“I talked to you while you were there,” Tony said. “You didn’t say anything.”
Because he hadn’t known what to say.
“So, you’ve known her what, two or three weeks, and you’re that sure?”
Matt nodded into the dark. “She’s…” He shook his head. How did you put into words the moment you found your heart? Like he’d always known her and at the same time been waiting for her his entire life. Laughing green eyes, heart-stopping smile. Sings the wrong words to almost every song. And so very scared of letting anyone close.
He hadn’t meant for it to happen. Couldn’t have predicted Jack hitting him in the back with that ball. After that, it hadn’t mattered. “She’s everything.”
Silence enveloped the three of them, perhaps each thinking what it meant for one person to be your everything. Tony stood and clapped a hand down on his shoulder. “I guess that says it all. So, now the question is what are you going to do about it?”
Yes. That was the question. The only thing he knew for sure was he didn’t want to let her go. “I don’t know. I don’t know that I have a choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
Yeah, but did he have one he could live with?
Matt said his goodbyes and drove home thinking that his dad had been wrong back at his sister’s wedding.
He’d found the right one, but the time still wasn’t right.
Chapter 21
When Abby’s phone rang Thursday night, her first thought was Matt. A warm happy feeling invaded her, but the very next thought ruined it. Because odds were it wasn’t him, and it might never be. In two seconds she went from the heights of happiness to crash and burn.
The phone rang again.
She couldn’t do this. Roller coasters could be exhilarating and heart pounding and fun…but she didn’t want to ride.
“Mommy, it’s Miss Angie.” Jack stood in the doorway to her bedroom holding out her phone.
“Okay, honey. Thank you.” She held the phone against her shoulder, fighting the inevitable disappointment. “Hey, girl.”
“Hey, how’s it going?” Angie asked.
“Fine. How’s the Mancini circus?”
“Very circus-like. I’m knee-deep in elephant dung. How’s your crew?”
“Good, busy. You know.” Abby walked around her bathroom, picking up soapy washcloths and rubber toys from the girls’ bubble bath.
“You sound tired.”
“I am.”
“You sure? Everything okay with the baby? You know, I can come up there for the birth if you need me to.”
“No. I absolutely don’t.” It would be a six-hour drive for her friend and Angie had her own family to take of. “I’ve got everything worked out with my sitter. I’ve done this before.”
“That’s right. You have.”
Abby heard the censure in her friend’s voice. Angie had made it more than clear what she thought of her late husband while he was alive. Josh had barely made it to Annie’s birth, then left for Japan the very next day. Abby had taken her day-old baby home in a cab. When Jack came, she’d been prepared. Already had the cabbie’s number in her suitcase. She’d needed it.
No, she’d wanted to say, reading the nurse’s looks. No one’s coming. And it’s fine.
Except her children had deserved more. They should’ve had two people, if not a hundred, to welcome them into the world.
“Maybe Matt could—”
“Don’t even say it.”
“Okay, but a woman should not have a baby alone.”
“Angie—“
“Okay. I’ll drop it. Want to tell me what he’s like in bed?”
Abby had to laugh at her friend’s efforts. Of course Angie had weaseled the information out of her regarding Matt’s visit. And no way could she lie when Angie had asked Did you do it? “Angie, you know I’m not going to tell you that.” But now she’d be thinking about it. Constantly.
“Never mind. I don’t want to know. It might ruin me forever.”
It might ruin her. Being with Matt was like nothing she’d ever known. Maybe no one had ever known.
“So, when are you going to see him again?”
I’m coming back.
“Abby?”
“I don’t know. He said he was coming back, but…I’m starting to think that it’s not such a good idea.” Even if he came back, she was setting herself up for heartbreak. Because it wouldn’t last, would it? And she’d known from the very first day he could break her.
Angie made a loud frustrated sound. “You are so lucky I can’t slap you through the phone lines. Are you insane?”