Page 96 of To Belong Together
He studied the empty doorway between them, flipping through the bits of advice the guys had given him. Talk, they’d said. Tell her how he felt.
She stepped from the bedroom with a backpack over her shoulder.
“I only wanted to be with you. When you left the wedding, I did too, and I’m not leaving you alone now.”
Not unless she forced him to, but he wouldn’t risk saying that and supplying her with the idea.
For how her eyes widened with sadness, he might as well have announced intentions to seek out whatever pieces of her heart remained and stomp on them. She stepped into another room. The percussion of bottles told him what she was doing. When she returned, the backpack bulged at full capacity.
“Do you have other concerns you’re not telling me?” His throat turned sore as he forced himself to ask. This reminded him too much of the end with Nicole. Growing suspicion, fights that led to excuses that didn’t quite line up, and when he confronted her with her lies, the end.
When Erin answered, would the rift become irreparable?
She avoided looking his way as she slid into old sneakers instead of her work boots. “Everything’s been really heavy lately. Your accident, the stuff with your sisters, my dad. You’ve been a bright spot for me. A true friend. A better one than I deserve, actually.”
A friend, huh?
If she wouldn’t reveal more about what he’d done to deserve that, he’d have to guess based on the little she’d said today. The questions about Tara, Nicole, and the bridesmaid meant this traced back to the doubts Kate had planted.
Had his sister said more than anyone had revealed to him? When Kate came back from her honeymoon, he’d corner her into relaying all the details. And he’d question Stacy in the meantime.
Regardless, he wouldn’t give up on this. Erin could friend-zone him if she wanted. By honoring the boundary, he’d prove he wasn’t the womanizer she thought.
He stepped back and swung open the door for her to step out.
She assessed him, then took the offer.
They walked silently halfway down the front walk, where she split to go to her car as he continued toward his.
“John?”
Second day in a row she’d done this. Broken his heart, then said his name as if she regretted it. He turned, but if last night was any indication, whatever she said next wouldn’t make him feel any better.
Erin stood in the middle of her front lawn with her bag on her back. “We can still be friends, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Call me if you need me.” As he got in the driver’s seat and waved one last time through the windshield, he was already waiting for his phone to ring.
Foolish, really, because he was pretty sure it wouldn’t.
Erin wasn’tthe only doer in the family. Mom’s friends from church washed the dishes, stacked more casseroles in the refrigerator, and vacuumed. Even so, in their wake, Mom took a dishcloth to the already-clean table.
Erin took the broom from the closet to pitch in. When she swept under Dad’s unoccupied chair at the table, she had to pause and mop her sleeve across her eyes. They’d already lost so much. This home brimmed with memories of Dad, now more vital than ever.
“I called Nina earlier.” The real estate agent hadn’t picked up, but Erin had left a message for her. “Hopefully we can meet within a day or two.”
“I’m not sure about this plan.” Mom scrubbed at an invisible stain on the table. “You and John …”
Erin stilled. “Me and John?”
Mom rinsed the rag. “If you two get married, you’ll need your own home.”
For one, blissful moment, surprise wiped her grief away. Then, it all came swinging back. “We’re not getting married.”
“You seem close to each other.”
