Page 67 of This Time Around
He laughed, even though he probably had every right to take offense at her response. He reached out to grab a cracker, and his arm brushed her knee, sending goose bumps all the way up her thigh.
“That’s funny. I’ve gotta admit, I was always pretty curious where you ended up. I could never find much online, but a friend of a friend told me you’d gotten engaged in law school. I guess I figured that was it.”
She nodded, and glanced down at the knee of her yoga pants. There was a frayed thread sticking out of the seam, and she thought about tugging on it, but changed her mind. No sense in unraveling everything.
“Yeah,” she said at last. “That didn’t really work out.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“No. Just engaged.” She hesitated, not sure how much to volunteer. Only four days ago, she’d been preparing to introduce a fake fiancé and crossing her fingers Jack didn’t know anything about her parents’ crimes. Was she really ready to let her guard down?
Then again, the guy had been baring his soul to her all evening. It hardly seemed fair to offer platitudes in return. She looked up to see him studying her with interest.
Allie took a deep breath. “I got engaged three times.”
His brows shot up. “No kidding?” He must have sensed her bristling, because he softened his expression to one with a lot less judgment. “So, three times counting me?”
Allis shook her head as heat crept into her cheeks. “Four times, counting you.”
“Wow.”
A flicker of defensiveness flared in her chest with that single, disapproving syllable. Or maybe she was reading too much into it. She was readying a retort, but he beat her to the punch.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “I mean, that’s not the same as being married four times.”
“Right.” Her voice sounded tight, but she hoped she’d kept the shame out of it.
“I guess I’m just surprised.”
“That I had so many engagements, or that I never followed through on them?”
“Both, I guess. I mean, I guess I always assumed you’d be married by now.” He seemed to hesitate. “Do you mind if I ask why you’re not?”
Allie shrugged, oddly nervous now that he was the one asking the questions. “The guy after you I met in law school, and he forgot to mention he had another girlfriend on the side. The next guy was sweet and smart and had everything going for him, but we got into this big fight when we went shopping for our first piece of furniture together?—”
“A loveseat?” He offered a small smile, and she couldn’t tell if he was teasing or just trying to lighten the mood.
“An ottoman,” she said.
“Damn ottomans. They’ll get you every time.”
Allie forced a smile and took a small sip of wine. “Anyway, it became clear we had different ideas on conflict resolution.”
“So you split up over an ottoman?”
“It wasn’t just the ottoman.” She struggled to find the right words. “It was a major disconnect in the way we each approached disagreement. It was about respecting each other’s differences and how our lifestyles fit together.”
“That’s a lot to assign to an ottoman.”
Allie sighed. “It just wasn’t the right fit.”
“Okay.” Jack nodded, seeming to digest that. “What about the next guy? What went wrong there?”
She looked down at her wineglass, wondering why she hadn’t mentioned this before. Wondering if she should have mentioned it before now.
“I already told you,” she said slowly. “Wade and I had zero chemistry.”
Chapter 11
