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Ivan took a deep breath and continued. “I like you, Tiffany. A great deal, so I need to be honest with you about something. I—”
Unable to wait, she blurted out, “I already know you have a girlfriend, Ivan.”
Ivan sat back. His expression relayed his surprise. “Did you say girlfriend?”
She nodded and went over to sit next to Ivan on the couch. “I know about Debra. I overheard you and Cole talking the day you installed my security system. I came back in to get my phone, and I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard you discussing her—and…”
“And…you surmised that Debra and I are together?”
“Of course. You said she needed you, and that you made a promise to always be there for her. I’d say that speaks volumes.”
“I guess it does,” he replied.
“So it’s obvious that you and I really should stop this before it goes any further. I’m sorry I got caught up in my…attraction to you. Or that I allowed myself to almost kiss you, but I assure you that I respect other women’s relationships, and I truly apologize for my actions. It won’t happen again.”
“Good to know.” He chuckled.
She lowered her gaze. He sounded almost relieved. It was a blow she found hard to recover from. Standing up, she said distractedly, “I’ll go check on dinner.”
Before Tiffany got farther than a foot, Ivan was in front of her.
“Tiffany, there are two things you need to know before we go out.”
“Go out? Go out where?”
“On a date.”
She stood there dumbfounded. “I don’t… What are you talking about?”
“Tiffany, Debra is not my girlfriend.”
She was still unable to process what he’d told her. “I don’t understand. You said—”
“She and I are not together. She… It’s a long story, but the short version is that she and I used to date about five years ago. I was deployed and only came home on leave. Debra decided that she didn’t want to be an army wife. This caused serious tension in our relationship.”
“Wife?” Tiffany repeated.
“Yes, we were talking about marriage at the time. Until I found out that she was dating a man on my team. She met him while he and I were on leave. I invited him to dinner at our house. Apparently there was a connection. When I found out that she was cheating on me—with him—let’s just say I didn’t take it well. I refused to play games or be in some love triangle. I left her and never looked back. He and I suffered a serious blow to our friendship. Six months later, they got married.”
She nodded. “Whoa. How did you feel about that? Were you hurt?”
“Hell, yes. She says she doesn’t want to be married to a military man, and then up and weds my teammate? That told me the real issue was that she didn’t want to marry me. I won’t lie, my pride was bruised—a lot—but I got over it. Her husband and I definitely had a strained relationship after that, but in our job, we had to rely on each other. Personal B.S. couldn’t get in the way of our missions. The good of the team was always the top priority.”
“So you sucked it up.”
“Yeah, I did. Anyway, he died a year later. Took a bullet to the stomach. He didn’t make it. I contacted Debra directly to let her know what happened. She didn’t take the news well.”
“Who would expect her to?”
“She blamed me for his death, and I can’t fault her for that.”
“Why?”
“It was my operation. I was in charge.”
“But it wasn’t your fault!” Tiffany grasped his hand. “You’re not to blame, Ivan.”
“Still, I promised him I’d make sure she would be okay. Brian had insurance, and Debra was entitled to military benefits. But it wasn’t enough, and Debra wasn’t working, so I stepped in to help.”
