“I’ve had the strangest thought,” she told Aiden as he stood by his cab.
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“Luke’s trying to rescue me by letting me go. He doesn’t want me to sacrifice anything, to give up anything, to settle. But really, he’s a mess. He’s the one who needs to be rescued.”
Aiden laughed. “Yeah, maybe. But since he’ll never admit it, it’s probably impossible.”
“Take care of him, Aiden,” she said as he got in his cab at the hotel.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “Will you go to San Francisco now?”
“I might take another week. Really, there’s no big hurry for me to get there. I just felt like I had to be moving on, to be doing something. It’s strange how long it takes to forget.”
“You don’t forget, Shelby. You just adapt.”
She laughed softly. “Thank you, Aiden. For coming all the way here just to talk to me. You don’t realize how much it mattered, helped.”
“I hope so, Shelby. Luke’s right about one thing—you’re special. Best of luck.”
“Same to you.”
Luke was sitting in front of his fireplace, feet up, listening to a CD while looking off at nothing in particular, when headlights dashed across his living-room window. It was wet out there; he wasn’t expecting anyone. He looked at his watch; it was eight o’clock. If this was another brother or, worse, his mother, he wasn’t going to be able to control himself. He’d been answering the phone, for God’s sake. He hadn’t been conversational, but he’d answered. It was still a little raw, this thing with Shelby, but he was making progress. He slept now at least…
He opened the door and saw the Jeep. She stood in front of it, leaning against the hood, arms crossed over her chest, getting wet in the freezing drizzle. His heart lurched. Almost three weeks since he’d seen her and his feelings hadn’t given him a break. He still wanted her so bad it hurt.
“You never told me about Felicia,” she yelled at him.
“That was a long time ago,” he said loudly. “How do you know?”
“Never mind. Didn’t you trust me enough to tell me?”
“It was years ago,” he said. “It had nothing to do with anything.” He took a step onto the porch. “I didn’t hear anything about you coming back.”
“No one knows I’m here,” she said. “Do you think I’ll be as bad as she was, is that it?”
“No. I know better than that. You think I’m the best you can do?”
She shrugged. Her hair was getting wet; her cheeks glistened. “What if you are? How did I screw up? I thought I showed you I knew exactly what I wanted. You think I’m fickle? That I’m too young and too stupid to know whether I really love someone?”
“You’re not stupid— I never thought that. Young, maybe.”
“Oh—you thought it was puppy love?”
“No, sir,” he said. “Nothing puppy about it. Come out of the rain.”
“No. Not until a couple of things are settled. If we can’t come to terms, I’ll go to the general’s. But I’m not moving to San Francisco—I don’t want to be there. I’ve never lived in a big city and I don’t like them that much. What I like is here.”
“Come up on the porch at least and we’ll talk. Out of the wet and cold…”
“No,” she said, holding her ground. “Maybe I expected too much too fast, but you expected too little. I don’t want another man’s hands on me. Ever. This is where the only hands I ever want are. Yours. Only yours.”
He couldn’t help but smile at her, standing so proudly, so stubbornly in the rain, arms crossed over her chest. “Then why did you go? I never minded putting my hands all over you.”
“I needed a tan. And I thought you didn’t love me. I want more than this—I want the whole deal. I want a child someday. It doesn’t have to be soon—but I want a child, at least one, and it has to have a father, and that’s a deal breaker.”
He tipped back his head with a laugh. “Who do you think you are? Deal breaker?”
“I think I’m the only woman you’ve loved in forever. And you were going to pitch me out that fast, just because I make you nervous. I thought you didn’t trust me, but now I think you don’t trust yourself.” She shook her head. “I don’t want a man like that. I need a man with guts, who’s sure of himself. Confident enough to stand by me. I need a man who’s not afraid to take a risk or two for something important.”