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“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, but as I said, it was a long time ago and I’m fine with it. I’m not bitter about Peter. He was too young to make a marriage work. I probably was, too.”
“At least you wanted to try.”
“Trying wasn’t enough. Maybe I wanted too much. Maybe all I could see was that someone other than my mother finally loved me. Or so it seemed.”
“You’d been lonely,” he said.
“A little. Maybe more than a little.”
He’d been lonely, too, he thought. He knew what it was like to fall in love in high school, to be willing to give up anything for that love, then have the gift thrown back in his face.
“So I’ve learned my lesson about love,” she said.
“What’s the lesson?”
“I don’t go there anymore. While love seems to work out for other people, it’s not in the cards for me.”
“You’re being a little hasty making that decision after one failure.”
She shook her head. “You’re forgetting the ever gracious Luke, who abandoned both me and his child.”
“You’re right.” He clenched his hands into fists. “Okay, two lessons.”
She held up three fingers. “Three lessons. In between Peter and Luke, I fell for another guy. Once again, I was working two jobs, and I met a great guy who seemed to be everything Peter hadn’t been—mature, motivated, a hard worker.”
“He sounds perfect,” Jim grumbled.
“Yes, he does. After two years of dating, he still couldn’t bring himself to commit to anything permanent. We were stuck in the dating mode. So I gave him an ultimatum. Propose or it’s over.”
“What happened?” he asked although he already knew.
“He left. Six week later, I heard that he’d met a woman and moved in with her. Three months after that, they were married. Apparently, his problem wasn’t with commitment, but with me. Which was why Luke seemed so perfect. All he talked about was getting married. Of course, he already had a wife, but I didn’t know that.”
Jim wanted to pull Heather close until all the hurt was gone. But he didn’t…for two reasons. First, she wouldn’t understand what he was doing and might think he was coming on to her. Second, the hurt was gone. Despite the setbacks in her life, she’d managed to heal herself. She had a strength and self-reliance that he admired.
“What happens now?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Now I’m grateful I have a wonderful daughter to raise. My goal will be to follow in my mother’s footsteps.”
“You’re too young and have too much to offer to stay single for long. You deserve more,” Jim said.
If he didn’t let himself think about the possibility of Heather with another man, he could actually believe what he was saying.
“I could say that you deserve more, too,” she told him. “But if the rumors are to be believed, you live like a monk.”
“That’s a slight exaggeration. I have female friends, but I prefer to keep things light. I’m not looking for emotional commitment.” He’d explained his position enough times that he could say the words easily, without even having to think about why he’d chosen to do without what most men considered a given—a wife and a family.
“To throw your own words back in your face,” she said, “you’re too young and you have too much to offer for you to stay single for long.”
“It’s worked so far.”
Her gaze settled on his face. “I’m guessing that there are several broken hearts littering the ground. So I can’t help wondering why you’re avoiding any serious romantic entanglement. I mean, it makes sense for me. Three strikes and all that. But what’s your excuse?”
“I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
“That sounds like a lonely way to live.”
