Page 57 of Patio Lanterns

She tilted her head back and lifted her eyes to his. “I really like you, Rick. Like, a lot,” she said with a gentle smile. “You’re a very sweet man.”

“A sweet man,” he echoed, the words landing with a thud. A sweet man? Fuck.

“No, no, I mean that in the best way. You’re a big, sweet, sexy man. You know you wreck my panties,” she said. “But the thing is, I’m not entirely sure I deserve someone like you.”

That was not at all what he wanted to hear, and he needed to fix whatever was bothering her immediately. “What’s the matter? Please tell me.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t even know where to start.” She sighed. “I’m a fucking mess.”

“You’re a fucking mess, I’m a fucking mess, we’re all fucking messes,” he said. “There’s plenty of fuckery afoot if you look hard enough.”

She managed a soft laugh as her fingers trailed down the middle of his chest again. “See what I mean? Sweet. You always know exactly what to say to make me feel better.”

“Listen, it’s important to me that we trust each other. Because when I give you my trust, I’m giving you a piece of my heart.”

She sat up. Her glassy eyes watered, and when she blinked, a tear escaped. It broke his heart to see her cry, and he tenderly swept his thumb across her cheek to wipe it away. “Robin, what’s going on?”

She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m scared.”

“Why? What’s scaring you?”

“The way you make me feel,” she said. “It’s like this is too good to be real. That means either you could be the best thing to ever happen to me, or I’m going to be the worst thing to ever happen to you.”

He cupped her cheek to reassure her. “That’s not possible.”

“It is if I come between you and Aidan,” she told him.

“I won’t let that happen,” he told her. “Do you want me to talk to him? Maybe I’ve put too much pressure on you by wanting to keep us a secret.”

“No, please don’t do that yet,” she said. “It’s too soon. This is all still brand new.”

He was relieved to hear her say that because he felt the same way. While emotions were raw and intense, they hadn’t even been seeing each other for a week. They needed time to figure things out for themselves without bringing others into it yet.

“But there’s something you ought to know about me and Aidan…”

Uh oh.

“I used to be really hung up on him when I was a kid. I’m talking a massive, all-consuming crush,” she said. “But he never paid much attention to me until one day I wrote him this letter. I poured my lusty little heart out, thinking that somehow, that was the key to awakening his desire, and he’d fall madly, passionately in love with me.” She laughed. “Stupid, right?”

“This was the letter that Lark mentioned the other night?”

“Oh yeah, it’s made me the butt of family jokes for years because everyone found out about it and thought it was hilarious. Well, everyone except my parents, who were not the least bit amused,” she said. “Add infatuation to raging teenage hormones, stir in a handful of dirty passages from one of your mother’s romance novels, and boom! You get instant humiliation for the rest of your life.”

“I’m sorry that happened. But it’s no reason to be hard on yourself. We all do dumb things when we’re young and trying to find our way.”

Her shoulders rose and fell with another deep sigh. “The other night, when I showed up at your door looking for an old friend? It was because I thought I saw Aidan swimming down at the lake. For a moment, I entertained a fleeting fantasy that if maybe we were to meet again…”

“Oh,” he said, needing a moment to process. That explained why she came over the first night with a purse full of condoms. She was hoping to hook up with Aidan. So what did that make Rick? A consolation prize?

Hold on a minute. Even if a fraction of that was true, he’d given Robin an easy out. Several, in fact. He’d begged her to go for Aidan or anyone else closer to her own age. But she refused to hear a word of it.

“Are you upset with me?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, but I can’t help but wonder why you’re telling me this now.”

“Because I thought you should hear the truth from me,” she said. “I want us to be able to trust each other too.”

He was almost afraid to ask, but then he did anyway. “How do you feel about Aidan now?”

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