‘It scared me, too,’ he admitted softly.
‘So I know that when you get scared, the first thing you do is put as much distance between yourself and what’s scaring you. That’s what I was afraid was going to happen with us. I was afraid that one day, you were going to wake up take one look at me and decide I wasn’t what you wanted. I figured that you’d get bored and move on to the next girl. Like you always did.’
‘You didn’t know that, though. And you never gave either of us the chance to find out.’
‘I know,’ she admitted, ‘and that’s totally on me. I take full responsibility for that. Things are different now though. Things have changed.’
‘How?’ he demanded. ‘What’s changed?’
‘Well, for starters, it seems thatyou’vechanged,’ she pointed out. ‘I’ve been keeping up with all the stuff about you lately, seeing the pictures. I don’t know what got into you, but I gotta admit that I approve.’
He shrugged. ‘Bernie had a PR firm handle things for me and I guess they’ve gone a little bit overboard trying to change my image.’
‘I don’t think you can say “trying” anymore, Ward. They’ve done it. When I left, I was pretty certain that you’d just go back to your boozing and partying days and revert to the guy you were before we got together. And for a while, seems like that’s what happened. Yet somehow you managed to get your act straightened out.’
‘Yeah, well – a lot of the credit for that needs to go to my ballbreaker publicist.’ Melanie laughed and Ward found himself smiling at that achingly familiar sound.
‘So was she the one who took that picture of you grinning like a fool with those kittens?’
‘Yep, that was Hannah.’
There was a pause. ‘Hannah?’
‘Yeah, that’s the name of my publicist,’ he said, a little defensively.
‘Interesting …’
‘What’s so interesting about that?’
‘Nothing – it’s just I don’t think you’ve ever really shown that side of yourself to anyone, not even me. You’ve always kept the walls up. Looks like Hannah’s managed to work miracles.’
Ward snorted. ‘I’ve been working on myself, too. If I want to getback on the team I need to have this squeaky clean image, and that’s what I’ve been doing.’
‘Of course. Is she cute, by the way?’
This was where he had to be careful, he knew. It could very easily turn into a minefield he didn’t want to navigate. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ he replied his tone glib.
‘So she is important to you then,’ Melanie stated quietly.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘When I asked you if she was cute, you didn’t answer the question.’
Now Ward felt annoyed for some reason. ‘Mel, is there a purpose to this conversation or did you just decide to call and give me the third degree for no good reason?’
She exhaled. ‘Well, I suppose the purpose is that I’ll be in town next week. And I was wondering if we should maybe get together. For old times’ sake.’
Chapter 41
HANNAH
Dear P-1,
So like I said before, I’m dealing with more of a personal dilemma this time, and since you are older, wiser and more experienced at this stuff, I figured you might have some insight.
My entire life, I’ve never been good with matters of the heart. No matter how hard I try, I just never seem to get it right. For as far back as I can remember, every time I thought that I had found a boy that liked me, and that I liked in return, it turned out a disaster.
Sean Williams was my first crush. He sat beside me in school and had this shy little smile and, when he looked at me, turned my insides to mush. Turned out, though, that the only reason he was even looking at me was because my best friend Laura’s desk was right next to mine and he was trying to see past me to look at her.
