“I told you. I’m not ready to be in a relationship. Besides, haven’t we already established that you don’t take your relationships seriously anyway?”
He grimaced in obvious frustration and took a step toward her. Her breath caught when he reached for her hand. “Didn’t we cover this? I do take it seriously. Very seriously.”
For a moment, her entire awareness resided just beneath his thumb stroking her wrist below the ridge of her palm. She blinked, forcing her sluggish brain back to its logical task.
“You take sex seriously. I don’t want to be in a casual sexual relationship,” she whispered.
“You have to give me a chance, Colleen. I’ll go at your pace, but you have to let me in, just a little. Maybe it’ll become more than just attraction, if you let it.”
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t really buy that. Not you. Not the Great Disbeliever.”
“I’m beginning to really wish we could start this whole thing over again,” he grated out between a clenched jaw.
“Well, we can’t,” she whispered feelingly.
“Sure, we can.”
His eyes looked hot. The lines of his face were rigid, making him appear almost fearsome in his determination. She found herself leaning into him, as helpless as a planet feeling the magnetic pull of a burning star.
Chapter Seven
They were interrupted by a shout from Brendan.
“Mom, you gotta see the leather seats…and check out these instruments!” Brendan called ecstatically. The angle of her son’s voice made it clear Brendan had somehow boosted himself into the air to look down into the boat.
“Excuse me,” Colleen murmured abashedly, extricating her wrist from his hold. Had she really just almost made out with Eric Reyes with her children fifteen feet away? He watched her from beneath a lowered brow. His face looked impassive, but his eyes spoke to her in concise shorthand.
He desired her, and more than a little bit. And Eric Reyes wasn’t the type of man to want something more than a little bit and not get it.
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?