She wanted him, as well. She found him more and more attractive every minute she spent with him.
But Colleen knew she wasn’t the type of woman to sleep with a man just because she found him attractive. Sexual attraction was nice. Lust was nice. But she was accustomed to more. She really didn’t have the energy required for a fling, not with a demanding job and two children to raise.
“I think he’s been climbing again. Crutches and all,” Colleen said, starting to move around the boat.
Her words seemed to finally break Eric’s intensity.
“Brendan, hold on and stay put!” he called loudly as they both hustled around the boat. Sure enough, her son had managed to pull himself onto the trailer and was lying across the side of the boat, his chest and arms out of sight, the padded, blue cover of his bandaged foot waving around in mid-air. Eric fleetly climbed up on the trailer and assisted Brendan back onto solid ground.
Afterward, he invited them inside, saying they could order Chinese food, a plan which her children heartily supported. However, the spell Eric tended to weave around her in intimate moments had been broken. Brendan’s little misadventure had reminded her of the risks involved in climbing too high. It was nice to consider the fact that a handsome, smart, virile man like Eric desired her, but she was a practical woman, a mother with a hectic work and family life. And while Eric inspired that bewildering sense of longing inside of her—in spades—Colleen didn’t entirely trust that feeling.
Sure, impassioned romance could get you into a heart-thumping, weak-kneed relationship like Marc and Mari or Liam and Natalie shared. But the higher you climbed, the harder you fell when the bad stuff happened…things like rejection, infidelity…death.
Colleen was too wise, too cautious at this point in her adult life to risk climbing too high and exposing her heart to a man like Eric Reyes.
She managed to avoid him for the better part of two weeks. They saw each other at The Family Center and for a few wedding-planning engagements. Colleen was proud, however, that she’d managed to keep her distance from him in an emotional sense.
It hadn’t been an easy feat to accomplish, especially since her family seemed increasingly invested in their friendship with Eric. Despite her initial hostility toward him, her mother’s regard for him seemed to grow every day. Brigit had taken to seeking out his opinion about a charity she was involved with at the hospital. Between Eric’s sound advice in regard to the charity, his relationship to Brigit’s future daughter-in-law, his obvious generosity and care in regard to the wedding plans and his excellent treatment of her grandson, he could do no wrong in Brigit’s estimation.
Brigit had now asked Colleen—twice—to ask Eric if he’d like to come over for a family dinner. It was starting to set her on edge.
She chatted with him amiably enough during their encounters, making a point not to notice either the awareness in his eyes or how they occasionally flashed with annoyance when she made sure they were never left alone.
She was following her avoidance strategy one Saturday afternoon while Liam, Natalie, Eric and she were meeting at Holy Name Cathedral with the wedding planner and florist. It was a cold, miserable November day. Lake-effect snow was predicted that evening, but currently rain fell heavily on the steeple roof above them.
She and Natalie strolled down the right aisle while the florist pointed out locations for various arrangements. Her attention, though, was on Eric as she watched him talk and laugh with Delores Shaffner in the center aisle. Why had Liam and Natalie seen fit to hire such a pretty young woman as a wedding planner?
And how did Eric always come off so cool while he was flirting so outrageously?
He didn’t lean toward Delores, and his eyes didn’t look particularly sultry at that moment, but the women’s rights activists of the world ought to propose that smirk be made illegal. That little smile could make the smartest of women into a giggling airhead in about two seconds flat. Colleen grimaced like she’d just bitten into something sour when she heard Delores’s church-inappropriate shriek of laughter in response to some comment Eric made.
“Do you think Delores is a little…ditzy?” Colleen whispered to Natalie as the florist measured the altar.
Natalie blinked and followed Colleen’s gaze. “Not really. She’s been very organized and helpful so far, don’t you think?”
“That’s before her status as a smart, rational woman was revoked by your brother.”
“What?” Natalie asked. Colleen was saved the shame of having to repeat her sullen words when Liam walked up the aisle. His dark blond hair was damp, and he was carefully removing a wet, black police-issue raincoat.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said, leaning down to kiss Natalie. Natalie brushed some of the raindrops out of his short, tousled hair. Liam smiled and gave her an even more enthusiastic kiss. “Someone got stuck in floodwaters on Route 11,” he said a few seconds later. “We just got her out a few minutes ago. It’s going to be a mess later, when the temperature drops,” he murmured, his forehead pressed against Natalie’s. “I have a feeling I’m going to be working for most of the night.”
Natalie repressed her obvious disappointment, smiled and started to lead Liam toward the florist, but he paused.
“Is Father Mike around? He’s got a two-foot-deep swimming pool in the south parking lot. When it freezes later, it’ll be a skating rink. Just wanted to make sure he knew before mass tomorrow. I’ll block off the lot for him, if he wants, but I thought I should ask him about it first.”
“He was here when we arrived, but he said he had an appointment in his office,” Colleen replied.
Liam nodded. Colleen walked toward Eric and Delores as Natalie and Liam went to consult with the florist. She lifted her chin as she neared the pair, determined to ignore the way Delores looked at Eric like she was considering taking a bite out of him.
Eric glanced up and met her stare. He’d come to their meeting at the church from work and looked carelessly attractive in a pair of brown dress pants, a button-down shirt, a loosened tie and a sport coat, his overcoat slung in the crook of his arm.
“Is everything okay?” he asked her. “I heard Liam say something about flooding and closing the parking lot.”
“Yes, you didn’t park in the south lot, did you? Liam says it’s filling up with water.”
He shook his head. “No, I parked in the north lot. Next to you.”
“And I parked next to you,” Delores said, catching Eric’s gaze. “I love your car.”