Page 7 of Wicked Flirt
He shook his head. “She’s not ready. If I push too hard, it’s only going to make it worse.”
She was quiet for a moment.
He gripped the steering wheel. “Look, it’s not your problem.”
“But I want to help. Agoraphobia is so limiting. What about a therapy dog? Hailey might be able to get one through the trainer she used for Rose.”
He stopped at a red light and turned to her. “That might actually be a good idea. She’d be focused on taking care of the dog. Maybe she’d even start taking it for walks.”
“Yeah, and she has a fenced-in yard, so it wouldn’t be high pressure. She could let it run around the yard until she was ready to venture a little farther.”
He smiled, really pleased with this new idea. He’d been so stuck on how to fix the situation. Lexi had screwed up, but her heart was in the right place. “Ya know, I swore to my mom I’d stop seeing you, but you’re not so bad.”
Her jaw dropped. “Oh my God, she made you swear? She must really hate me. Marcus, I have to go back there and fix this.”
“No, you don’t. You gave me a workable solution. That’s all I need.”
She wrung her hands together. “I feel awful.”
The light turned green and he hit the accelerator. “You’re off the hook. I’ll tell her we broke up next time I see her.”
“What a disaster,” Lexi muttered. “Major fake-girlfriend fail.”
“I’ll say.”
“Thanks.”
He shook his head at how badly it had gone down.
She twirled a lock of her hair. “How come your mom doesn’t have anyone? Your dad’s not around? No family? No friends?”
He was surprised she cared enough to ask after his mom had dismissed her. “Her friends gave up after a while. She wouldn’t call them back or ever show up to anything. And I’m her only family besides my grandparents, but they don’t live nearby. No brothers or sisters, and my dad died when I was seven.” His mom had insisted he not bother her parents, who were enjoying their long-overdue retirement in Florida.
Not for the first time he wondered how his mom’s life would’ve been different if his dad had lived. Maybe she wouldn’t have had any issues at all. She’d loved Marcus’s dad, and Marcus had too. His dad hadn’t been a violent man, just a hustler, looking for easy money. A charmer, his mom had always said. Guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
“I’m sorry,” Lexi said gently. “It’s hard on you.”
He swallowed over the lump in his throat, surprised once again by Lexi. She’d seen through his cheerful facade at his mom’s place to his real anguish. His whole life he’d tried to help his mom, and she just got worse and worse, from crying to panic attacks to agoraphobia. His love was not enough.
His love hadn’t been enough for his wife either. They’d divorced four years ago. A disaster of a relationship—betrayal, cheating, lying.
Maybe his love would never be enough for anyone. Maybe he’d never be enough.
“Marcus, are you okay?”
He snapped to attention, pushing down the dark thoughts. “It’s nothing she wouldn’t do for me if our situations were reversed. It’s always been the two of us against the world.”
“That’sreallyhard on a kid.”
His mom had done the best she could. His protective instincts made his voice come out harsh. “I’m thirty-three years old, a grown-ass man who’s got his shit together. That means I look after her.”
She got quiet.
Now he felt bad. Lexi was only trying to be a friend. “Too harsh?” he asked.
“No. It was actually perfect. I like a grown-ass man who’s got his shit together much better than a charming flirt.”
“Yeah?”
