Hot Under His Collar - Andie J. Christopher Page 0,14
adore Jack. He’s the only man that I could imagine loving my best friend the way she deserves.”
That was all well and good, and it warmed Patrick’s heart to hear that his best friend had found his match despite a rather rocky beginning. But Sasha wanted to be loved in the way that she deserved. “What about the guy you were on a date with the other night?”
Sasha looked down and blushed. “Nathan?”
Suddenly, Patrick hated everyone named Nathan that he’d ever met for no other reason than one douchebag named Nathan got to do what he could never do—take Sasha out for a drink with the intent of kissing her and doing a whole lot more.
“He’s okay, I guess.” Sasha didn’t even sound like the guy was okay, and that prickled Patrick’s guts.
“How did you meet?” He shouldn’t be asking these questions. It wasn’t any of his business. Sasha wasn’t even a parishioner. But he couldn’t help himself.
“At a wedding. Maybe you don’t remember, but he was one of the groomsman, and he asked for my number as I was cleaning up. He was nice, and I couldn’t think of a reason not to.”
That didn’t seem like a good reason to date anyone to Patrick, but his expertise about dating and relationships had always been limited and ended in college—right after his mother died and he decided that whole love thing was not for him. He’d been good at sex—he thought. None of his girlfriends had ever complained, and the vast majority of them had wanted more of that.
It was only when his heart had gotten involved that everything went sideways. He’d never have thought that losing his heart to a woman in the midst of the most awful period of his life would lead him to a lifetime full of administrivia and celibacy, but here he was. Celibate—but thinking about how much he would give up to touch a strand of Sasha’s hair. To hold her and not have to pull away.
“Did you go out with him again?”
Sasha grimaced and nodded.
“How did the date go?”
“It was fine.” Her tone sounded bright—overly so.
“Fine?”
“Yeah. I mean, if you’ve been on one second date, you’ve been on them all.” She paused and scrunched up her nose in a way that was so cute he wanted to reach out and flatten that patch of skin with his thumb. Again. He just wanted his hands on her. “I guess you wouldn’t know.”
Instead of throwing his whole life away for a woman who thought of him as a friendly acquaintance, he laughed. “I went on a few dates.” He winked, even though he shouldn’t. The only thing he wouldn’t do was end this conversation right here and right now, before he found any more things to like about Sasha Finerghty.
“Listen, you go out for drinks with one guy, and maybe he calls you, maybe he doesn’t. As long as he doesn’t do anything terribly offensive, you go on another date. And maybe things escalate until you decide you can’t kiss him for the rest of your life, or he decides that he wants someone else. It’s not interesting. It’s not special.”
That’s not what Sasha deserved. It was decidedly less than what he would give her if he were a different man who had made better decisions a decade ago. But even though he was in so deep with her without even trying, he wasn’t going to dig himself any deeper. “I think maybe you’re a little cynical.”
“It’s just the way it is.” Sasha sounded so defeated that he wanted to give her something.
“Maybe give this guy another shot, and he might not do what you think.” He took a deep breath and decided to risk following up that statement that he knew was a lie with one thing that he knew was very, very true. “You’re special, and you deserve someone who makes you feel that way.”
He couldn’t help but look away from her then. It was as honest as he could possibly be about how he felt about her without going too far. “Now, I understand that you brought me cake to try?”
* * *
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YOU’RE SPECIAL, AND YOU deserve someone who makes you feel that way.
And then he just moved on to what Sasha had actually come over to the church for. He couldn’t do things like that and expect her not to continue to crush on him—hard. It wasn’t fair. Her mother’s voice popped into her head. Life isn’t fair, Sasha. If it