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He sat back, hung his arm across the back of the bench and drummed his fingers, thinking about this for a minute. He wasn’t in the habit of discussing his personal life with his sister, but his personal life had previously consisted of brief sexual relationships with women who didn’t expect anything from him other than a nice dinner and a few orgasms.
In short, he’d never had an issue like Talia before.
But he had to face it—Arianna was a smart woman who had the additional qualification of being happily married. Tony still had a reservation or two about the neck-tattoo-sporting dude she’d chosen (Tony had a couple tats himself, but, come on, on the neck?), but that was an issue for another day.
For now, maybe she could help his ass out.
“So there’s this, ah, woman.”
“Yay!” Hearing the distinct sound of hand clapping, Tony rolled his eyes and waited for her to get a grip. “Where do you know her from?”
“We met before my last tour, and we exchanged a few letters.”
“And…?”
“And I thought we were, ah, making a connection or something, but when I, ah, made a, ah… When I mentioned my feelings, she, ah—”
“Wow. And here I thought English was your first language. So she’s not that into you, right?”
Tony swiped his dripping face with the bottom of his T-shirt and struggled to put his thoughts into words. “That’s just it. I thought she was into me.”
“What made you think that?”
“I don’t have objective proof. That’s the problem. I just have my gut feelings, which don’t count for anything. But this morning, when I went to see her, there was a second when I thought—”
“How did she look when she saw you? Don’t think about it—just blurt it out.”
“Overjoyed,” he said. “She looked as thrilled as I was.”
“Hmm.” Arianna lapsed into a thoughtful silence that made his nerves stretch with impatience. “Is she involved with someone else?”
“She says she’s not. She claims she’s too busy with her career and stuff. She’s an artist.”
“Hmm.” More silence. “Is she a lesbian?”
“No.” He dismissed this possibility out of hand. He could compete with another man if he had to, but if what Talia really needed from a romantic partner was a vagina, then he was out of luck. “She’s not gay.”
“You sure?”
“Positive,” he lied.
“Okay, well, then the answer’s simple. She’s scared.”
“Scared? Of what?”
“You. The way you make her feel. The way she feels about you.”
“Bullshit,” he said, but already the wheels were turning in his mind, and he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something to it. “Why would she be scared of me?”
Arianna heaved a long and exasperated sigh. “Oh, come on. Who wouldn’t want a hot guy like you showing up on their doorstep? You’re incredibly sexy—”
Astonished to hear his sister talking like this, Tony jerked the phone away from his ear and stared at it.
“—and she probably figures you can have any woman you want. I’m betting she’s afraid of getting hurt. Plus, maybe she’s already been hurt by someone—”
His mind darted to the faceless Paul, whom he’d never liked.
“—and she doesn’t want to go down that road again. It’s your job to figure out what’s scaring her. If you care enough, that is.”
Oh, he cared.
He struggled with this hypothesis. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that she was secretly wild about him.
“Well, that’s a brilliant theory, Sherlock,” he said, “but maybe you had it right the first time. Maybe she’s just not that into me.”
“I see. So during your time in Afghanistan, you lost all your abilities to read a woman’s signals. Is that it?”
“I’m just saying that it’s possible that—”
“Oh, please.”
“I’m not a stalker, Ari. She’s said no, and I—”
“You give up? Really? Starting when?”
That hit a nerve, especially after his experiences as a POW.
