Waiting for You(31)
He grinned. “Wow. So how’d you handle that one?”
“I offered to maintain their website free of charge for six months, and I called all the customers who’d gotten the wrong number personally, to apologize.”
“Did the company stay with you?”
“They did. Luckily the site I’d made them was spectacular, and I did some internet marketing that helped drive their sales up fifteen percent in that six month period.”
“Impressive.”
“It saved my butt, anyway.”
And it was a butt worth saving. When she’d walked into the garage today in a pair of faded jeans that hugged her like a second skin, he’d decided that Erin had the most gorgeous posterior he’d ever seen.
“Can I ask you another question?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“It’s a tough one.”
He doubted it would be as hard as the last one. “Go ahead.”
She hesitated a moment, and then asked, “Do you believe the world is a good place?”
That wasn’t tough at all. “No.”
She looked surprised. “Just like that? You don’t even have to think about it?”
He shrugged. “When Megan got sick, I was in Afghanistan on my first tour of duty. I was a soldier in a war zone, with death breathing down my neck every day. And Megan was just a kid. It never occurred to me that I could live and she could die.” He paused. “But Megan’s dead, and I’m still here. So, no, I don’t believe the world is a good place.”
He half expected Erin to argue with him. When she didn’t, he asked, “What about you? Do you think the world is a good place?”
She looked thoughtful. “I don’t know. I want to believe it is.”
He hadn’t expected that. Somehow, he would’ve thought Erin had a simpler relationship with this stuff than he did. “But you’re not sure?”
She hesitated. “When I was little, I used to pray that my mom would come and take me away with her. My dad wasn’t a bad man, but after mom left he kind of…closed down. He never hugged me, never said I love you. He made sure I had a roof over my head and food to eat, and that was it.”
She leaned back in her chair and slid her hands into her jeans pockets. “Of course my mom never came for me. I was always shy in school, and before I met Allison I didn’t have any good friends. I used to get so lonely…” She shook her head. “Back then, it was hard to believe the world was a good place. And when I grew up and started to look past my own experience, I saw plenty of evidence that it’s a terrible place. Disease and violence and poverty…and people out there much lonelier than I had ever been.”
His heart tightened in his chest. He’d met Erin’s dad a few times and he seemed like a taciturn man, but Erin had never talked about her home life and he hadn’t known what it was like.
“Was that why you used to come over so much? When we were kids?”
Erin nodded. “I loved your house. Meeting your family made me think there might be some good in the world, after all. You were all so good to me, so good to each other. So warm and kind and generous. I don’t know if you realize how lucky you are, having the family you do.”
“Yeah,” he said in sudden bitterness. “I’m real lucky.”
She stared at him, startled, and he took a deep breath. Erin didn’t know how much he hated that word, and he wasn’t about to explain it to her.
“Sorry,” he said. “What do you say we change the subject?” He checked his watch. “It’s almost six. Can I buy you a hamburger or something?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I’m meeting someone for dinner.”
He struggled to keep his reaction from showing in his face. “Patrick?”
She shook her head again. “No, not Patrick. I probably won’t be seeing him again. This is someone else.”
He had no right to ask her who. He had no right to feel a wave of jealousy so powerful he could hardly breathe.
So he just thanked her again for the website and walked her out to her car, when what he wanted to do was take her in his arms and make her forget that any other man existed.
But that was something he couldn’t do.
His night at home was as bad as he’d expected, with images of Erin torturing him. One of these days, she’d go on a date with someone she liked. Someone she could fall in love with. Someone who could be all the things for her that he couldn’t.
It might even be the guy she was with tonight.
Erin deserved that. She deserved to fall in love, get married, have kids.
But until then…
Not that I wouldn’t consider having a one-night stand. I would, if it was the right one-night stand. If there was really great chemistry, and…all that.