Page 30 of Almost Perfect
“Hmm. As suspected.”
She was quiet then, and I wondered if she guessed how that’d affected me. As if to confirm my thoughts, she said, “Was that when you started talking to me like I was a drug dealer?”
Had I not been driving, I would’ve shut my eyes against my own idiocy. Because yes, that was exactly what happened. “I was a jackass. I’m sorry.”
“I wasn’t trying to—whatever. I guess by now you’ve figured not everything you read is true?”
“I already knew that, which makes it worse. Warrick reamed me over that one, trust me.”
He’d made the same point again and again, and he’d been right. My nonsensical reaction to this woman still had me confused, and the consumption and belief of all those headlines was just one part of that.
“I do like that brother of yours. He’s a good one.”
“He is,” I agreed. He was. And it spoke well of her that she recognized it.
Quiet settled between us, and since I wasn’t used to talking to anyone other than Mom and War, I welcomed a moment to arrange my thoughts.
“So she wanted to go out with you even though you were like an older brother to her? Or was she secretly always pining for you?”
The tone of her voice made it sound forbidden and sexy.
“Heck no. She wanted to apologize for some things.” I shifted uncomfortably at the memory of her apology—she hadn’t ever owed me one. “And I think maybe she wanted to know about Wilder. She didn’t ask, but I gave her the gist.”
“And what’s that?”
“He’s been active duty Army for the last eighteen years. Pretty much since he left here. Always said he’d come back when he retired, and he’s always said he’d be getting out right at twenty.”
It’d be good to have him home… I hoped. He’d never been easygoing like Warrick. But after everything with Sarah, and years of crazy crap happening in his military life, he’d become more intense, harder, and somehow darker.
Maybe that was wrong. Hopefully, it was. But I couldn’t help the feeling that whenever he did end up back home, he’d have a lot of work to do before he could be comfortable. Both here, and in the civilian world at large.
And I wanted to be ready for him. I wanted to help him and make up for the ways I hadn’t been able to these years he’d been gone. I just had to figure myself out first.
Maybe helping Calla could be like a test run of sorts. I could help her in some way, and maybe it’d pull me out of this funk I’d been in. Doing something for someone, thinking about them before myself, it’d be perfect practice for whenever Wilder came back.
“Wow. So Jane will have all her little ducklings back home.”
I chuckled. “Yes. And having met her, you can imagine there’s nothing that’d make her happier.”
She snorted, and I glanced over to see it. She had a look I couldn’t decipher. “What’s that about?”
“EvenIknow of something that would make Jane Saint happier than anything else.” She raised her brows and gave me a meaningful look.
“Oh. Right. Yeah, she desperately wants all of us to be married and cranking out grandkids. Woman’s got a hunger for babies I’ve never known the likes of.”
Laughing, she responded, “I believe it. Last night, she strategically let slip that both you and Warrick are single.”
My cheeks heated yet again. “Damn. Not okay. I’m sorry. I hope you know it wasn’t because you’re... uh,you.More just that you’re of a certain age, beautiful, and seem to get along with everyone well.”
Crap. That wasn’t the best explanation. But I didn’t want her to think Mom was trying to set her up with us because of her wealth and fame.
“Well, I’d hate to think it was due to me beingme.”
I cringed. “You know what I mean.”
She seemed to think on that before answering. “I guess I do. Don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with any untoward advances from me.”
For some stupid reason, those words sent a flash of warmth through me. To distract myself from that, I offered, “Well at least there’s that.”
