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“It’s my publisher,” he told me. “I really have to talk to him.”
“Right,” I said as I grabbed my clothes and started for the door. I was going to change before I headed for the mainland anyway.
“I’ll be back in time to pick up Libby,” I said over my shoulder. “Text me if you need me to grab anything else on my way back from the mainland.”
He waved to me to show he had heard, but he was already talking to his publisher. I smiled to myself, wildly content with what we had just done. I couldn’t believe how natural it felt for me to give myself to him that way and how right it felt now that we had finished.
There wasn’t any regret in my mind. Not even a small twinge that threatened to grow.
I was entirely at peace with what we’d done, but I also felt that it was time to let him be the one to make the next move. He ran so hot and cold; I wasn’t going to be the one to drive the entire relationship.
If he wanted to start something real, then he would have to be the one to do it.
Though I had to admit, I was already hoping against hope he would.
I couldn’t remember the last time I was so happy.
Chapter Nineteen
Neils
Itwastwoweekslater, and it had been the most confusing two weeks of my entire life.
And that was saying a lot considering the things I had done in my life.
But, even after all I had been through in the military, rescue work, and the difficulty and confusion I faced as I started raising my daughter as a single parent, I could say with complete honesty that women would forever be the most perplexing beings in the world.
The sex I’d shared with Erin had been mind-blowing.
I couldn’t recall a time in my life when I had such an intense orgasm, and with how she held onto me as she came, I was sure she was just as happy.
But I had to take that call that had come at the worst time, and by the time I was finished with the call, Erin was already gone. I wasn’t sure how she was feeling entirely with how fast she disappeared, but I chose to let it go until I had the chance to really sit down and talk to her about it.
But I didn’t see her again until after she had gone to get Libby, so by the time she got back to the house, I had to find another time to talk to her about it when Libby wasn’t around. There was no way in hell I was going to expose my daughter to any kind of romantic confusion. She had been through so much already, and I knew she loved Erin. I wasn’t going to make it seem like anything it wasn’t.
So, I had to find out how Erin felt about this, separate from my daughter.
And that proved to be remarkably difficult.
I knew I had been rather cold toward Erin after the first time we made out. I wasn’t sure what to say, and I wanted to let her be the one to come to me. But then, well, she was the one who was now distant toward me. At least, she was acting like we hadn’t wildly made love to each other in my office that morning when Libby was at school.
Erin went back to treating me like things were before we had sex, and I wasn’t at all sure what that meant. It filled me with a level of doubt, and I didn’t know how to take it. I didn’t have a clue what the next step ought to be, so I did my best to ignore the entire thing.
I had kept that up for the past two weeks, but now I was on the brink of going crazy. I had to know where she stood. I had to know why she suddenly went back to acting like there wasn’t anything between us. I had to figure it out, and the only way to do that was to find the time to corner her and ask.
The best moment seemed to present itself Thursday afternoon when she was in the kitchen putting together a dessert for that night. Libby had just gotten home from school, and she was in her room with her headphones on. It seemed like the most opportune moment to me, and with how difficult it had been to catch her on her own over the past two weeks, I chose that time to see if I could get some answers out of her. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go over, but I figured the best thing I could do was try.
If anything, I would know what direction we were moving.
If we were going in any direction at all.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” Erin replied with a smile.
“Was it really that bad?” I asked.
She looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Wow. We’re getting right down to things then, aren’t we?”
