Shay laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not interested either. You’re very much my perfect woman.”
“That’s one thing I’ve never been call?—”
Shay leaned across the table and kissed Rosie with an intensity that made Rosie melt onto her chair. When Shay finally released her, she looked across at butchy bartender, winked, and mouthed, “Sorry,” without meaning it even a little. The woman shrugged and focused on the next customer.No sandwich for you.
“You’re perfect,” Shay said as she sank back onto her seat. “Now you’ve been called it twice in one night.”
Rosie grinned. “I can die a happy woman. Cheers.” She raised her glass, and Shay clinked hers to it. They drank, and Rosie waited for Shay to pick up the conversation where she’d left it.
“My dad is a very complicated man,” Shay said after a short period of silence. “He calls me to come over and fix everything. Sometimes things are broken, sometimes there’s nothing wrong with them at all.”
Rosie tried to keep the disbelieving frown from forming. She was complaining because her father wanted to spend time with her? Rosie had spent years of her childhood imagining what it’d be like to have a dad, to be his little girl, but she’d never had that chance. She cherished the time she got with Lori’s father, Hank, but she’d missed out on so much already, it was impossible tomake that up.
“Then he dismisses me like I’m an inconvenience.” Shay sipped her wine. “I don’t know what he wants from me.”
Thatmade more sense. “Have you always had that kind of relationship?”
Shay shook her head and looked rueful, and the same sadness Rosie had spotted earlier reappeared.
“No. Everything changed after my momma died.”
Whoa. Rosie wasn’t expecting that at all. “I’m sorry, Shay. Was that recently?”
“A little under six years ago,” she whispered and rubbed her palm with her thumb before receding into silence.
Rosie placed her hand over Shay’s but didn’t say anything. If she’d learned anything from all her years as a therapist, it was simply to hold those silences and never try to fill them. She glanced around and observed other people while she waited for Shay to either continue or shut the conversation down and move on. She figured it would be the latter, though her suppressed therapist wanted to dig deeper. That surprised her. After nearly seven months away from it, she thought she’d fully lost interest in the intricacies of the human condition.
“It’s still really hard,” Shay said quietly.
The tears that edged her eyes made Shay’s dark brown eyes even more beautiful, which Rosie had thought impossible. And the vulnerability that came with them clutched at Rosie’s heart, almost causing her to shed her own tears in empathy. She kept her therapist-hat questions to herself and stayed silent.
“I think he blames me for Momma’s death. I left for the Army right after I graduated, and I didn’t get home as much as she would’ve liked.” Shay’s voice cracked slightly, and she took a long drink. “Would you mind if we didn’t talk about it anymore? I didn’t know it would be this difficult.”
“Of course,” Rosie said and removed her hand. “I’ve got to say that I’m surprised you’re being so open. I didn’t really think we’d begoing that deep.”
Shay raised her eyebrow. “Because simple should mean shallow?” she asked.
Her playfulness returned with impressive ease, and Rosie couldn’t help being a little sad that their moment of deeper, intimate, personal connection had ended so abruptly. “That’s been my experience.”
Shay pushed away from the table and held out her hand. “Let’s go back to your place, and I’ll show you just how deep I can go.”
Rosie stood, and Shay pulled her into an urgent kiss full of passion and promise, of need and sexual oblivion. “That’s an offer I’ll never refuse.”
CHAPTER 11
Shay pulledinto Aaron’s driveway and cut the engine. The absence of her daddy’s Ford gave her a little breathing room to enjoy at least a short time at the party. She got out of the car and popped the trunk to retrieve the homemade cake she’d cushioned between the gift for her brother and the soft blanket she kept in the car for impromptu drives with women. She hadn’t gotten the chance to use it with Rosie yet; her apartment was so big and comfortable, there’d been no need. And Shay hadn’t been required to pull out all the romantic stops to get her end goal; they’d just jumped right into bed with minimal preamble, exactly the way Shay liked it.
Aaron burst out of the front door and ran over to her as if he was escaping prison. “Shay Shay! Boy, am I glad to see—” He stopped a few feet short of her when he looked at the cake box in her hands. Sadness filled his eyes, and he covered the remaining distance between them slowly. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Depends. What do you think it is?” she asked, trying to keep the mood light. Birthdays were supposed to be a celebration; they weren’t for mourning. But six years hadn’t lessened the grief.
“Momma’s German chocolate cake?” He lifted the cardboard lid and drew in a deep sniff. “Smells exactly like she used to make it.”
He took it from her hands, put it back in the trunk, and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. They stayed like that for longer than she liked. Increased physical contact brought her emotions closer to the surface, and she wanted this to be a happy event.
“All right, you can let me go now.” She pushed him away firmly, and her heart ached at his slight look of rejection. “Don’t be likethat, little bro.”
He puffed up his chest. “Not so little anymore. I’ve been hitting the gym.”
