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Kevin took a seat on the rowing machine Of course, his decision to propose hadn’t only been influenced by how their e could benefit him Not only did they have a lot of interests in coht they’ddinner did he learn she and Callie were best friends
He exhaled as he started rowing If Lauren needed flowers and romantic dinners before she said yes, then that hat she would get
Coain, but only a minute had passed since the last time she checked Was it possible for time to run slow? It sure as hell felt like it All she needed was for the clock to hit nine then she would head over to Callie’s
Tapping her fingers against the counter, she watched the second handon the diner wall The waitress refilled the coffee ave her a sh coffee to keep an elephant awake The night before she’d left Kevin’s and started toward hoed her mind and headed for Greenwich, Connecticut where Callie and Dylan spent most of their weekends now She’d arrived in a small town not far from Greenwich around five o’clock Too early to visit Callie, she found the twenty-four-hour diner and had been drinking coffee ever since, waiting for the clock to hit nine While still on the early side, Lauren figured Callie and her husband would be awake by then
Lauren reached for her coffee,to do than because she wanted any , a constant reht’s events She’d tried to leave it with hih, he refused to take it back, insisting she hold onto it until shewith him, she stuffed it into her jeans pocket and had not looked at it since Now, as the extra-strong coffee slid down her throat, she pulled it out and slipped it on her finger Even in the florescent light, the ring sparkled She’d expected the large dia looked perfect As if it’d been ned with her in ether she’d learned Kevin liked to have the best of everything He’d view an engage in much the same way
She glanced up at the clock again as the cell phone in her purse rang Anyone but Kevin, please Lauren pulled out the phone Should I answer it? The nuardless, she answered it anyway She had time to kill
“Hey,” an oh-so-familiar male voice said
Before she realized it, Lauren dropped her left hand into her lap so that the large dialared up at her “Nate, hi What’s up?” Since his last visit when she’d told him she needed time, they hadn’t spoken Not that it had mattered He’d still been on her mind and in her dreams
“I got two tickets to a Celtics gaht?”
She hadn’t attended a Celtics gaone all the time “I’m not around today” Under the counter she played with the ring on her finger
“Right” His single one-word answer spoke volumes
“I’ Callie” She didn’t owe hio wherever she pleased ho she confirm that she wasn’t with Kevin “I haven’t seen her since the retirement party”
“Tell her I said hello” The suspicion she’d heard o disappeared from his voice
“I will Have fun at the game”
He should not have called her When he left her house, he promised Lauren space and ti hiht of her with soe of her with Kevin popped up, his insides rolled over So even though he’d intended to give her the space she wanted, when two Celtics tickets fell into his lap, he thought of her first Over the years they had attended ether at a gaain would help remind her of what they’d once shared
When she said she wasn’t around, anger and dread sucker-punched hi Callie helped relieve the coil of dread wrapped around his heart His Lauren wouldn’t lie to him If she said she ith Callie, then that here she was Even if she had been with Kevin, he would have had no grounds for objection She had every right to spend tih, he had no desire for any other wo their years apart he’d hardly dated, and he had never developed a lasting relationship On those rare occasions when he did date, it had beento do rather than because he wanted a woman in his life
What about her? How many relationships had she been in? Had she looked at another e?
Thanks to his ed His ether and made sure she dropped him hints about Lauren’s life over the years He had aled because she still loved him But her reluctance to take him back made him wonder Maybe the real reason was because she’d never been asked