Page 15 of Stirring Attraction (Second Shot 2)
“You want to lick your wounds someplace else, away from your family.”
He turned and looked into her blue eyes. “I’m not getting any better. The damage is done. And no, I don’t know where to go from here. Hell, if I drank something stronger than coffee, I’d probably lose myself in a drunken haze—”
“No, you wouldn’t,” she said. “I’ve never met a man more determined to act, who refused to settle. Life is too short, remember? You said it all the time.”
“Looks like ‘life’ had the last laugh,” he muttered. “Because it sure as shit broke me.”
“Not all of you, I hope,” she said.
“Lily.” And yeah, his tone held a shitload of warning. If she glanced below the belt and teased him with her words . . .
“You can tell me. Because I get it. Life broke me too,” she said. “But I’m fighting back. I accepted Noah’s job offer because I knew I needed to get out of the house. I can’t hide forever. School starts again at the end of August. I need to be able to face a roomful of five-year-olds. Lead them. Teach them. And not rush off to the bathroom and hide because I can’t overcome the panic.”
Dominic took a long sip of the now warm coffee. He’d fought with dozens of men who wore their bravery like body armor. And he’d been one of them until he’d been hit. Then he’d crumbled. If Ryan hadn’t shown up, he’d still be hiding from the world instead of helping a woman who made army rangers look like pansies.
“
Planning to follow me everywhere?” she asked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah.”
“OK then. Today’s my day off. I’m going back inside to do a workout video. And then, I have a date later. So try not to peer in the windows.”
I have a date later.
No longer awestruck by her determination to get back to the kids who needed her, he turned those words over. Lily was too damn special to remain single. And she’d given him plenty of chances. But still . . .
“Take the mug,” he said.
“You’re done?” she asked.
“I don’t want to break it.”
“Is your hand hurting?” Her brow furrowed as she accepted the mug.
No, honey. That’s my fucking heart, which came close to stopping once in the middle of a terrorist camp . . . and now here.
He wanted to take her concern and bottle it up. But that desire pretty much summed up why he hadn’t come home to her.
“Something like that.” He needed to get a grip on his emotions. “He’s coming over? Your date?”
She nodded. And yeah, it was a damn good thing he’d handed back the mug. He’d have coffee splattered all over his lap right now and his good hand would be sliced to pieces from the ceramic if he hadn’t returned it to her care.
“What does he look like?”
Her blue eyes narrowed as she gripped both mugs. “Why?”
“I don’t want to hurt him by mistake,” he said. “If he shows up, knocks on your door, hell, I might think he’s here to hurt you.”
“Ted runs the elementary school literacy program,” she said. “He’s tall, slim, and has blond hair. And his smile . . .”
Fuck Ted’s smile.
“Yeah?” he said.
“When he smiles, he looks sweet and kind,” she added.
Thank God in heaven, her tone suggested sweetness should be reserved for the coffee in her cup.
