More than anything, I wished my kids were inside, ready to greet me.
Because I knew what was coming. I felt it in the car ride back.
There was tension between us. And not just from the icy roads.
As we walked in, I pulled my coat off and laid it over the chair.
Turned.
Shaun was standing by the door like he wasn't sure he was welcome.
"Are you going to come in?"
"Am I?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I heard you at your mom's house."
Good grief, what had I said that bothered him? I said a lot of things around my sisters.
"Okay," I said as I crossed to him.
Put my hand on his arm.
He pulled away.
"I heard you tell your sisters that there was nothing between us."
Oh.
That.
"That wasn't exactly what I said."
"I paraphrased."
I blinked. "Well, you missed something."
"And what's that?"
"I said that a future together was unlikely. I didn't say that there was nothing between us. We're not high school kids pretending not to date in front of friends."
"Funny, that's how it felt."
"Shaun," I said.
He took a step toward me, and damn, even through his coat I could feel him. He was like a charge hitting me. Not something I could soon forget, whether this was a short-lived thing or something else.
"You don't think this is anything?"
I shook my head. "Desire isn't a relationship."
"This is more than horniness."
I shook my head. "No. We're both just horny." That's all it was. Two lonely people who were horny.
"No, that's not what this is."
