Page 61 of If You Were Mine (After We Fall 3)
“I haven’t really had a chance.” I shook my head, staring into the foam on my latte. “It was the craziest thing. On Friday night, he made it very clear that we were a one-night-only thing, even though we’d had an amazing time. Then Saturday night, he shows up at my house and says ‘I need you.’”
“What?” Jaime set her cup on the saucer with a clank. “That is crazy.”
“But really sweet,” said Margot.
“It was. And he said he didn’t know where this could go, and I said I was OK with that, and we had another great night. Then yesterday, he offered to take me shopping for tiles and to look at options for counters. Apparently he used to work for this stoneworks place. And he also has his own carpentry business.”
“Does he have a last name now?” Jaime’s eyes were wide.
I almost smiled. “MacLeod.”
Margot pursed her lips. “Hmm. Doesn’t ring a bell. Is his family from around here?”
“I don’t think you’d know his family. He was raised by his grandmother, but she’s gone now. A brother lives somewhere close, and he has a wife and three kids.” I kept the rest of the details about his family to myself—Theo had trusted me with them, and I wouldn’t feel right disclosing them, even to my friends.
“Tile shopping, huh?” Margot’s eyes sparkled over the rim of her cup. “How romantic.”
“You know what? Somehow it was.” I tilted my head. “Well, it was and it wasn’t. We didn’t hold hands or kiss or anything, but I love that he wanted to help me. He even stained the kitchen cabinets Saturday night and hung them back up yesterday.”
Jaime blinked. “When’s he moving in?”
“Never. Because my mother showed up as we were looking at tile samples for the floor, and he freaked the fuck out.”
“Why?” they both asked at once.
I shrugged helplessly. “Could have been anything. He seemed really nervous the whole time she was there, which was all of five minutes. I introduced him, and you know how my mother is, she was so excited to meet him and started fawning all over him. She scolded me for hiding him and asked how long we’d been dating and I made something up—I think I said a month. He didn’t like that, apparently.”
“Didn’t like what?” Jaime asked.
“That I let her assume we were dating. He doesn’t like that word.”
She rolled her eyes. “What the hell were you supposed to say?”
“That’s what I said. But he was all spooked by it. And by the fact that my dad is a judge.”
“Why would that matter?” Margot wondered.
“I have no idea. I asked him why he’d even come back, why he’d said he needed me.”
“What did he say?” Jaime asked.
“He said it was a mistake. He doesn’t need anything or anybody. Two seconds later, he was out the door.”
My friends were stunned silent. But what could they say?
“What’s wrong with me, you guys?” Out of nowhere, tears threatened, and I propped my head up at the temples. “Why did I get my hopes up after two stupid days? Why didn’t he feel what I did?”
Jaime rubbed my back. “I don’t know, hon. But I don’t think he would have come back if he didn’t feel something. Let alone spend an entire day working on your kitchen. It doesn’t make sense.”
“You know,” Margot said slowly. “Maybe it wasn’t so much the word dating that freaked him out as the fact that he realized he likes you as more than a fuck buddy.”
“Or he has a wife,” Jaime added. “I’m still not convinced he doesn’t.”
“I’m not convinced of anything at this point.” I picked up my latte again. “I don’t think he has a wife, but he definitely makes it tough to get close to him.”
“Jack was like that too,” Margot said. “It took him a while to open up, and even after he did, he tried to push me away. As soon as he realized he had feelings for me, he shut down.”
I nodded glumly. “I remember that.”
