She treated herself to some side trips off the freeway, finding rolling hills and little towns that surprised her so close to such an intensely urban area. She enjoyed a hot coffee overlooking a sparkling reservoir, counting clouds scudding across the vivid blue sky. It wasn’t Tahiti or the Alps or the golden plains of high country Spain. This is the world that made Marissa, she thought. I could like it here.

The winter sun had set by the time she returned to her motel. She was getting addicted to high-speed Internet and was glad to find a few messages from some of her classmates and even a newsy one from Ted Jeffers. She sent back a note congratulating him for his daughter’s placement at a regional track meet, then stared at the empty screen.

She carefully typed out just a few sentences. No mushy stuff. Just the bare facts. This time, unlike any time in the past year, she clicked send.

Chapter 13

“You’re Marissa, right?”

Marissa smiled nervously at the bright-eyed woman who paused hesitantly next to the little table where Marissa’s coffee sat cooling. “You’re Eve.”

She scooched her chair to the left to make room for Eve’s knees in the small space. A chair leg tipped her purse and some of the contents spilled across the floor. “Oh, heck!”

Eve helped her collect things, including a lipstick that had rolled near someone’s foot. “Here you go.”

“Thanks. Okay, I think we can safely say when I admitted to being a bit clumsy I was being honest.”

“I’m a total butterfingers too. Is that a Nano?”

“Yeah.” Marissa handed the slim music player to Eve.

“Wow. That’s so sleek. I love gadgets, very cool. I’ve been thinking about getting one.”

Marissa studied the dark-fringed brown eyes, liking the humor evident in them. They were a lively feature in a round, pleasant face surrounded by straight black hair typical of Asian heritage. “It was my twenty-five pound reward.”

“Oh, I should think of skipping my daily muffin and save up the cash. That would be a complete win-win. Very slick.” She handed back the iPod and a little silence fell. Luckily, Eve’s name was called at the coffee counter and by the time she returned, Marissa had found her tongue.

“So, I know this isn’t original, but what made you decide to use Finders Keepers?”

“A couple of friends did. One’s dating a nice guy now. The other wouldn’t call anybody. I’m pretty shy so I’m glad you called me.”

“Well, I don’t want to sound like the questionnaire, but what’s your favorite thing to do on a date?”

Eve gave a nervous laugh that wasn’t unpleasant. “Talk. I know that sounds terribly cliché, women like to talk, but I’m a kindergarten teacher and I spend all day with sentences of four words or less. Some days I get in the car and say words like ‘multi-syllabic’ just to prove I am.”

Marissa chuckled. “I can see that. I’m not a great talker unless, I’ve been told, I get all worked up about something.” Linda had commented on that, and the way she used her hands to talk. Self-conscious, she shoved one hand under her thigh and let the other toy with the stir stick in her coffee. “I should confess that I’m a computer geek and I don’t talk to real people. Well, actually, in the last six months or so I’ve been talking to a lot of real people. It’s been a change.”