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But he hadn’t been able to stay when she was telling him to leave. Telling him not to touch her.
Oh, how that had hurt. That she hadn’t been able to bear his touch. That she’d rather be alone than with him.
His muscles seized his ribcage, crushing inward. He put his hand on the roll bar, leaned in a little. “Riley’s busy.”
Probably working in her yard, running, or out doing something with Cassie. She and Sam were off again, so the two women had lots of time to console each other.
“Too busy for us?” Kyle didn’t look as if he believed Justin.
“She has things to do, bud, besides just hang out with a bunch of guys.”
The boy’s forehead scrunched deeper. “Doesn’t she like us anymore? I can tell her sorry if I did something wrong.”
That the boy immediately thought it was something he’d done wrong broke Justin’s heart. Especially since it wasn’t Kyle who had messed up. Justin hadn’t messed up either. Other than to want more than Riley did.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he assured him.
Getting Kyle beyond that, to where he didn’t immediately question himself, and giving the boy the confidence to know he was worthy and wanted was something Justin would spend the rest of his life making sure happened.
Kyle considered him a moment. “Did you do something wrong?”
Justin laughed at the boy’s perceptiveness. “Probably,” he admitted.
After all, hadn’t Riley accused him of wanting to fight moments after he’d arrived at her place? Had he gone there looking to fight with her? Knowing which buttons to push to get a rise out of her?
But why? Why would he do that? He hadn’t wanted to fight with her. He’d had everything to lose and nothing to gain.
In some ways he had lost everything.
At the hospital, Riley had transferred out of the operating room to work on the orthopedic floor. With Cassie still out with her knee, she’d been able to easily make the transition, and thus far had managed to avoid providing care for any of his patients.
She’d probably asked not to have any of his patients.
She’d neatly shut him out of her life.
He’d been a fool to think something special was happening between them, that she was different...
Justin tapped the roll bar with the side of his fisted hand. He gave one last look at Kyle’s safety belt, secured around his booster seat, then climbed into the driver’s seat.
He’d not even gotten his seatbelt fastened when Kyle asked, “Did you tell her you were sorry?”
Sorry for what? Caring about her? Wanting her in his life?
Justin’s gaze cut to Kyle’s via the rearview mirror. “Unfortunately there’s some things ‘sorry’ can’t fix.”
Kyle gave him an empathetic look. “My teacher at school says it’s always a good place to start.”
“Smart teacher.” Justin started the Jeep and tuned the radio to a station he knew Kyle liked.
When they arrived at the bowling alley Stan was already there with the other kids. Including Kyle and Stephen, there were six boys. Maybe a few stragglers would still show.
Justin hoped so, as he always worried about the kids who didn’t make it for their activities.
They’d reserved two lanes, so divided themselves into two groups to bowl. Stan took one team of three boys and Justin took the other.
The afternoon passed quickly enough, and soon they were eating pizza. The boys finished their meal, picked up their trash, then ran back to start another game while Justin and Stan divvied up what was left of the pizza to send home with the kids.
“You driving Kyle home?” Stan asked.
