She visited with both of her sisters and their families and even had another dinner with her mother where she confessed she had a boyfriend.
Her mother asked a few questions, then seemed uninterested when she’d said that Dean managed a bar.
As if she could do so much better.
She didn’t get it. None of it.
Dean was very successful.
Had a beautiful home. A well-adjusted child.
Which her mother criticized that situation also, even though she’d never said anything more than he was a single father.
It was just as well in her mind to let it drop.
She wasn’t going to try anymore.
She didn’t need to.
She had what she’d always wanted, even if it wasn’t the way she planned it’d be.
She’d just turned into her office when she heard a knock at the door and turned to see Dean standing there.
What the hell was he doing in her building? In her office? And staring at her like he had no idea who she was?
“Dean?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
She wanted to rush forward and give him a hug or kiss, but the look on his face made her realize she had to stay back.
“I thought I’d come see you before I went into work. They said you weren’t busy when I asked the assistant up front.”
Damn Tonya. She would have thought it was funny to send a hot guy back here. “What did you tell her? Who did you say you were?”
“I just gave my name and said I was a friend.”
She didn’t know why that bothered her so much.
Why he couldn’t say they were in a relationship when it’d been close to two months now that she’d known him.
But the look on his face said there was more going through his brain.
“What’s wrong?”
He was still standing there looking at her. She glanced down and saw her penny loafers on her feet, dull brown pants that were wide and touching the top of her shoes. She had a short-sleeved button-down shirt on with a sweater vest over it. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and she had her glasses on.
Oh shit.
As much as she’d changed when she was with Dean. Even talking to her family. It was still hard for her to make the transition at work.
She didn’t know why.
Maybe it was the attention she didn’t want on her.
“I’m trying to figure out if you’re the same person I’ve been seeing. You look... different.”
“I’m the same person,” she said slowly.
He shut the door. “Are you really though?”
