“Of course,” she answered, suddenly feeling self-conscious under Eric’s stare. He must have read the compassion and sympathy she’d been experiencing for Melanie. He really was a mind reader.
“So, Melanie, when might be a good time over the holidays for your mom and me to take all you kids to the indoor water park?” Colleen asked, neatly turning the subject. She felt Eric’s gaze on her intermittently for the next few minutes as their small party was joined by Liam, Natalie and Delores.
She should have known she couldn’t avoid Eric for long, however. He called out to her after they’d finished their business in the church and she was on her way to her car.
In his typical fashion, he didn’t bother with chit-chat before he cut to the chase.
“What was that all about with Melanie Rappoport?” Eric added as he caught up to her in the parking lot. The temperature had dropped enough so that vapor clung around their mouths. The earlier rain and sleet had turned to fat snowflakes that flurried around them. They paused next to their cars.
“Melanie?” Colleen asked, tightening the belt of her coat. “Oh—we were just talking about life going on after Cody’s departure.”
“You seemed upset,” Eric said.
She shrugged and avoided his searching stare. “What can I say? I like Melanie. It’s hard to think about what she must be going through, having not one but two fathers leave her.”
He didn’t respond immediately. “I see,” he finally said gruffly. Colleen studied him from beneath a lowered brow.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Colleen blinked in surprise, caught off guard by his uncharacteristic irritation.
“I’m not that shallow, Colleen. Cody’s misbehavior broke more than just Ellen’s heart. I’m not close to them, like you are, but believe it or not I have some inkling how hard it must be for those children…some tiny glimmering of compassion in this robot brain of mine.”
“Eric, I’m sorry,” she said hastily, feeling contrite. “Of course you do. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.”
He shrugged, his shoulders looking especially broad in his overcoat. “It’s okay,” he muttered under his breath.
“Is there something else wrong?” she asked when he didn’t say anything else, just stared at the parking-lot overhead light thoughtfully.
“I wanted to tell you—your mother asked me to join the family for Thanksgiving dinner at her house,” he said in a rush, as though he’d been waiting to tell her this news and wanted to get it over with. “I told her I already had plans.”
“She did? You do?” His revelation was news to her. Why hadn’t her mother mentioned it? Why was Eric acting so brusquely all of a sudden? Who were his plans with? Some adoring female, like Delores?
“I told your mother I had other plans, because I knew you wouldn’t want me there.”
“Oh,” Colleen uttered, stunned. She stifled a wild urge to tell him she did want him there, very much. But how could she sound so enthusiastic when she’d spent the better part of the last two weeks making sure they weren’t alone? She shivered and dug her gloved hands in her coat pockets, stalling for time while she thought out this little dilemma.
“Do you really have other plans?” she asked him.
“Sure,” he said. Her heart sank in disappointment.
“What are they?” she asked, not sure she really wanted to know.
“They’re pretty loose at this point, but they might include a TV dinner and football on the tube,” he said solemnly.
Sympathy and concern swamped her until she saw the gleam in his eyes and the hint of a smile shaping his lips. “You’re pulling at my heartstrings, Tiny Tim.”
He laughed, the sound striking her as warm and delicious, ringing in the frigid night air. She chuckled along with him.
“You should come,” she said, suddenly sure. “Natalie will be there. It wouldn’t be right if we stole your only family away from you on the holidays. Think how unhappy Natalie would be, knowing you were alone on Thanksgiving.”
“I’ll be perfectly fine eating alone on Thanksgiving,” he told her, and he seemed to mean it this time. “I was just kidding before. I’m actually working for most of the day.”
“Mom doesn’t serve her Thanksgiving meal until the evening.”
“The meal schedule isn’t really my point.” He pinned her with his stare. “You wouldn’t want me there. You’re avoiding me.”