Page 114 of Family Bonds: Alana & Brennan
“Not the best impression to give a guy you might be interested in,” she said.
“It’s over now. I appreciate you doing this. I’m sure I’m a wuss in your eyes.”
“No,” she said, moving closer to him for a hug. He looked as if he needed it. “You’re a nice person. Sometimes nice people don’tmake the best decisions because they put others first. If anyone knows that, it’s me. I turned a blind eye over my ex having a woman best friend.”
She still wondered if she should have questioned it more to prevent it.
Then she wondered why she was even thinking that when Jonathan’s actions were the best thing that could have happened to them.
She’d probably still be engaged to him with no shot of a wedding or kids for another five years if he hadn’t cheated.
The more she thought of it, Jonathan never wanted to settle down. His career was too important to him and impressing the right people.
She was a means to an end. If she’d said that she didn’t want to marry or have kids, he would have been fine with it.
Pressure from family and friends forced that ring more than anything else. She knew and hated it happened.
It was one thing she promised herself. She wouldn’t fall for outside pressure again to control her pace in a relationship.
Not unless it was what she really wanted.
“That’s not the same thing,” he said. “You were with him for years and in love and thought you could trust him to not betray you.”
“I did, but I also accepted that I never knew exactly what love was.”
She knew it now. She felt it with Brennan, but wasn’t sure he was ready to hear it.
Nor was she ready to say it.
“I know that myself,” he said. “I didn’t have it with Rene.”
“Have you been in love before?”
She thought it was a good question. Someone his age who never felt it might not be able to.
He could just want that fast family for his daughter more than a life partner.
“I have been,” he said. “I think there are different levels and degrees of love in our lives, but I have felt it before.”
She felt a sense of contentment wash over her. “Anyone you wish you could have gone back and tried with again?”
“No,” he said. “My past is where it needs to be. I’m more concerned about my future.”
She frowned. “How about the present?”
He kissed her. “That too.”
“Daddy,” Becca said, running in. “Polly needs to go potty.”
“Show her where the bathroom is,” he said, grinning.
“She has to poop and needs help,” Becca said.
She felt Brennan stiffen. This was where being a single father of a daughter could get tricky.
“How about I help her,” Alana said.
Becca grabbed her hand. “Okay. Are you staying for lunch with us?”
