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She had to distance herself from him. They’d proven that they weren’t good for each other as more than friends. After Tucker’s death the ashes of their marriage had almost destroyed her.
They were just too different in the basic way they approached life. They needed different things to make them happy.
So why hadn’t she stopped his talk at his condo the week before? Told him that she’d changed her mind about joining his L.A. venture?
She didn’t know, really.
It wasn’t like he had to know right away, she’d told herself. He’d still do the daycare with or without her. Any work she’d need to be involved with wouldn’t come about for months.
But he should know.
Driving into Marie Cove for her appointment at the clinic, exactly one month after she’d made the same drive with Braden, she settled into the rhythm of the road, wrapped in the protective silence of her car, and let her mind relax. To relive recent business with Braden step by step. She thought back to the time he called her to ask her to wait for him. No, wait, she skipped backward to when she’d avoided his attempts to meet up.
Because she’d known she needed to tell him.
Then, that Monday night, a week and a half before, he’d asked her to his condo. She hadn’t even argued. Because it had made sense, with her watching over the place for him, she should probably acquaint herself with it, learn its unique foibles.
She’d been planning to take the opportunity to tell him that he’d be doing the L.A. thing without her. She’d actually been ready to do so. Having played around with the idea, she knew that it wasn’t right for her.
And then he’d sat down with her, the two of them alone at the table, with that view, in his place, and he’d started talking about the daycare. And she had kept quiet.
He’d given it so much thought. Pointed out that the added security would give her extra peace of mind as she set out into single parenthood.
He’d made sense.
He’d been supporting her in her new life.
And then he’d looked at her...more than once.
Did he know that his blue eyes darkened when he was turned on? Had she ever told him?
She’d seen that look from him thousands of times before. Had recognized it with a shock that sent ripples through her entire system.
And for a second there, she’d received an answering call from places within her she’d thought dead and gone. At least where he was concerned.
And that was why she hadn’t told him she’d changed her mind.
Shaking with the truth, Mallory missed her turnoff.
* * *
Though he’d been in San Diego twice since he’d had Mallory in his condo, Braden hadn’t seen her. Purposely. He needed time to get himself under control, to be mentally prepared against flashbacks before he saw her again.
He’d met a woman
in L.A., an architect colleague of Don Miller, who’d done the drawings for San Diego and was already modifying them to fit the L.A. property. Don had called Anna in for consultation on a couple of points having to do with building around the natural landscaping that they’d like to keep if they could. The three of them had had lunch.
Braden had since had dinner with her. Twice.
He liked her. A lot. More than any other woman he’d dated in the past three years.
Business-minded like him, she lived alone, visited her family in San Francisco enough to be diligent and had a beautiful smile. She laughed often. And she didn’t appear to have a dramatic bone in her body. From the signals she was sending, he was pretty clear that she liked him a lot, too.
He’d made a date to have lunch with her on Thursday, a week and a half after his dinner with Mallory, but had been toying with the idea of canceling all morning. When he’d spoken with his ex-wife the night before she’d mentioned her second clinic visit, scheduled for eleven that morning. She’d had a positive ovulation test.
He’d yet to tell Anna about Mallory, other than to say he was divorced and he and his ex had remained friends. The rest was left to be shared with someone when he took their relationship to the next level.
In his hotel “office,” going over the final drawings to be turned over that day to the contractor, he figured he and Anna might be headed to that next level in the very near future.
