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“You’re welcome.” Troy’s expression was uncertain. “I think.”
Andrea rolled her head on the pillow to look at him. “Your self-confidence is the first thing that attracted me to you. You always know what to do and how to do it.”
His expression clouded. “Except when it comes to Gerry.”
She winced in empathy. “You have to work on your impulse control.”
“So I’ve been told.” Troy rolled onto his back.
Andrea felt his regret in her gut. She didn’t want to lose the afterglow of their intimacy, but she had to know who’d first warned him about his recklessness. It was more than curiosity. She wanted to know everything about Troy Marshall. She needed to know.
“What’s your story, Troy? What event in your past do you most regret?”
“Getting married.”
If Mindy hadn’t told her Troy had an ex-wife, Andrea would have tumbled off the bed and fallen to the floor. Still, she was startled by his certainty that his marriage was his greatest regret. “What happened?”
Troy sat up, allowing the bedsheets to settle low on his hips. “She was a liar.”
Andrea dragged her eyes away from his six-pack abs and sculpted pecs. She pushed herself to sit beside him, tucking the sheets under her arms to keep her breasts covered. “What did she lie about?”
Troy glared at the wall across the room. “Being pregnant.”
Andrea’s thoughts disappeared, like a blackboard being erased. “Your wife told you she was pregnant when she wasn’t?”
“No. My girlfriend told me she was pregnant so I’d marry her.” Troy looked at Andrea. “I was a sophomore at Georgetown on a full basketball scholarship. I wanted to graduate. She wanted me to enter the NBA draft.”
“She pretended to be pregnant so you’d marry her and quit school?” Andrea was outraged.
“Except I married her and stayed in school.” Troy tossed off the sheets and climbed out of bed. He wandered naked across the room. His movements were restless, as though the emotions from the past had come back to him.
The sight of his firm gluts and long, muscled thighs distracted Andrea for several heartbeats. “So you left Georgetown with a degree and a divorce.”
“Not what I had in mind. My parents, either. The worst part is that I suspected she was lying.”
Andrea blinked. “How?”
“She was on the pill. She said she’d missed a couple of days when she was cramming for her finals. When I questioned her, she made me feel guilty for not believing her. So I introduced her to my family.” The slump of his shoulders told the rest of Troy’s story.
“Your parents were disappointed.”
“Very.” He turned toward her, oblivious to his nudity. “It turned out to be a no-win situation. They were disappointed when we thought she was pregnant. They were disappointed again when we found out she’d lied.”
Andrea stood, pulling the sheet off the bed and wrapping it around her. She went to Troy and laid a hand on his shoulder. His muscles were tight. “Your parents should have been proud of you for accepting responsibility.”
“Instead, my girlfriend caused a rift in our relationship that took years to fix. She also ended my basketball career.”
Andrea frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I thought I was going to be a father, so I quit the team and got a job. By the time she told me she’d lied about the pregnancy, I’d lost my spot on the team.”
Andrea lowered her arm. “I’m so sorry, Troy. You must have been devastated.”
“So were my parents.” Troy crossed his arms over his chest. “My ex-wife went on to marry one of my teammates. He left early for the draft.”
His bitterness was still fresh. She could hear it.
“Now I understand why it’s difficult for you to trust people.”
