puzzle out her mood, find something in his past he could compare it to, and put it in context. But talk, he did.
“It’s no secret my father left my family and didn’t look back. I guess when I returned to Sunshine and saw Jane after all those years…” Drew, who prided himself on his interrogation skills, couldn’t remember how to keep his mouth shut. He felt his way through the past, shoulders tense. “Jane with all her dreams of leaving Sunshine…In a way…I thought…”
“That you could stop her,” Lola finished for him.
The accuracy of her words relaxed his shoulders, relaxed the stopper he kept on his past. “I’d been overseas. I’d been a big-city cop in New York. Jane didn’t know how good she had it here.” Explosions. Gunshots. Turf wars. Angry commuters. Angry protestors. Angry tourists. “We got married, and I told her we could move someday.”
She squeezed his hand again. “But you didn’t really mean it. You love it here.”
How did Lola know that when Jane hadn’t? “I thought she’d settle down and embrace the idea of staying.” Of singing on Saturday nights at Shaw’s or Sunday in church.
“She had to experience the world beyond Sunshine for herself.” Lola’s eyes were luminous.
She understood. The feeling he couldn’t identify in his chest ratcheted tighter. “I don’t regret it. I have Becky.”
“I sense a but coming.”
The tension returned to his shoulder blades, this time as a knot he had no idea how to unravel. Lola was the type of woman he didn’t want. Impulsive. Controversial. Unpopular. And she’d said she was going to leave town once she had her answers. It made no sense that he wanted to pull her into his lap, wrap his arms around her, and kiss her senseless.
Well, it would have made perfect sense if Becky were quiet and grounded, like her best friend, Mia, and Jane weren’t coming back to town.
Lola continued to stare into his eyes. Maybe she expected a kiss. Maybe she just had a way of looking at a man, any man, with an intensity that could be mistaken for interest. Whatever she felt, whatever the reason she looked at him that way, he had no right to mirror that longing back at her.
It was time he admitted it to himself. He was attracted to Lola. Her wit. Her humor. Her legs. Her kindness.
She deserves to know why I can’t kiss her.
The knot in his shoulder blades doubled. Drew didn’t want to tell her. He eased his shoulders back against the wall and stared at the bed.
Hadn’t he just been thinking that Lola deserved to be treated with more respect? If he didn’t tell her now, she’d know in a few days when Jane returned.
“I need a wife.” Drew tried to shrug. It felt more like a shudder.
Lola released his hand. Hers fluttered in the air before she figured out what to do with it. A knee pat (his). A hair pat (hers).
If only Lola were Wendy, this was where Drew would happily pull her into his lap and kiss her. He’d propose marriage—people were marrying strangers all the time on television. Not that he and Lola were strangers. Because they knew each other, they had a better shot than most. But…
Not only was Lola not holding his hand, she was scooting back from him.
Which was good. Excellent, really. He might as well tell her the rest. “I need a wife who’s stable, above reproach, and respected in the community. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Judge Harper but when it comes to family law, give an uncaring ex-wife an inch, and he’ll give her a mile.”
Lola stared at him as if he’d grown a snout and straggly whiskers. “I didn’t come here tonight to start something with you.”
“I didn’t say you did.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “I wanted you to know why I can’t kiss you again, why even holding your hand is a one-and-done experience.”
He knew the moment she understood what he was saying—that she wasn’t in the running for the position of wife—by the way her jaw firmed and her eyes took on a chill.
“Lola—”
“You need to stop talking. You…You need to stop talking to me.”
“I’m clearing the air.” Trying to keep himself honest and his hands off her.
She shook her head. “You’re making yourself feel better, because I’m not good enough to be a pawn you use in some game against your ex-wife. That would be Wendy.” She scrambled to her feet, one hand