Page 49 of Passion’s Song

“I should let you get back to your run,” Damien said.

Eva nodded. “It was good seeing you again. You should call me sometime. My number hasn’t changed.” She winked and then returned the earbuds to her too perfect ears and resumed jogging, her too perfect ass looking way too perfect in her spandex running shorts.

Damien hooked a thumb in the jogger’s direction. “That was, uh—”

“Eva,” she said, helping him out.

“Yeah. We, umm...we dated a while back. Well, not really dated.”

April put a hand up. “No explanation necessary.” Please. The one thing she did not want to hear about was his relationship with the brunette goddess with killer legs.

As uncomfortable as that was to witness, April was actually happy that it happened. After their kiss yesterday she’d allowed herself to get so caught up in the fantasy that had played in her head so often that she’d stepped too far out of reality.

She was no Eva. And despite what Damien said last night after their kiss, Eva was the kind of woman he was used to having on his arm.

April couldn’t allow herself to forget that. Damien had always been out of her league. Just because she’d shed the Coke-bottle glasses and baby fat of her youth, it didn’t mean she fit into his world.

What happened with the perfect Ms. Gutierrez a few minutes ago was the perfect reminder to proceed with caution where Damien was concerned. Yesterday’s kiss may have marked a new era in their relationship, but she needed to take things slowly. The potential for heartbreak was too great, and leaving herself exposed would be foolish.

And if there was one thing that was certain, it was that she was no fool.

* * *

“You definitely need an entire session on filing for financial aid, maybe two,” April said. “We have a number of kids who never even considered college when they started with us, but now it’s on their radar. Maybe we can set up a projector and you can take them step-by-step through the FAFSA application.”

Damien stared at April as she sat across the table from him, several yellow legal tablets, colorful sticky notes and pencils laid out between them.

“Yeah, sure,” he said.

He tapped a pencil on the tabletop, continuing to study her.

The change between the woman pre-Eva and post-Eva had been pretty dramatic. Where she’d been lighthearted, even playful before, she was now all about business. She had not stopped talking about his upcoming lessons for the kids at A Fresh Start since they sat down. She barely gave him a chance to speak, as if she knew Damien would bring it up.

And he would.

He couldn’t sit here while a five-minute encounter with an ex-girlfriend threatened the progress he’d made with last night’s kiss.

The waitress arrived with the array of appetizers April had ordered for them to share. As soon as she walked away, Damien said, “April, about Eva.”

She looked up at him. “There’s nothing to discuss about Eva. Unless she has some financial expertise, too. Do you want her to join you in teaching a class?”

Damien pinched his eyes closed and released an anguished sigh.

“Okay, let’s just get this out in the open so that the subject of Eva, or whatever other woman we happen to run into, can be off the table.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Just how many are there?”

“Are we really going there?”

“You brought it up,” she said. She held her hands out. “Let’s have it.”

“Fine,” Damien said. He stretched his hands out on the tabletop. “We both know I haven’t been a Boy Scout, literally or figuratively. I’ve had my share of girlfriends. And, sure, some of them probably don’t qualify as actual girlfriends. More like just...uh...women I spent a little quality time with.”

April put both hands up. “Okay, I changed my mind. I don’t want to discuss this.”

“Come on, April. All I’m trying to say is that I know how that must have looked to you, me and Eva running into each other. I can’t change the past, but it doesn’t mean I’m still that same guy who used to try to score with every girl I came in contact with.”

“Here’s what I don’t get,” she said. “You came in contact with me all the time, yet you never once tried anything with me. Why didn’t I merit just a little of that kind of attention, Damien?”