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He shook his head. “Not really. I don’t understand men who demand that women stay home and take care of the kids, forcing them to give up their careers. I would be livid if a woman demanded that I stay home with a baby. I would hate the lack of mental stimulation and the tedium of changing diapers. It’s not my thing. So, I would never expect someone else to do that, unless it’s what they chose to do. I will support my wife if that’s her preference without question. But being a stay at home mother is a desire, not a requirement.”
“And what if your spouse has a demanding job? One that requires her to work long hours?”
Again, he shrugged, looking confused. “My job requires long hours. Why would I get upset if my wife has the same demands on her time?”
She tilted her head back and forth. “Some people want their spouse to be home for dinner at night. There’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just another aspect of life that needs to be clarified.”
Tim considered for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t care about that. It’s not important to me to have company when I eat. In fact, I usually bring work home with me at night. My housekeeper always has something prepared for me to simply heat up and I work while eating. So no, I don’t want someone interrupting me during that time period.”
Raven lowered her head to write something down, but in reality, she was starting to wonder if she was wasting her time. This man wasn’t ready for a relationship. He didn’t want to make time in his life for someone special.
Bailey and Matteo might have Tim’s best interests at heart, but Raven suspected that they might need to wait a bit longer before helping him find that special person.
But she’d continue with her efforts for now, just in case. Perhaps if she found the right person, the grouch might snap out of his self-imposed prison of work-sleep-more-work cycle. She’d seen it happen to other couples she’d gotten together. In fact, seeing those couples happy and thriving, their lives changing as they both made compromises because being together was better than what they’d had before – yep, those were some of the best moments in her career. Seeing people happy was so much better than what she’d done before.
If her past career with the FBI occasionally haunted her, well, Raven forced her thoughts away from those what-if moments.
“What just happened?”
Raven heard his question and her head came up. Startled, she looked into Tim’s curious blue eyes. “I’m sorry?”
He tilted his head forward, staring at her intently. “Something just went through your mind. Something…,” his eyes narrowed, and he paused. “I can’t tell if it was bad or good.” Tim shifted in his chair. “What happened?”
Raven shook her head. There wasn’t any chance that she’d discuss her past with him. No way!
“I was just thinking about the couples that I’d gotten together that had a similar attitude.”
“What do you mean? What’s my attitude?”
She smiled and put her pen down. “You have a life that works for you and you can’t imagine changing it for anyone.”
“That’s true. Why did that make you smile?”
Raven chuckled. “Because I’ve introduced those people to someone. When busy people meet that special person, someone that is more important than everything else in their lives, they change. And that compromise, that desire to be with that special person, the person that they love, becomes more important than the other aspects of their life. The things that they’d thought were so important suddenly lose their appeal. Love is more appealing than maintaining their rigid work schedules.”
He snorted and sipped his coffee.
“You don’t believe me?”
Tim set his coffee cup back down before answering. “I don’t believe in love,” he explained. “Love is a way for people to tell themselves that sex is okay.” The muscles around his nose twitched, indicating his dismissal of the idea. “Sex is a natural, human need. I don’t need to pretty up my desires with a non-existent emotion.”
Raven stared at him, trying not to react. But his words tore at the very center of who she was, what she did. Everything about her life and her career focused around love. And yes, she wanted to find love with a man. She wanted the passionate, amazing, overwhelming feeling that swamps a person when they meet the right person.
Obviously, the good doc wasn’t that person!
Nor had she ever thought about him that way, Raven reminded herself firmly.
So, why did she feel this deep stabbing pain? It was merely disappointment, she told herself. No, not disappointment. That would indicate that she’d hoped for…something to happen between herself and Tim. She felt….regret. Yes, that was it. She felt regret that Tim wouldn’t ever experience the sweeping, miraculous emotions that she’d witnessed in so many people.
“I’ve upset you,” Tim commented.
She leaned forward and picked up her pen, staring at the words she’d written. Why were they blurry? Raven blinked rapidly and, thankfully, her vision cleared. “Of course not,” she replied. “So, about the women in your past,” she started over, ignoring his “logical” dismissal of one of the most treasured emotions a human being could experience.
And one of the most crushing.
Now, where had that thought come from?
Shaking herself, she forced her thoughts back to the present.
