”

Travis shut off the water and grabbed his towel, cinching it around his waist. “Hey, if you want her, man, you should go for it. You guys would be good together. Randi’s a doll.”