The guys were meeting up for a lunch date. James already called him with the time and the place. No kids were going to be in sight. He’d get to relax and enjoy.
No burgers.
No screams.
No going to the toilet and waiting while a kid peed.
Within half an hour he was showered, dressed, and heading out toward the Italian restaurant.
The guys were already there, including James and Robert. The moment they saw him, they got to their feet, giving him a round of applause.
“If anyone could find the means of getting rid of a kid, it would be you,” one of the guys said.
James winced as he sat down, and Wayne didn’t say anything. They raised their glasses in the air.
“To a life lived on the edge, and to being a bachelor,” James said.
He clinked his glass with theirs, but didn’t take a sip of the wine. He didn’t like the twisted feeling within his gut, so he just sat through lunch, laughing in all the appropriate places.
There was something missing, and he sat with his friends, but felt a ghost to it all. Pushing those feelings aside, he ignored the pain and carried on.
Chapter Twelve
Three weeks later
With rest and doing the appropriate exercises, Temperance’s leg was healing nicely. The crutches she had helped her to get around, and life had returned to something normal. Lilah drove her to the hospital appointments along with anywhere else she needed to go.
The job hunt remained the same. A constant line as she tried to find work. She’d never realized how hard it was to figure out what she wanted to be. Other than a nanny, she couldn’t see herself doing anything else.
Robert visited the apartment regularly, offering her a higher salary along with bonuses. So far, she’d turned him down, but next time he arrived, she’d be taking the job.
Grabbing a towel on the bench, she wiped her brow as the physical therapist congratulated her.
Within the next month, the cast may be able to come off. The break wasn’t as severe as they’d first thought, and with the rest, she’d given herself a faster chance to heal. She hated sitting around all day. There was nothing to do to occupy her thoughts, and they were constantly dominated by those of Timothy and Wayne.
Never in all of her life had she been so … heartbroken.
Every time she left the kids she cared for it had always torn her apart, but this was so much more. In a matter of days, she’d found something in those two that she never had before. She’d found that sense of home, of belonging.
“You’re making excellent progress, Temperance. I’ll see you on Friday,” Brian, the physical therapist, said.
“Thank you.” She smiled at him, grabbing her crutches and heading out of the hospital.
She rounded a bend in the corridor and paused when she came face to face with Wayne.
She hadn’t seen him since that day in the hospital when he’d tried to give her a bigger settlement.
“Temperance,” he said.
“Mr. Myers.” She nodded at him. Her heart pounded, and the aching need that filled her shook her to the core. She didn’t know what to say to him, or what to do. This was uncharted territory for her.
“Wait.”
She stopped walking away and turned back to look at him.
He was still as handsome as ever. That would never change. She’d always thought he was a handsome man, even if in the beginning she should have listened to her instincts. He’d made her change her opinion of him instead of sticking with her cold assessment.
“How have you been?” he asked, standing a little too close to her.
“I’ve been fine. Everything has been fine.” She glanced down at her leg. “I’m healing, and Robert Thompson keeps on visiting. So I’ve decided that once I’ve healed I’m going back there. You know, be the nanny again.”
“I thought you wanted a career change.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s a lot harder than I anticipated.”
He stared at her for several seconds. “You’re giving up?”
“No, I don’t see it as giving up. I see it as sticking to the path I’ve always been part of.” She shrugged again.
“What about the family? The children?”
“What about it, Wayne?” she asked, looking him in the eye. He possessed such dark brown eyes that she found herself drawn to them in more ways that she wanted to admit. Licking her dry lips, she dropped her gaze and stared at his chest, which didn’t help.
She remembered kissing that neck and hearing him chuckle before holding her down to the bed.
The memories were something she couldn’t escape. They came at her from all angles, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it, even thought that was all she wanted to do.
“You’d be a fantastic mother.” He reached out and stroked her cheek.
Closing her eyes, she felt the fire build inside her.