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“You were protecting yourself, and you know it. Now get out of here, won’t you?”
Eric said nothing for a moment. Then, he seemed to go cold. His shoulders relaxed, and his expression went blank. The face that had been open to me only a moment before was closed now.
“Goodbye, Jamie,” he said, and stood, and walked out. He threw the door closed behind him and it crashed shut.
And then, I put my head in my hands and began to cry.
Chapter Ten
Eric
Astheafternoonturnedinto the evening, the dark clouds leveled above the sea finally cracked and thundered. It was a nor’easter, one of the worst kinds of storms in New England. There was rain pattering on the sidewalks and the garden outside as I sat in the hotel bar.
“Looks like it’s gonna be a long one,” Tom said. “I saw the forecast this morning. The weatherman was practically sweating.”
“Is that right?” I said. My mood was as dark as the thunderclouds outside. I turned my glass in the bar, watching the trees flail in the wind. It was thinking about Jamie, of course. I was thinking about how serious she’d seemed about us never being together again.
I didn’t understand what it was that Jamie had wanted from me, and I was seething with rage. And at the same time, I knew I couldn’t tell Tom any of it. To do so would destroy him. Besides. I’d heard the way he reacted when Jamie said that thing about us ‘not dating.’ There was no way he could ever consider me suitable for his daughter.
“Hey, do me a favor.”
I looked up into Tom’s eyes. He was still smiling, but I could see his eyes were fixed on me now.
“I’ve known you for a long time, sport,” he said. “And I can always tell when there’s something on your mind. So why don’t you spit it out now and save me the trouble of asking.”
I returned a thin-lipped smile. “It’s something I can’t tell you about,” I said. “Something pretty big.”
“Government?” said Tom. He knew that I’d been contracted by the Department of Defense before, and the projects always came with a high-security clearance.
“No,” I said. “Personal stuff.”
“Girl trouble?”
“Life trouble,” I said, “is more like it.”
“Eric, I’m your oldest friend and I’ve been watching your back since you were eighteen years old. Don’t keep me in the dark about it, okay?”
How could I explain to him?
“I was with someone a few years ago,” I began carefully. “It wasn’t anything serious at the time. Only, a few years later I found out she had a kid.”
“And you’re worried it’s yours?” said Tom.
I nodded.
“Well, she didn’t tell you, right? That she was pregnant?”
“No.”
“And has she ever mentioned who the father was supposed to be?”
“No.”
“Well, why do you think it’s your kid?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I just had a feeling, that’s all.”
“Well, feelings are pretty important when it comes to this stuff,” said Tom. “I could pick Jamie out from a crowd of newborns, no trouble. Of course, whoever this woman is,” Tom chuckled, “it’s her dad I’d be worried about.”
