Erin wasn’t clear on the details of what Sarah was dealing with. However, she couldn’t be sure if it was because Remy wanted to keep their personal lives private or because he didn’t understand himself. All Erin knew was that she’d gotten a reprieve from his inevitable departure from Heartache and she couldn’t help but be a little grateful for that.
“No.” He shook his head. “I can find her. I need to focus on Sarah and figure out what’s going on with her.”
“So I’ll leave once you locate her.” She zipped up the sweatshirt and opened the folding doors to the laundry room off the kitchen, certain she’d find some shorts to throw on. “But at least you’ll have some help. I know where that field is and it’s not going to be on your GPS.”
She found a jean skirt and stepped into it, pulling it over the skimpy silk robe she’d worn into the kitchen to make them something to eat after the most incredible, world-rocking sex. That seemed like forever ago.
“There’s a bonfire in a small town. I think I’ll find it.” His jaw was tight, his shoulders tense.
She read the rejection in every taut line of his body.
“You really don’t want me to go.” She wrapped her arms around herself, finally getting the message. “Okay.” She took a step back. “I’ve never been a clingy woman, and I’m not going to start now. I only wanted to help.”
“I grew up on a bayou. I punted around in a pirogue, fished off a dock I shared with water moccasins and—on occasion—a three-hundred-pound gator.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “So some days I take exception to the implication that I can’t find my own daughter at a neighborhood party.”
She’d touched a raw nerve. No surprise really. Intimacy exposed those raw spots. Intellectually, she knew this.
It still hurt to have him push her away with both hands. How many times had she tried to help her mother as a kid, only to have her mom yell at her, belittle her or ignore her?
“Right.” She stuffed her hands in the pocket of the sweatshirt and headed for the refrigerator, taking deep breaths to stay level. Not engage. “Want a drink for the road?”
She pulled a soda out of the fridge and popped the top.
“I’m good.” His jaw jutted. “Sorry to leave in a rush.”
“Good luck.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“Erin—”
“Don’t.” She didn’t want to hear him blame the situation with his daughter, or his past, or anything else for why he needed to leave on such a sour note. “We knew all along you’d be leaving after this and I went into it with my eyes wide open. I’m not sorry about what we did. But if you say any more about why this was a bad idea…I might be.”
He took a deep breath and, for a second, she thought he might argue with her. So she wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved when he turned and walked out her door.
Maybe she was a little of both.
She set aside the soda she hadn’t really wanted and sat at her kitchen table. With her sister on the road, she didn’t have anyone to talk to. Her mother could be a helpful ear every now and then, but other times she didn’t come to the door when Erin knocked. Some days, she could deal with that, knowing her mom was bipolar. But today? She wouldn’t do well if she discovered she was locked out of her mom’s house.
Nina had gone back to Nashville to be with Mack. Bethany might be around, and would surely be sympathetic to the frustrations of complicated men. But it was hard to open that door with her sister-in-law since it also invited commentary about Scott, which was hard for Erin to hear.
When her phone chimed with a text, she was surprised.
That it was from Remy surprised her even more.
Did he want help after all?
Don’t forget to install an alarm system.
Shoving the phone aside, Erin locked the doors and went upstairs. Bypassing her bedroom—now full of too many memories—she lay down in the guest room and tried not think about the fact she’d given herself so completely to a man she’d met only a week or so ago.
No, she didn’t regret it. One of the reasons she’d let herself think about being with him was that he’d be leaving Heartache. While she might not like what that said about her, she couldn’t deny that him being on a plane back to Miami right now would be easier on her heart than him staying in town and not wanting anything to do with her.
Any hope she’d had of him being her rebound guy had disintegrated when he’d gotten the phone call about Sarah. Like it or not, Erin would have to face the consequences of taking things to the next level with a man who’d told her—more than once—that his life was too complicated to get involved with anyone right now.
That made her a) too stubborn for her own good; b) attracted to the wrong sort of men; or c) following patterns of trying to help people who were impossible to comfort.
Closing her eyes, Erin feared all of the above were true. When was she going to stop trying to be the strong shoulder for people who didn’t want one? She’d wasted months with Patrick trying to help him find joy in a life mired in work—introducing him to the arts and encouraging his painting. She’d started the whole Dress for Success program because it rubbed her raw to see Jamie struggling through life when Erin knew a way to help. She was a helper by nature, but she knew that’s not what Remy needed from her.
Tonight, she couldn’t think her way through it because she was emotionally raw herself.
