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“I know, but I also avoided my grief for a long time. It was easier to just hook up with different women as a distraction. No one expected anything of me and I didn’t have to deal with my feelings.”
“And now?” she asked, clutching the glass with both hands. Her hat was so far back on her head, it was nearly off, her dark hair sticking out on either side of her face.
“I’m not interested in going home with random women anymore.” He crossed his arms over his chest and tucked his hands into his armpits so he wouldn’t be tempted to touch her. He’d given her father his word.
“What are you interested in?” she whispered.
Her. He was interested in learning everything there was to learn about her. He was interested in running his hands over her shoulders, down to the dip in her waist, and pulling her up against him.
It was agony to be that close to her, to know that if he kissed her, she’d kiss him back. He glanced up at the ceiling and prayed for strength and cursed the irony of falling for a woman who wasn’t available.
“I’m interested in doing the right thing.” His voice was tight, low.
“What’s the right thing?”
“I don’t know.” Not for later. For the future. “But I do know if I want to live with myself I need to get the hell out of here right now.” He opened the door behind him.
“Where are you going?”
“To Jesse’s.”
“Will I see you before I leave tomorrow?”
He nodded, throat tight. “You can count on it.” He started to turn and then asked, “When do you think you’ll be back in Beaver Bend?”
“I don’t know. Not for a while.”
That was hard to hear.
But probably for the best.
The warm summer air that hit him as he jogged down the stairs wasn’t the reason he felt like he needed a dunking in the lake.
He had a hard on and nowhere to put it.
Mrs. Wilson was standing on her porch when he walked up to his truck. She wrinkled her nose at him.
“Good evening,” he said.
“Don’t you have any boundaries?” she snapped.
He wasn’t in the mood to be judged. “I was just trying to be polite,” he said. “You made eye contact with me.”
“Edwina has a boyfriend.”
Ah. She wasn’t talking about him greeting her. She was concerned about him staying in the apartment with Eddie.
“Eddie said I could stay there,” he said. “I’m not some stray dog sniffing around.”
“Could’ve fooled me the way you hump everything.”
Damn. Mrs. Wilson was savage.
“Fair enough,” he said. It wasn’t like he could really argue the point. “Have a good night.”
Chapter13
The next morning Edwina was awake at dawn, head pounding and thoughts swirling chaotically.
