a word.
How long should he wait? The more time went on, the more he started to doubt himself, to doubt that he’d done the right thing in walking away from Lani that night. He’d thought to give her a little space, a little time to think, and then wait for her to text him wanting to talk.
But she hadn’t.
Geo blew out a ragged breath. Had he only imagined the feelings he’d sensed from her? He knew where she stood on his career, and if she’d sat him down and told him flat-out she couldn’t do it, he would’ve respected that. Hated it, mourned it, but understood it.
Instead, he’d been left in some kind of hellish limbo, not sure if he was supposed to be trying to move on or not.
Standing and shouldering his backpack, he called goodnight to the other guys and headed out, squinting into the late-afternoon sun. Damn. The week at Fort Bragg and then the week in West Virginia had kept him busy, but now an endlessly lonely forty-eight hours stretched out before him.
His phone buzzed with another notification, and Geo glanced at it before rolling his eyes. Well, apparently the next two days didn’t have to be lonely: Been a long time since I’ve fucked your sweet ass. How ’bout it?
Ash had helpfully attached a pic of his erection, in case Geo missed the point.
With a laughing sigh, he texted back his regrets. Another time, hot stuff. I wouldn’t be good company tonight.
An almost immediate reply. You know sex doesn’t have to be on the table, G. Nick and I are always here if you just wanna talk.
He texted back a kissy-face emoji before putting his phone away, thinking that he’d go back to the barracks and grab a shower before seeing if he could take Ari for ice cream. Thank God that night at the game ended up being the breakthrough Renae had been waiting for.
“She’s opening up to her therapist more and more,” Renae said tearfully one night over FaceTime. “It’s like a floodgate. She’s held so much in, and she’s been blaming herself the whole time. I had no idea. None.”
With all his heart, Geo hoped their little family was finally on its way to healing.
As he rounded the corner toward where he’d parked his motorcycle, a slight movement to the left caught his eye. There, parked at the curb, was a little blue Nissan, one that looked a lot—his heart gave a twinge—like Lani’s car.
Great. Now he was gonna see her everywhere.
“Hey, sailor.”
The sound of a familiar husky voice had Geo snapping his gaze toward his bike, his breath catching in disbelief. Lani stood next to it, fingers twisted tightly together, a tentative smile on her lips. She wore a short denim skirt, some cute cowboy boots, and—his eyes widened—his fucking Metallica shirt!
“Hey, I’ve been looking for that,” he grunted by way of greeting. His heart threatening to pound its way out of his chest, he dropped his backpack to the ground and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
When he didn’t immediately approach her, her smile faded, and with an effort Geo kept his face stony—damn if he was gonna make this easy for her. “What’re you doing here?”
“Waiting for you.”
The soft answer shimmered between them like a fragile bubble, until it was popped by the sharpness of Geo’s one word—“Why?”
She bit her lip. “Because I wanted to show you the sign I made.”
It was only then that he noticed the piece of posterboard lying on the bike’s seat, and even as he watched, she grabbed it and held it up.
There was no embellishment on it, nothing fancy, just the simple block letters: I’M SORRY.
Already shaking his head, he spun away, the pain and uncertainty he’d suppressed for the last three weeks crashing down on him with the force of a tidal wave. Gritting his teeth, he forced out, “Sorry for what?”
“For everything.” Her voice was whisper soft.
He whirled back around to face her. “I want to hear you say it,” he said fiercely. “What are you sorry for? Packing up my shit like you were getting rid of a transient sleeping on your porch? Throwing my ass out of your house like an unwanted pest?”
“Yes, to all of those things.” Tears glistening in her eyes, Lani let the sign drop to the ground. “Especially for—” she swallowed “—for letting my fear get the best of me.”
The simple honesty blunted the edges of his anguish a little. Of course he’d known her