She shook her head.“She told me to get to know you.That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Get to know me in bed, he thought, but didn’t speak the words.Since the evening he’d made her cry, they’d slept apart.In separate rooms in separate houses.He longed for her as a thirsty man longs for water.He thought of nothing but her.But he wouldn’t ask and she didn’t offer.He wanted her to get used to him, to them.He’d apologized and she’d accepted that apology.Now they were feeling their way through a mine field of emotions.It would have been easy, he thought, seeing the need on her face.But he wanted her to be as hungry as he was.In the past, he’d pushed her farther and faster than she was willing to go.He wasn’t going to do it again.
“Why?”he asked, stepping back.
“Why what?”
“Why are you getting to know me?”
She lowered her eyes.“Because I’m not sure I ever did.”She picked up her briefcase.“I’ve got to run.Billie should be in bed by eight-thirty.She’ll probably hassle you.”
“I can handle it.Drive safely.”
“I will.”
Jane offered him a tentative smile, then escaped out the back door.The rain pounded on the roof of the house.He waited until he saw the headlights of her car sweep down the driveway and disappear.
“Adam, this TV show is dumb,” Billie called from the family room.“Can we play a game?”
“Sure,” he answered.Something physical, to tire her out.“What did you have in mind?”
“Hide-and-seek?”
She appeared at the doorway to the kitchen.The once-white T-shirt had been stained with an assortment of colors.Despite being trapped indoors all day, her shorts were equally dirty.He’d seen her first thing in the morning and knew that she’d started out with clean clothes.
“How do you do that?”he asked.
Billie frowned.For once, her hat had been left in her bedroom.Her brown hair, exactly the color of his, hung around her face.“Do what?”
“Get so dirty.”
She glanced down at herself and shrugged.“I’m a kid.”
He picked her up and swung her in the air.She laughed and clung to him.“More!”
He continued until they were both dizzy.“All right, kid.I’m going to count to twenty.”
She rolled her eyes.“Twenty!How about a hundred?Give me some time to hide.”
“Thirty-five,” he countered.
“Fifty.”
“Forty.”
She wrinkled her nose.“Forty-five.”
“Done.”He closed his eyes.“One, two—”
“Don’t peek.”
“You’re wasting time.Three, four—”
With a screech, she ran out of the room.Adam continued to count.She was an indescribable joy.He’d been blessed many times in his life, but never with anything like her.He regretted the time lost, he acknowledged.When he was alone, usually late at night, he hated what Jane had deprived him of.But the emotion decreased slightly each day and had recently become tinged with sadness.
Some part of the blame was his.He had underestimated the needs of the frightened young woman he had asked to marry him.Instead of a relationship, he’d offered maintenance.She’d left him, yes.She’d been wrong not to tell him about Billie, but he shared some of the responsibility.
“Forty-five!”he called out loud, then gave her a couple of seconds for good measure.
