Even if at times she had thought she did.
“Keep going.”
“There is a knock on the door and it’s Dean. I don’t want to open it, the oven buzzer is going off and he knows I’m in there and being charming on the other side. I get my cookies and cave and let him in.”
“Of course you did. That’s human. That’s natural.”
“I didn’t want to be mean. But I was hurt. I put myself out there, not that he knew how far I really had, but then he still ghosted me after we had sex. Last Monday after my date I went and had dinner with Mom. I mean if that doesn’t tell you what good mood I was in, I don’t know what does.”
“Okay, now that explains it. Mom was so excited that you went over last minute.”
“I figured I’d get it out of the way and she’d leave me alone for a bit. I haven’t heard from her in a week either and I’m fine with that.”
“You know how she gets. It’s like she has to put it on her calendar to make sure she talks or sees us in the right increments.”
“Glad to know it’s not just me,” she said. “But anyway, Dean tells me that everything just kind of exploded in his life. On Monday his sister showed up from out of town with no warning and didn’t leave until Friday. Some family emergency.”
“Did you ask what?”
“No. I felt that if he wanted me to know he’d volunteer it.”
“True. So that was his excuse to not even text?”
“Work was nuts, he was filling in, then he was honest and said that he hasn’t dated anyone since Jonah was born. No relationships. He was happy, confused, twisted up, and needed time. Maybe he used his sister being in town to take that time, but realized that he needed to see me again. That what we had wasn’t over. He didn’t want it to be.”
“And you bought that?”
Her shoulders dropped. Was she that much of a fool?
No. Nope.
Not at all.
Maybe she was reserving judgment some, but yesterday told her everything she needed to know.
“I did. And he wanted to take me on a date last night. He has Monday off, but I work. He had his sitter take Jonah and picked me up and took me to dinner. He brought me flowers and I had baked him cupcakes. We talked and I told him some about our family.”
“Wow, what did you tell him?”
“Just how Ruby came into our lives.”
“Oh, that Dad was dying and needed a donor and contacted his hidden child?”
She snorted. “Yep. He was shocked, but then I told him Ruby knew him. I felt I had to at that point.”
“What was his reaction?”
“Not much. He just asked what she’d said and I told him, it wasn’t much and she wouldn’t. I told him how Dad was to me.”
“You never say that to anyone.”
“I don’t. I think it’s because I was beating myself up over how I reacted to him ghosting me. I even gave him a hard time. Maybe I hoped he’d understand that it could have been a trigger for me.”
“Did he?”
“He showed up with flowers, Erika.” She hugged her hands to her chest. “No one has ever given me flowers. And it matched my outfit, which by the way was all my clothing and nothing new, but I wore a tight T-shirt with baggy pants. I didn’t hide the T-shirt under a sweater.”
“You go, you. I bet he liked what he saw.”
