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“Because...” She got choked up. For real. Again. “You’re... Michael, you’re like the perfect man. You have everything a woman wants. It hurts me to think of you all alone.”
It hurt her to think of him with someone who would cut her out of his life, too. But that was just her selfishness rearing its ugly head. “Contrary to what you believe, Kace, I am not what every woman wants. I have a face that is an instant turnoff. And yes, I realize that I’m so much more than my scars and misshapen jaw, and if someone just got to know me and all that crap. But the truth is, first dates are based on looks, and you have to have a first date to get to know someone.”
Well, no, you didn’t. They’d never had a date. But this wasn’t about them. And she couldn’t get sidetracked.
“So, tell me, are you speaking from experience on the whole turnoff thing? Or are you just assuming that if you asked someone out she’d turn you down?” Feeling absolutely certain it was the latter, she knew she was treading on dangerous ground.
She’d have accepted a date from Michael that first day she’d met him if she hadn’t already been involved. And if their lifestyles had been more compatible.
What kind of crap was she giving herself? She’d have accepted anyway. And then later have to deal with the fact that their lifestyles were incompatible and someone would have been horribly hurt.
“I had a girlfriend when the accident happened.”
His words shocked her. She wasn’t sure why, but they weren’t anything she’d been expecting. Bringing her booted feet up to the chair, she wrapped her arms around her denim-clad shins and shivered. Because of the bit of air hitting bare skin where her sweater didn’t quite meet the low waistband on her jeans.
“What was her name?” she asked. Stalling for both of them?
“Susan.” He didn’t smile. But he was looking at her again. “She was a techie nerd, but funny, too. Always told me that I could do so much better than her. She said with my looks I could get any woman on campus and was so thankful that I chose her in spite of her mousiness.”
“Was she mousy looking?”
He shrugged. “She had great legs. And a body that complemented them perfectly.”
“So she was gorgeous.”
“Not really. She did have kind of a mousy face. Features that blended together rather than standing out.”
He sounded like he knew them well. Very well.
She needed a minute to digest this new side of him.
“How long were you together?”
“Five years.”
“Five years?”
“Three before the accident. Two after.”
Kacey’s muscles relaxed. “So she did stay with you. Afterward.” She’d been afraid that he just hadn’t tested the dating waters.
She already knew that he felt like he had to hide his jaw. She was working on that. This was just the next step. Getting him to see how attractive he was in a woman’s eyes.
“She stayed during the surgeries,” he affirmed. “The first two years of them, anyway.”
His eyes were almost piercing. She had no script telling her what was going on. Or what was coming.
She had to ask. “Then what happened?” Surely he wouldn’t have broken up with her after she’d stood by him. Unless he’d fallen for someone else?
“I asked her to marry me,” he told her. “I was working for a firm but also taking my own investigative clients on the side and had been approved for the loan to start up my own company. She’d been by my side, encouraging me through all of it, so I thought the timing was right. With her love of all things techie, she’d have been the perfect partner. Professionally and personally.”
He’d asked her to marry him.
A knock sounded on his office door. She looked at him. It wasn’t unusual for members of the Lemonade Stand staff to have meetings behind closed doors. To the contrary, it was required any time they were discussing confidential resident information. Which would be about the only reason Kacey and Michael would have for a meeting. As far as anyone knew.
Feeling as though she’d been caught having sex or something, she straightened, put her feet down to the floor.
“Come in,” Michael called.
