“No, I haven’t been—” she began, but
he interrupted her.
“You don’t have to deny it,” he said. The parking-lot light cast enough luminescence that she made out his small, wry grin. “I’d be an idiot not to notice, and I understand why you’re doing it.”
“It’s good one of us does,” she mumbled, feeling guilty for making her cowardly avoidance so obvious. She wasn’t sure he’d heard her, because he continued.
“I’m just telling you all this because I wanted to let you know you don’t have to be uncomfortable anymore. We have to be around each other for the next month or so. It’s unavoidable. But there’s no need for you to bend over backward to make sure we’re never alone together. I know when a woman isn’t interested.”
Her guilt swelled. “It’s not that I’m uninterested—”
“So you are?” he segued smoothly.
“Yes. I mean…no,” she broke off, trying to find the right words. She noticed a few snowflakes had landed on his arched eyebrows—stark white against black. She resisted an urge to brush them away. “I think we both know I’m…attracted to you.”
“You just don’t want it to lead anywhere. I get that.”
She made a sound of acute frustration.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Eric, do you think you could try not to put words in my mouth for once?”
“I’m sorry,” he acquiesced, his lack of argument flustering her even more. “What did you want to say?”
“I’m just confused right now. Maybe it hasn’t been right for me to be avoiding you, but I didn’t know what else to do,” she said in a burst of honesty.
“What are you afraid of?”
She inhaled, trying to stave off the heavy pressure on her chest. Why did this conversation seem so tense…so significant. It wasn’t. A guy liked her and she liked him back. It wasn’t brain surgery.
“I…” She hesitated, swallowing convulsively. “I told you at the engagement party. I haven’t dated in a long time. I’m not really in practice.”
“That’s good, because I don’t like practiced. Too predictable. Bores me.” He smiled at her droll glance. “I’m interested in you. Not your expertise. Give it a chance, Colleen. Give me a chance,” he murmured, his voice low and earnest.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. He dipped his head in order to hear her. She glanced up at him and managed a weak smile. “I’ll think about it.”
“You will?”
She nodded.
“Will you think about me?” His quiet question struck her as highly intimate.
“I can’t seem to help it,” she admitted grudgingly.
“Good. It’s only fair. Between working on Lucy and thinking about you, a good night’s sleep has become impossible,” Eric said gruffly.
She crossed her arms above her waist and stared at the snow falling on the concrete, a strange mixture of pleasure and self-consciousness surging through her at his compliment.
She cleared her throat. “Are you coming to Thanksgiving dinner, then?”
“Are you asking me to?”
“Yes,” she said, striving for a resolute tone but realizing her voice quavered. She forced herself to look up at him. “I’d like you to come to my mother’s house for the holidays. I’d like it very much.”
His smile caused her to temporarily forget her anxiety. It was like the sun breaking after a storm.
“Then I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Good night.”