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“Come on now, darlin’. I know you’ve got more questions brewing in your pretty little head.”
She nods. “Okay, but remember you asked for it… Have you ever been married?”
“Yes,” I answer, nodding my head as Piper’s face pops into my mind. She nods, looking a little more apprehensive than she was a moment ago. Shit. I knew Piper was going to ruin this damn date.
“How long ago?”
I scrub my hand over my jaw. “Ten years ago.”
“Oh, wow,” she says as her eyes widen. “You were young.”
“I was.”
“High school sweethearts?” she asks and I nod, that all too familiar pain reaching back into my chest and constricting my heart.
“Yep.”
She studies me for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Are you still in love with her?”
“No,” I scoff, shaking my head. “Definitely not.”
“Look, Wyatt… I’m not going to be mad if you are but I’m also not willing to invest myself into a relationship with someone who is still hanging onto feelings for someone else so just be upfront with me.”
“My wife left me for another man when I was deployed,” I tell her, pain ripping itself through my body as those memories come rushing back. “So the subject is not one of my favorites but I haven’t seen her in ten years.”
She breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“Now it’s my turn to ask you an uncomfortable question.”
“Shoot,” she answers, nodding her head. Shit… do I really want to ask her this and potentially ruin this when it’s going so well? Then again, I certainly don’t want to get to the end of the date only to realize she’s just looking to head back to my place for a one-night stand.
“What are you looking for? ‘Cause I gotta be honest, I’m kind of over casual.”
Nodding, she lifts her wine glass and takes a sip before setting it back on the table. “I’m not looking for something casual either. I had my fun but I’m ready to settle down with someone special.”
“Since you asked about my past,” I prompt, toying with the beer bottle in front of me. “I have to pass the same question off to you.”
“Have I ever been married?” she asks and I nod. She shakes her head. “No. Came close once but things didn’t work out.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her because it seems like the right thing to say. She smiles.
“Don’t be. I was heartbroken at the time but I realized that it was for the best. He and I wanted different things from life and it wouldn’t have been fair to either of us to go through with the wedding.”
I nod. “How long has it been?”
“Eighteen months.”
Sucking in a breath, I lift my beer bottle off of the table and take a sip as thoughts race through my mind. What the hell does it say about me that, after ten years, I’m still reliving my breakup with Piper and asking myself “what-if” when she split from her fiancé only eighteen months ago and she has already come through the other side?
“Okay, so what else should I know about you?” she asks, pulling my focus back to her as she arches a brow and takes a sip of her wine. “Do you have any kids?”
I shake my head as my chest aches. “No. I can’t wait to have a couple rug rats, though.”
“Oh,” she whispers, her smile falling away as pain streaks across her face for a second before she gets it under control. “Well, shit.”
“What is it?”
Sighing, she sets her wine glass down on the table. “That’s the reason my ex and I split. He wanted to have kids and I… don’t.”
