“But it is new.” There was something raw and vulnerable in her voice. “We were just kids before, and then you were gone for ten years. Maybe I still need to get to know the adult version of you. Maybe we should quit thinking about the past and just focus on the present.”
“What you see is what you get. I’m not a complicated man.”
“I disagree. You’re a lot more complicated than you realize.”
“How so?” This conversation was starting to feel an awful lot like one they should be having in person instead of over the phone.
“I look at you sometimes, and I don’t have a clue what’s going on inside that brain of yours.”
“Right now I’m just thinking about how damn lucky I am to have you,” he said, trying to steer them back onto safer ground. “And if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m hoping I wind up in your bed tonight.”
“I’m hoping that too,” she said.
“I’m on my way to Rowdy’s for a beer with Ethan and Ryan, but I’ll call you when I leave.”
“No need to call, just come on over.”
Yeah, okay, he liked the sound of that. A lot.
He dropped off Ryan’s truck, collected Bear from the office, and headed home for a quick shower before Rowdy’s—after laying wood all day, he was sweaty and filthy. As he pulled into his spot in front of the condo building, he saw someone standing on the third-floor balcony, next to his front door.
His heart soared for a moment, thinking Jess had come over to surprise him, but this woman was blond, not brunette, and her presence sent his heart plummeting to his toes.
Sharlene.
As he watched, she slipped something under his front door and then hurried down the steps and across the sidewalk without ever glancing in his direction. He waited until she’d rounded the corner out of sight then stepped out of his SUV. With Bear at his heels, he climbed the steps to his condo in quiet fury.
He unlocked the door, and it swung open. Bear trotted inside, pausing to sniff at the white envelope on the floor.What the hell, Sharlene?
He picked it up and ripped it open. Inside was a plain, white note card.
Mark,
I’m so sorry. I made a terrible mistake coming here. I thought I could fix things, but it was too late. I’m moving on. If there’s ever anything I can do for you, please call.
Mom
A phone number was scrawled below.
Mark’s vision blurred. His fist clenched, crumpling the note into a tight wad of paper. His heart beat against his ribs like a fighter in a cage. She’d left. Again. Left him a note. Again. And then she’d had the nerve to sign it “Mom.”
She wasn’t a mother. A real mother would never walk away. Not once. Sure as hell not twice. He flung the paper across the room, fighting the urge to destroy something with his bare fists. Bear grabbed the crumpled ball of paper and trotted off to chew on it in her bed. He hoped she ate the damn thing.
It was better this way. Better that Sharlene had left before he’d done something extraordinarily stupid like give her another chance.
