“See you tomorrow, Emilia,” he said softly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?” he asked innocently. He was anything but.
“Like you’re planning something.”
His smile only widened. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no, you don’t have to.”
He stood firm. “It’s late. We’re in a nearly empty parking lot in New York City. I’m not arguing with you about this.”
“Fine,” I said, knowing he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
He made a gesture with his head. “After you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Stubborn man,” I muttered under my breath, but I was sure he heard me anyway. He let out a soft chuckle that messed with my heart.
I got to my car, a nice little SUV that Ethan had gotten me on my birthday last year. It was about the time his business really took off, and he was going into protective big-brother mode to the max. This car had some of the best safety features in the country.
Jensen watched me, and when I started the car, I rolled down the window.
“Happy?”
“Very,” he replied, smiling. Elodie was now half asleep in his arms.
My eyes softened as I looked at her. “You should probably get home. She had a pretty exciting day.”
“I bet. Get home safe, okay, sweetheart.”
He didn’t wait for my reply. He walked to the waiting car by the curb with Elodie. Moments later, the car took off, and I was left sitting there, watching him drive off with nothing but this incessant pang of loneliness to keep me company.
* * *
After that night,Jensen took every opportunity he could to ask me out on a date. If he wasn’t sending me flowers and fueling the gossip between my trainers and receptionists at work, then he was calling me under the pretense of talking about Elodie.
But Elodie was two, and she wasn’t exactly learning ballet. She was just having fun and loving the fact that she got to wear leotards every day. There was not a lot to discuss when it came to her, and Jensen always brought the topic back to asking me out on a date.
The times when he dropped Elodie off and picked her up were the worst, because now I had to say no to Jensen to his face, and something about seeing the determined look in his eyes had my resolve waning each and every time.
It wasn’t a good idea.
Him and me wasn’t a good idea.
Not only because he made it clear three years ago that he wanted nothing to do with me, but there was also the case of Elodie’s mother.
Evelyn said the woman wasn’t in the picture as far as she knew, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t suddenly pop up again. Something about Elodie’s sudden presence brought about a lot of questions for me.
Questions I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answers to.
Was Elodie nothing more than a product of a one-night stand, or was her mother in Jensen’s life at a time when I had been thinking about him and a possible future for us?
Would it be possible that the reason he never did anything about my interest in him three years ago was because he had her?
I didn’t know.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.