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She heard Brock call her name and stopped walking, but didn’t turn around. She didn’t want to face him or listen to a lecture or worse—another apology. She didn’t want to talk about what had happened until she understood it herself.
He touched her shoulder and said, “I’m sorry.”
She turned and looked up into the saddest blue eyes she’d ever seen. All the confusion she felt melded into a giant lump of pity for Brock. “It’s okay. Really. I shouldn’t have come by.”
“No, it’s not okay. What happened back there has nothing to do with you.”
“Exactly. It’s none of my business.”
“My mother is …” He sighed, defeated, and looked off into the distance. She could see the pain radiating from his drawn tight face. “We’re not close. Obviously. Embarrassing me is like a sport to her. She doesn’t like me very much.”
“Yeah, I kinda figured that.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
Erin offered a cheerless chuckle. “I’d be shocked if it wasn’t.” She couldn’t stand to watch him so defeated, gutted, and bleeding on the sidewalk for all to see. She had to do something, say something to get that haunted look off his face. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve got one of those, too.”
“One of what?” he asked.
“A mother who doesn’t like me very much.”
He tilted his head, his brows lifting toward his hairline. “You do?”
“I do.” She never talked about her relationship with her mother. Not with anyone. But since his mother had cut him to the quick right in front of her, she figured it wouldn’t hurt him to know he wasn’t alone. “She wouldn’t be so outright rude. She’s too classy for that. Nobody does passive-aggressive like Amelia Larkin. She kept her name after she married my dad. Your classic feminist power-play.”
His lips twitched. “She sounds lovely.”
“Oh, she is. Just ask her.”
“I’d love to. I feel as if I’m owed a little payback.”
“Well, don’t hold your breath. She’d rather set herself on fire than step foot back in Cherry Creek. She’s better than her hometown. Soooo much better.”
Brock nodded and graced Erin with a sexy half grin, firing her pesky libido right back to life. “Listen, I’ve got to get back to my pawpaw.”
“Of course. I’ll see you … at the Christmas party, I guess.”
Brock nodded but didn’t move. He just stared at her with an intense look on his face that made her want to squirm. “Hey, I’ve got that gift card to Sal’s burning a hole in my pocket. Why don’t you join us—me and Pawpaw—one night for dinner? You can tell him all about the neighborhood rules and give him the lowdown on all the residents.”
She’d have been less surprised if he’d picked up a stick and knocked her over the head. “Really?”
“My mom didn’t just embarrass me. She embarrassed him, too. I know he’d love a chance to make it up to you.”
Erin couldn’t remember the last time she’d had dinner with two handsome men. “I’d love to go to Sal’s with you and your pawpaw.”
“Is Saturday okay?”
“Saturday is perfect.”
“Pick you up at six?”
“Okay. I’ll be ready.” She turned, an unfamiliar mix of excitement and hope coursing through her veins, and a grin she couldn’t have wiped off with a metal spatula splitting her face.
“Oh, hey, Erin?”
She schooled her features and spun around. “Yes?”
“I don’t know where you live.”
