“Suit yourself.” The waitress left with a shrug.
“That’s not Isa, is it?” Lucas jerked his glance from the brunette, then back to Eli. “Are you two doing some kinky meet-cute role-play?”
“No, that’s not Isa,” Tag said. “It’s a woman from Eli’s past.”
“Shiiit,” Luc said.
Tag muttered, “They crawl out of the woodwork, don’t they?” as Eli stood and excused himself from the table. Chicago was a huge city, but Crystal being at the bar where they’d first met and had often frequented wasn’t that big a surprise.
He walked to the booth. When Crystal spotted him, she leaned forward to whisper to her friends, who both scooted out and sidled by him.
“Hi, Crystal.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Eli.”
“You didn’t have to send them away. I won’t be long.”
“You didn’t have to come over.” Light blue eyes found his. “You didn’t want the shot?”
“If you wanted to talk to me, you could have walked over and said hello.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “That’s true. I guess I was afraid you’d be unkind.”
“Sounds like me,” he admitted.
“Sit for a second?” She gestured to the empty seat her friends had vacated.
He didn’t want to, but he sat.
“How have you been?” Concern etched her face, worry lines deepening her forehead. A typical reaction by anyone who saw him for the first time since he’d been back.
“Recovering,” he said. “Working. The usual.”
She chewed the side of her cheek, her lips sliding to one side. She’d done that when they were dating. Whenever she was debating saying what was on her mind. Sometimes she said it and other times she’d shake her head and say, “Forget it.”
“I was unfair—” she started.
“No.” He held up a hand to stop her from recanting or regretting anything. “You don’t have to say that.”
“I do. If only for me.” She inhaled, then looked at her hands when she said, “I should have been there for you. I was…” She shook her head. “I was—”
“Listen, Crystal. We’d already grown apart before I deployed that last time. When I came back, I underwent surgery, rehabilitation. I can’t blame you for saying I wasn’t what you signed up for.” Even though her words had hurt him, he couldn’t hold it against her. Losing his leg and not being a soldier any longer wasn’t what he’d signed up for either.
“I did say that.” Her mouth froze open. “But…it wasn’t the whole truth.”
Regardless, he wasn’t after a rehash. He’d moved on. He had Isa.
He blinked, the thought thunking into his head like a stray tennis ball. I have Isa. It was nice to have her, to know she was coming here tonight.
“We had a good run,” he said, trying for amicable. “I wasn’t the person for you and you weren’t the one for me. We were delaying the inevitable.”
“That’s true.”
It was true. But it hurt to think about the time they wasted, the pain they could have spared each other. He lifted an abandoned coaster and tapped the edge on the table. “Did you ever buy the house you wanted?”
“One like it.” She leaned back and then he saw her rounded belly. She was pregnant. He blinked several times to test his vision. “And a husband and a dog. A little mutt.”
He swallowed thickly, tried to push out a “congratulations” and failed. She’d moved way on.