“He’s here. Tim, I’m afraid.”
Cold steel ran through Tim’s veins. “Call the police.”
“Not for myself.” Impatience edged Laura’s voice. “I’m afraid for Charles. I honestly think he might hurt himself.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Not on the phone. How soon can you get here?”
“I don’t...” Tim rubbed his face with his hand, pushing hisfingers through his hair as if that would restore some order to his thoughts. “Twenty minutes.”
“If that’s the best you can do.”
He had to go, Tim thought as he disconnected. Dee had to leave.Fuck.
“It’s Charles,” he said, emerging from the bathroom. Better to leave the other woman’s name out of it. “He’s having a bit of a crisis.”
Dee nodded. “I should go.”
Thank God. Except... “There’s no rush.”Twenty minutes.
Dee regarded him thoughtfully. “Are you going to see him?”
“Yes.”
She leaned over the edge of the mattress, flashing him as she fished the Panties of Death from the floor. “Will it make any difference?”
He dragged his mind off her nice round bum and back in the game. “It doesn’t matter. I owe him.”
She stepped into her shapewear and tugged it up her thighs, making her breasts jiggle pleasantly. “What about what you owe yourself?”
Focus on her face, you wanker.“You’re talking about closure again.”
Her brown eyes were warm, wise, and too perceptive. “There does seem to be a pattern here.” She fastened her bra, hiding her lush breasts from view. “Maybe your buddy Charles needs more help than you can give him.”
“I do my best,” Tim said. On the defensive. Clearly, his best wasn’t good enough.
“Because you’re a good friend. A good guy. But Charles needs to be the hero of his own story.”
“He is a hero,” Tim said. “He saved my life. I can’t turn my back on him now.”
Dee sighed. “Do what you want.” She plucked her dress from the floor. “You will anyway.”
The words sounded rehearsed, as if she’d heard or said them someplace else to someone else before. The slightly false note—after he’d had her, warm and real and glowing in his arms—set his teeth on edge. He still had the taste of her on his tongue, her scent on his skin.
He wished her dress zipped up the back. He was desperate for any excuse to touch her. Any way to explain.
Laura and Charles were part of his life. They were woven into the fabric of his childhood, the fiber of his military service. He didn’t know how to rip out those threads without tearing the whole thing apart, without destroying the person he’d always tried to be. Even if he changed, his circumstances wouldn’t.
Dee... She was amazing. But this thing between them was so new. She was on her own journey, only passing through his life. In May—or September—or next spring, at the very latest—she would be gone.
He had no reason to expect more. No right to ask her for anything. He didn’t have the words or the time to justify himself.Twenty minutes. But he tried anyway, reluctant to let it go. To let Dee go.
“It’s not about what I want,” he said stiffly. “I have a duty. You can understand that.” She was so loyal to her sister. Surely she could sympathize with his need to do the right thing?
“I understand you think so,” Dee said. Her tone of gentle pity somehow made everything worse. She smoothed her dress over her thighs. “I’ll see you.”
He seized on that. Of course they would see each other. She lived upstairs, at least for now. He should be grateful she was leaving on her own initiative, rather than making him kick her out. “I’ll call you.”
