A Brutal Betrayal(17)

“Meg-” he tried to cut her off, but she wouldn’t let him.

“No, the first person who wants to be my friend in a long time is my therapist, and a guy at that.” She laughed, clearly trying to lighten the mood, but her voice had a bitter edge.

“Hey, what’s wrong with me being a guy?” Declan scoffed.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” Megan tried to backtrack. “It’s just that usually guys and girls don’t have all that much in common, I mean unless you’re dating or are part of a larger circle of friends.”

“Au contraire, my friend,” he stressed while taking on a cheerful tone, “I have plenty of female friends, and I’m not dating anyone. I mean, sure, I’m closer to some of my guy friends, but what does that say about me?”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t have girl friends, it’s just that…wait, what?” He saw her face him from the corner of his eye. “You’re not dating anyone?” she asked, her thoughts clearly changing direction. Part of him really liked that question – the part that he had been pushing down, the part that hoped she had asked in a cliché fashion, like, “I hope your girlfriend doesn’t mind,” where she was fishing to see if he was single. The other part of him was worried that she had felt comfortable with him because she assumed he was taken and therefore “safer.”

“Nope, why? You’re not implying that it affects your therapy, are you?”

“Yes…I mean no…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that you’re so understanding and compassionate; I assumed that came from experience in a relationship. And then tack on the rest of your attributes, and I figured you just couldn’t be single.”

“I, uh…thanks.” Declan had been slightly taken aback by her words. Attributes? What attributes? He wanted to know more, needed to know more, but the thoughts in his head were far from the ones he should be having about his patient. He stayed silent, but it was no longer comfortable as when they had first gotten into the car. He was about to speak, to say something, anything that would break the silence, but Megan beat him to it.

“So, where are we-” Megan cut herself off as she saw where Declan had gone. “Ice skating?” she squealed like a child, and it made Declan smile, completely forgetting the awkward moment from moments before.

“Yeah. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and if you don’t know what you are doing, you’ll have to lean on me, which means you’ll have to put your trust in someone else. And maybe you’ll have fun doing it.”

“I haven’t ice skated since I was a little girl. I don’t know if I even remember what to do.”

“Well, then, like I said, you’ll lean on me, friend.” They were back to their carefree bantering.

“All right, friend.” She laughed. “But if I fall, I’m taking you down with me.”

“I’ll cushion your fall.” He smiled. And although he meant it simply in the physical sense as a response to her smart-aleck comment, something deep inside him stirred, like he meant it in more than just a friendly way. He couldn’t even understand why. He didn’t really know Megan all that well, and she was damaged. The last thing she needed from him was for him to have feelings for her that went beyond friendly. He pushed those thoughts deep down as he guided her toward the skate rentals.

A few minutes later, they were getting on the ice, clumsily, but they were getting there.

“I thought you said I could lean on you,” Megan said as she laughed at the fact that Declan almost fell just stepping on the ice.

“I may have been trying to boast my abilities a bit so you wouldn’t run off on me.”

“Boast? Meaning?”

“Meaning I haven’t ice skated before.”

“Never?” Megan asked incredulously.

“I don’t really know any guys that have done this unless they got suckered into it by a girlfriend or something. So, yeah, never ice skated. I probably should have thought this through a little better, but it looked like a piece of cake.”

Megan threw her head back and laughed. It wasn’t like her other reserved happy laughs that he had the pleasure of experiencing. This was full on joy, and he had done that for her. His heart soared at the thought that he was indeed helping her. “Well, then I guess we’ll lean on each other,” Megan said after taking a few calming breaths.

“I like that,” Declan mused. He knew she hadn’t meant more than physically leaning on each other, even though his heart beat rapidly at her breathy words and the distant hope that she meant more. But even so, he liked the idea of touching her, of holding her hand. He even reached out to grab her hand without thinking, but he pulled back at the last minute. It was one thing to shake her hand or try to comfort her in his office, but this was different, more familiar.