Kayla hurriedly opened the door to her hotel room and immediately checked to see if the message light on the phone was lit. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the light was still dark. She checked the clock and saw that it was still a couple of minutes before six o'clock. She'd been afraid she would miss Steve's call again. If he calls.

She and Charlie had strolled through the State Fair grounds, laughing and talking about their high school days. It had been a long time since she had relived those days and it had been fun to remember those carefree and innocent times.

Charlie had talked about law school and his new job at the Governor's office. She had told him about becoming a nurse and caught him up on what had happened with some of their high school friends. She had told him about Steve - at least a very brief version of the story - and shown him pictures of Stephanie. Time had flown by so quickly that she had been afraid she would be late getting back to her hotel.

She sat on the bed and thumbed through a magazine, trying to ignore the clock. Suddenly, the phone rang. She practically leapt off the bed to answer it.

"Hello," she said, hoping it was Steve.

"Hi, Sweetness."

"Steve," she sighed in relief. "It's finally you."

"Yeah, baby, it's me." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"It's good to finally hear your voice instead of that answering machine. I was . . . I was worried about you when I couldn't reach you last night."

"I know, baby." Steve sounded guilty. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"What happened?" Kayla asked. "Ma told me that you called at midnight and said you couldn't pick up Stephanie. What's going on, Steve?"

There was silence on the other end of the line. Kayla felt her relief being replaced by frustration. "Steve? Are you going to tell me what was going on?"

"It's no big deal, Sweetness," Steve finally replied. "I'm fine."

"Don't feed me that line, Steve." Kayla tried to stay calm. "I know you and I know that something happened and that it probably had something to do with Lawrence Alamain."

"Take it easy, Kayla," Steve said. "I'm not trying to feed you a line." He sighed in resignation. "I just didn't want to upset you."

"It's a little late for that, Steve. So why don't you just tell me what happened."

There was another stretch of silence on the other end of the phone. Finally, Steve said, "You're right. Something did happen, and it did have to do with Alamain. But, baby, I really don't want to get into it over the phone. You're coming home tomorrow, and we can talk about everything then."

Kayla sighed in frustration. She wanted to know what was going on. But she also knew that Steve was probably right. She would be home tomorrow and it would be easier to talk about everything in person. I guess we can add that to list of things we need to talk about.

"All right," she finally replied. "But, I'm holding you to that promise. We are going to talk about this tomorrow when I get home."

"I know." Steve's voice adopted a more cheerful tone. "But, for now, I want to talk about you. How did your hearing go?"

"Fine," Kayla said with a sigh. "They moved the time up on me and the hearing ended up being at two instead of four."

"So that's why I missed you this afternoon."

"Yeah. And the hearing itself was really short. I gave my statement and they asked a couple of questions and it was over."

"Did you get any sense of what they were thinking?" Steve asked.

"Not really. The board seemed receptive to what I was saying, but the whole thing was so short it was hard to get any read on them."

"I'm sure they are going to do the right thing. Did you get any word on when they might have a decision?"

"They just said 'soon,' whatever that means." Kayla decided to switch topics. "How did your interview go this morning?"

Steve gave a harsh chuckle. "Not well, Sweetness."

"I'm sorry," Kayla replied, sensing something in Steve's voice. "What happened?"

"Nothing much, baby. The guy just took one look at me and decided I was not the 'type' he wanted at Allied Freight."

Kayla heard the bitterness break through Steve's sarcastic tone. She suddenly understood what had happened. It was easy for her to forget that some people still saw only the patch when they looked at Steve.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I know it sounds trite, but, if that's their attitude, you are better off not working there anyway."

"I know, Kayla," Steve replied. "It's no big deal. He was just some punk kid with an attitude."

Kayla recognized that tone so well. It was the one Steve had always used to hide his true feelings about his eye. He would just shrug it off like it didn't bother him.

"It is a big deal, Steve," she replied. "It's a big deal because I know that it hurts you. You don't have to hide that from me."

"I'm not hiding anything, baby. I'm not saying I like that the kid judged me right off the bat, but he was just some rich boy who was trying to show what a big deal he was. I don't give a damn what he thinks of me."

Kayla knew that was not exactly true. She had heard the bitterness in Steve's voice and knew it had bothered him that the man had judged him by his patch. But she would not push him about it now.

"Okay," she said quietly. "Just remember that not everybody is like that."

"I know, baby. You taught me that a long time ago."

Kayla smiled slightly. "I'm glad you still remember." Shifting topics again, she asked, "So what are you and Stephanie up to tonight?"

"Actually, Stephanie is with Kim for a few hours," Steve said. "Bo asked me to grab a bite and shoot some pool at the Heart. I'm supposed to meet him there pretty soon."

"That sounds like fun." Kayla knew Bo would be good company for Steve. "As long as you two can manage to stay out of trouble."

Steve laughed. "That's pretty much what your mama and Kim said too. I guess Bo and I need to work on our reputations."

"Maybe just a little," Kayla laughed in return. Then she remembered something. "If you look on the top shelf of the closet, I'll think you'll find something to help you with your pool game. Why don't you go and get it."

Steve was silent for a moment. Then she heard him put the phone down. It didn't take long for him to return.

"I can't believe you still have this," Steve said, his voice choked with emotion.

"That pool cue was a part of you and a part of us," Kayla said softly. She felt tears stinging her eyes.

"Thank you, baby."

"You're welcome, Steve. Now go have fun with Bo and I'll see you tomorrow at the airport."

"I wish you were home tonight, Sweetness," Steve said in a low, husky tone. "I miss you."

Kayla felt the shiver run through her body just from the tone of his voice. The power he held over her body never ceased to amaze her.

"I miss you too," Kayla replied softly. "And I love you."

"I love you too, Kayla. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight, Steve."

"Goodnight, Sweetness."

Kayla hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment. She knew tomorrow promised to be a difficult day with all that she and Steve needed to talk about and talk through. But she had to trust the love she heard in his voice and believe that they could work through everything. They had been through rough patches before. They would get through this.