“I appreciate that, but I don’t love you. Not in the way you deserve to be loved, and I honestly don’t see a relationship working between us. I’ll always want something you can’t give and wonder if you’re going to bail because we don’t see eye to eye on a future together. And you’ll always want something I can’t give, and that’s my undivided attention. The kids will always have that from me. This is where my heart is.”
Brendan groaned and then let out a long-exasperated sigh. He wasn’t used to women breaking up with him. “See you at three,” he said and hung up. I wished we could go back to the days of hearing a dial tone when someone hung up on you because that would’ve been better than the dead air of a failed relationship.
On my way back to Miri’s room, one of the nurses told me we had visitors. I didn’t know whether to thank her or cringe that she wasn’t considering me a guest.
Chatter emanated from Miri’s room, and I heard laughter. I needed to take more videos of her before it was too late. We were almost out of time, and I wasn’t even close to being ready. I went in, with a fake smile on my face, and was pleasantly surprised to find Samira and Vera there.
“Good morning,” I said to all of them. “How was your nap?” I walked over to Miri and stroked her hair. Some of it had started falling out, but we weren’t to worry about that right now.
“The meds make me tired.”
And sick, weak, and translucent.
“I know, sweetie.” I turned to face the others. “It’s nice to see you ladies.”
“We’re here for the deets,” Samira said.
“Deets? About what?”
Vera waggled her finger at me. “Don’t you dare play coy with us.”
“I’m far from shy, Vera. But I do wish you’d enlighten me on these so-called deets.”
“She’s worse than you,” Samira said to Miri.
Miri laughed, and I had the keen sense of mind to keep up whatever this was just so I could hear her laugh. I raised my eyebrow at her, hoping she could tell me what in the hell her friends were going on about.
“They want to know about your date,” Miri said happily.
“What date?”
“The one with Mr. Eligible,” Vera said as she fanned herself. “I’ve tried to set him up with my daughter, but nope. He wasn’t interested. But you come to town, and our boy is smitten.”
I held my hand up. “Is ‘Mr. Eligible’ Weston?”
“Of course he is,” Vera said.
“We didn’t go on a date.”
“Yes, you did!” Miri blurted out. “He asked you to dinner, picked you up, and brought you back after curfew.”
Vera’s and Samira’s mouths dropped open. I rolled my eyes and sat down with a huff.
“We went to dinner. It wasn’t a date.” Or was it? He’d picked me up, treated me like we were on a date, and even kissed me at the end of the night—albeit on my cheek, but still, his lips touched some part of my skin, which was close to my mouth. And I may have covered my cheek with my hand when I stared at myself in the mirror once I got home, asking myself what it meant that I could still feel his lips pressed there.
No, dinner wasn’t a date, but maybe I wanted it to be.
Weston intrigued me. He was kind, he had an air of confidence about himself, he listened, and he asked questions. He knew when to show up and when to back off. Mostly, he could have any woman he wanted, and yet he was spending his free time with or around me. And Lord help me, he was sexy, in that ruggedly-handsome-in-a-flannel-but-could-rock-a-suit sort of way.
But it was more than attraction. Weston was everything Brendan wasn’t, which felt mean to think. It was clear to me they’d been raised differently, and it wasn’t Brendan’s fault he’d grown up with entitlement. Although Weston had the same, being a former professional baseball player. His priorities were more focused on his friends, community, andthe students he taught and coached. Brendan cared about his tee times and trips to Aruba.
Where Brendan avoided difficult conversations, Weston leaned into them, asking the tough questions that made you stop and think before you blurted out an answer. He listened and didn’t gloss over the important things that mattered. Brendan brushed everything aside for a party.
Brendan had always been about the easy parts of life—the elegant dinners, the weekend getaways, the static companionship. But Weston, he wanted the hard stuff. He wanted to sit in hospital waiting rooms, spend his weekends fixing broken houses and hearts, and help teen boys navigate life.
It wasn’t fair to compare the two. They were night and day, each with his own attributes and flaws. Weston just was the sun and moon wrapped in a shiny bow.
I swallowed hard to clear my thoughts. My feelings didn’t matter because Miri and the kids were my priority. They needed to be my focus. Not the sexy neighbor.
