“No.” Nothing ever would be. But that was okay. She’d found a sort of contentment at Delaney’s and with her life as it was now, and that was enough.
Well, all right, it wasn’t enough. But she wasn’t crying every night. She’d even started dating again. She’d kissed a guy and hadn’t felt like rinsing out her mouth afterward, a major victory as far as she was concerned.
“Can we go somewhere? Anywhere you’d like. Please.”
She nodded, strangely eager to test the edginess she sensed in him. Was that really all for her? Or was she seeing things that weren’t there again?
Only one way to be certain.Trial by fire, baby.
“I’m late for a dinner date,” she said, expecting him to shoot her one of the irritated, possessive looks he’d perfected. He didn’t. “With my parents,” she added.
“Your parents.” His Adam’s apple jerked as he swallowed. “They’re in town? How…nice.”
“Yeah. If you want to come, you’re welcome to.” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the excuses to start. Only a fool would go to dinner with a woman’s parents after what Spencer had put her through.
A fool or a man desperate enough to do anything, she realized when he nodded. “I’d like to, thank you. I’ll drive you.”
“No.” She wasn’t getting in a car with him and they weren’t ending up in a bed before she’d had time to think. Not this time. “Separate cars. We’re meeting at Darby’s. On Ellwood.”
“Okay. Whatever you prefer.”
She stepped back and caught her breath as her gaze roamed his face. He was still so gorgeous her heart hurt to look at him, but the shadows under his eyes had become dark welts. “You look so tired,” she murmured before she could stop herself.
“It’s been a long summer.” He laced his fingers through hers, lifting their clasped hands to his mouth for a brief kiss. “You look beautiful.”
For once she didn’t argue with him. She wasn’t ready to start bantering with him again, despite her comment about his right hand. It was so easy to fall back into the old routine but she couldn’t. She had to remember her boundaries. If he wanted to be in her life, she wouldn’t make it easy on him.
This time he’d have to work for it.
“I’ll see you there.” She drew her hand away.
He smiled. “Count on it.”
* * *
Dinner with Kelly’s parents went better than could be expected. Liking them was a relief. Them seeming to like him was a miracle. He’d figured he’d end up with a bottle of something cold in his lap by night’s end, but instead they killed him with kindness.
Despite Kelly’s assertions of how different she was from them, they were just like her. Sweet, giving, open. Good-hearted people he didn’t have a right to be near, lest his black, festering soul leech some of their white light.
“So what are your intentions toward our daughter?” Cathy Crossman asked him shortly before the bill was delivered.
He glanced across the table to Kelly for help—somehow he’d ended up seated between her parents—but she only sipped her white wine and shrugged.
Spencer reached up to loosen his tie.Here goes nothing.“Well, I’d like to…date her.”
“Mighty big plans there, son.” John Crossman laughed and tipped back his beer. “I figured you as the type to go bigger than that.”
“We didn’t really date the first time.”
“So we’ve heard.”
He suffered a pang of momentary panic at what exactly Kelly had shared with her parents. A glance her way netted him only another one of her mercurial little smiles.
“I’d like to do things differently this time,” he continued after draining his water. “To that end, I’ve drawn up a contract.”
“A contract.” Cathy and John exchanged glances with their daughter. “Sounds like a business deal.”
“Part of it is. I have a proposition for Kelly, something I think she may be interested in.”