Even if he hadn’t been hung up on his neighbor, she would be his last choice right now.
Shit, anybody but Francine.
But his mom, his tenderhearted, well-intentioned mother, had always assumed he and Francine would end up together. He’d never had the heart to tell her about Francine’s scheming ways. When they’d both moved up to Boulder, to be together for school, she’d dumped him for the starting quarterback. Standing in front of the mirror now, he pumped the weight without counting.
Chaz had been third string.
At the time, it stung. A lot. But it had also revealed something about his high school sweetheart he’d failed to see before.
She was a climber.
Chaz returned the weight to the floor and looked around for his shoes. Yesterday he’d figured out a technique to put his socks and shoes on one-handed. The trick was to not untie his shoes to begin with. He hated being dependent on Franny.
She’d started writing to him again as soon as he’d graduated from flight school but he’d had no interest in starting up with her again– not even for a fling. She was manipulative, controlling, and fickle.
Pretty much the exact opposite of Penny.
Provoking, maddening, infuriating Penny.
The thought of her made his heart ache just a little. Had she really gone back to her husband? Chaz hated the way things ended– almost before they’d even started– no explanations, no goodbye’s. He shoved his feet into his shoes.
Truth was, he hadn’t wanted it to end.
If only he could get Francine to leave. His mom had driven her down here, dropped her off, and said she’d be back in about a week to take her back up to Denver.
He supposed he could call a cab and pay to have the driver take her back… That would be something of a fortune, likely a couple hundred bucks.
He wasn’t even sure Francine would leave.
She was there in the morning when he woke up, asking if he wanted to drive into Breckenridge to go shopping or out to eat, and in the afternoon, whining about how bored she was.
All day long. “What should we do now, Chaz?” Her voice was cloying. She loved watching movies. Asinine movies with slapstick humor and cheap jokes, the kind he abhorred. Hell, he’d rather watch a chick flick then the crap she turned on.
And now she was suffocating him. He removed his sling and carefully donned a T-shirt. It felt good to do this for himself. He needed to get on with his life.
Despite the claims she’d made to his mother, Franny couldn’t cook worth a damn. After choking down just a few of her creations, Chaz had broken down and started ordering pizzas.
He could kill his mom!
Worst of all, he hadn’t heard from or caught sight of Penny. Was she even still in Pine Springs? Chaz glanced one more time out the window. Hers remained shuttered and dark.
Had she gone back to her husband?
As much as he tried to convince himself that she’d just up and left, he couldn’t quite believe their time together hadn’t meant anything.
Not only had they had mind-blowing sex, not to mention a lot of fun, but he’d felt a special connection with her.
Her lack of self-esteem scared him.
Had her bastard of a husband convinced her she didn’t have any other options? Or had she simply retreated into her cocoon, convinced she didn’t deserve passion.
It couldn’t be his age, God damnit!
That thought pissed him off. Hell, she needed taken care of, not him!
From what she’d told him, she pretty much cut herself off from mankind the day she’d found her husband cheating on her.
Halloween.
