“Infrequently. Poor sod.”
“That poor sod tried to punch you.”
“Er, yes. But, in his defense, he was provoked tonight.”
Something wasn’t right. I studied his down-bent head as he blew on his tea. I couldn’t imagine Tim—careful, kind, polite—provoking anybody. “Who provoked him?”
His face was carved from oak. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Then why not tell me?”
“I’d prefer not to have this discussion with you.”
From another man, at another time, that would have been enough to shut me up. But I wasn’t Old Dee anymore. And Tim wasn’t Gray.
“You can tell me,” I said. “I can give you a woman’s perspective.”
Our eyes met. Did he remember? We were sitting on this exact same couch when he’d fed me buns and I’d cried and asked for his male perspective. That kind of thing created a bond. At least, I hoped it did.
“How did you know there’s a woman involved?”
I blinked. “I didn’t, actually. But now that you’ve said it, you can’t stop there.”
“We were at a party. Charles misunderstood something someone said. I attempted to explain, but he’d already had a bit too much to drink, and Laura suggested I bring him home before the situation... escalated.”
“Laura, from-the-London-office Laura?”
“Yes.”
We were back to one-word answers, I noticed. “So, do you all, like, work together?”
“No.” I thought that was it, and then he added, “They met when I was in hospital.”
“When you were in the army.”
“Laura and I knew each other from before.”
“Oh.” Apparently this one-word thing was catching.
“Our families are neighbors.”
I nodded.
He ran a hand through his hair, making a dark cowlick stand up in front. “Also... We were engaged at the time.”
Oh.I waited. “So, what happened?”
He frowned at his tea. “It didn’t work out, obviously.”
My heart tugged. I wondered if he were haunted by hermemory, the way I (still) sometimes thought of Gray. That feeling you had lost the one person who claimed to love you the way that no one ever had. The ache for what might have been. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. She never... That is, we didn’t suit.”
“But you were engaged.”
“Yes. Well. As it happened, I didn’t meet her criteria for a partner after all.”
“That’s stupid. You’re good-looking, kind, principled, educated. You have a job. You don’t live in your parents’ basement. Unless you wrote her into your novel or keep a pet snake next to your bed... You don’t, do you?”
